Daily reading
Hover any word
今天我想学习中文，也想喝茶。
Today I want to study Chinese, and I also want to drink tea.
MingbaiDownloadMingbai · macOS menu-bar Chinese lookup
Read Chinese without losing your place.
Hover any character for instant pinyin. Hold Shift for the full dictionary — definitions, tone colors, and examples — exactly when you want it.
Free · Runs on macOS 14+ · Lives in your menu bar
Pinyin without breaking flow
Read first. Look up second.
Mingbai keeps the default interaction tiny, so the page stays in focus. Hold Shift when you want definitions, audio, and breakdowns.
news.mingbai.app/learn
Try ithover the Chinese
Defaulttiny pinyin capsule
In the apphold Shift for dictionary
Built for real reading
Everything you need, out of the way.
Pinyin first
Hover Chinese text and a small pinyin guide appears exactly where you are reading — no clicks, no panel to manage.
Simplified + Traditional
CC-CEDICT-backed lookup recognizes both scripts and returns the best matching word.
Dictionary on demand
Hold Shift while hovering for definitions, tone colors, character breakdowns, and examples.
Works beyond selectable text
Accessibility first, then OCR when an app does not expose text cleanly — so it reads almost anything on screen.
Native pronunciation
Hear any headword spoken by the system voice — no web service.
Local by default
Lookup runs offline. Permissions only read text on your screen.
How it works
Three steps from stuck to clear.
Open Mingbai
It lives quietly in the menu bar and stays out of the Dock after setup.
Hover Chinese text
A compact pinyin capsule appears over chat messages, articles, PDFs, and app UI.
Hold Shift for depth
Open the full Chinese-English entry only when you want definitions and details.
Ready for macOS
Hover to 明白.
Download the latest build, grant Accessibility and Screen Recording, and Mingbai will keep running from the menu bar.
Download for macOSFree · Runs on macOS 14+ · Lives in your menu bar