Terminology
Chinese has two words for dictionary: zidian "character/logograph dictionary" for written forms, and cidian "word/phrase dictionary", for spoken forms.
For character dictionaries, zidian (Chinese: 字典; pinyin: zìdiǎn; Wade–Giles: tzu-tien; literally "character dictionary") combines zi (字 "character, graph; letter, script, writing; word") and dian (典 "dictionary, encyclopedia; standard, rule; statute, canon; classical allusion").
For word dictionaries, cidian is interchangeably written (辭典/辞典; cídiǎn; tz'u-tien; "word dictionary") or (詞典/词典; cídiǎn; tz'u-tien; "word dictionary"); using cí (辭; "word, speech; phrase, expression; diction, phraseology; statement; a kind of poetic prose; depart; decline; resign"), and its graphic variant cí (詞; "word, term; expression, phrase; speech, statement; part of speech; a kind of tonal poetry"). Zidian is a much older and more common word than cidian, and Yang (1985:xxii) notes zidian is often "used for both 'character dictionary' and 'word dictionary'."
Read more about this topic: Chinese Dictionaries