How to Find Characters in a Dictionary? In English we would look words based on their alphabetical order.

But how are Chinese dictionaries ordered to allow you to find what you are looking for - is it based on the radicals, number of strokes, or something else?
Modern Chinese dictionaries include several methods for the user to look up a character.


Radicals: This is useful when you don't know how to pronounce a character;
Pinyin in alphabet: This is useful when you don't know how to write a character while you know its sound;
Number for strokes: Based on my own experience, this only shown some characters that are difficult to find the right radical, i.e "承";
The "Four Corner" method (四角号码): It's a method to enumerate every character in 5 digits max, according to the writing of the character. This is useful for someone who doesn't know Pinyin and I have never used it.