Specialized Chinese Vocabulary & Terminology

★ Combines Chinese medicinal terminology with detailed images and reference information for hundreds of commonly used medicinal materials. Chinese Medicinal Material Images Database (中藥材圖像數據庫) is a free, open-access resource from Hong Kong Baptist University covering 420 crude drugs used in Chinese medicine. Users can search or browse by Chinese, Latin, or English name and view high-quality annotated photographs alongside information on classification, origin, characteristics, properties, uses, and identification. It is particularly useful for studying specialized Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, and materia medica terminology.

★ Especially useful for finding authoritative Chinese equivalents for technical terms in agriculture, food, environmental science, and related fields. FAOTERM is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ free multilingual terminology portal, with tens of thousands of specialized terms, definitions, and language equivalents across subjects including agriculture, nutrition, biotechnology, fisheries, forestry, food safety, and natural resources. Many records provide equivalents in Chinese and the other official FAO languages, making it particularly useful for learners, translators, researchers, and professionals working with specialized Chinese vocabulary. Note: The Search box is located just below the gray tips box.

★ Search official English-Chinese terminology across more than 20 specialized government subject areas. The Hong Kong Civil Service Bureau e-Glossary is a free searchable collection of terms commonly used in Hong Kong government departments, covering fields such as medical and health, education, finance, immigration, labour, transport, environmental protection, town planning, and trade and industry. Search by keyword, narrow results by subject category, use exact-word matching, and sort results by English term or category. It is particularly useful for finding specialized and official Chinese terminology used in Hong Kong.

★ Especially useful for authoritative Chinese terminology in economics, finance, banking, and international monetary policy. IMF TermBase is a free multilingual terminology database with more than 17,000 terms, phrases, acronyms, and institutional titles drawn from IMF documents. Search English terminology to find Chinese equivalents in subject areas such as money and banking, public finance, balance of payments, and economic growth. The read-only database is maintained and continually updated by IMF Language Services.

★ Matches English Go vocabulary with specialized Chinese terminology used in 围棋. Sensei’s Library Chinese Go Terms: English to Chinese is a free, community-maintained reference for looking up Chinese equivalents of English Go terms. It covers game-specific vocabulary related to play, strategy, board concepts, ranks, and other terminology, with links throughout Sensei’s Library providing additional context for many Go concepts. It is especially useful for learners reading Chinese Go materials or building subject-specific vocabulary.

★ Search nearly two million academic terminology records across a wide range of specialized fields. 樂詞網, operated by Taiwan’s National Academy for Educational Research (NAER), is a free terminology database with Chinese-English academic terms, bilingual vocabulary, textbook terminology, dictionaries, and general terms covering fields such as science, medicine, law, engineering, education, the arts, and more. Users can search in either Chinese or English and narrow results by category or source. The website is predominantly in Chinese, but English search terms work, and a browser’s built-in translation can make the interface easier to navigate when needed.

★ Look up authoritative Chinese terminology across a wide range of specialized academic and technical fields. Termonline (术语在线) is a free terminology database from China’s National Committee for Terms in Sciences and Technologies, providing standardized Chinese terms, English equivalents, definitions, subject classifications, and source information across science, technology, medicine, the humanities, and other specialized fields. The website is primarily in Chinese, but English terms can be used for searches, and modern browsers can translate the interface if needed. Users can search specialized terminology in Chinese or English and consult standardized terms across a wide range of subject areas on their website.

★ Excellent for finding official Chinese equivalents of specialized international terminology. UNTERM is the United Nations’ free multilingual terminology database, providing standardized terms used across the UN system in Chinese, English, and the other official UN languages. Search Chinese or English terminology and filter by subject areas such as law, economics, public health, agriculture, aviation, climate change, international relations, science, technology, and more. Entries are managed by UN language specialists, making it especially useful for translators, researchers, advanced learners, and anyone working with formal or professional Chinese terminology.

★ View official medical and health terminology in English and Chinese side by side. WHO ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics is a free multilingual classification browser from the World Health Organization. Users can browse and search diseases, disorders, injuries, symptoms, and other health-related concepts while viewing the official English and Chinese terminology together, making it especially useful for specialized medical vocabulary and translation reference.