I would like to suggest a website that is of tremendous assistance to students of Chinese. It has a basic English/Chinese dictionary in characters or Pinyin and will even provide audio pronunciation albeit rather limited in use. There are also many more features including the ability to type Pinyin and automatically include the tone marks. It is used by many schools and universities and it is free. I have been using it for some time and found it to be of considerable benefit. It is http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php Good luck.....BH

Thanks a lot for the link. Dictionary is really very useful. Se se ni :)

thanka alot

You guys should also check Pleco app for iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch). Its amazing and works offline!

Hi there, It is good to see that everybody is sharing resources amongst each other! Sharing results in faster learning. I also have a helpful Chinese-English dictionary website; http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/chinese-dictionary.php This website also offer etymology and a breakdown of the word, as well as other related words. I hope this can be of some use to you all. Keep up the good study! - Lin Ping

The Oxford Beginner's Chinese dictionary is very good if you want a bound copy that is easily accessible.

大家好！ I was recently talking to some students of Chinese who use this website for their dictionary which also has mobile versions that work offline. It provides a lot examples and list for tests such as HSK so I hope you like it. http://www.nciku.com/ 希望这会有帮助！I hope this is helpful! - Lin Ping

Yellowbridge is great and MDBG is also built-in for Mac users (just turn on the Chinese dictionary).