"Xinhua Dictionary" is China's first modern Chinese dictionary. The earliest name was "Wu Ji Small Dictionary", but it could not be compiled. Since 1953, it has been re-edited, and its rules and regulations have been completely adopted from the "Wu Ji Small Dictionary". It has been published since 1953 and has been revised repeatedly, but the "Xinhua Dictionary" published by the Commercial Press in 1957 was used as the first edition.

Originally compiled by Xinhua Dictionary Press, it was merged into the dictionary editing office of the Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (now the Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) in 1956. Xinhua Dictionary is published by The Commercial Press. It has gone through more than 10 large-scale revisions by hundreds of experts and scholars over several generations and has been reprinted more than 200 times. It has become the dictionary with the highest circulation in the world's publishing history.

"Xinhua Dictionary" is China's first small dictionary arranged in Chinese Pinyin phonetic order. It was edited by Xinhua Dictionary in 1953, and the chief editor was linguist Wei Jiangong (1901-1980). The first edition was published by the People's Education Press in 1953 and was arranged in phonetic alphabetical order. Subsequent revisions were made to the Chinese pinyin alphabetical order and was re-arranged and published by the Commercial Press.

"Xinhua Dictionary" is the first dictionary published after the founding of the People's Republic of China that uses vernacular definitions and vernacular examples. It is also the most influential and authoritative small Chinese dictionary to date. It can be called a small Chinese dictionary. A model of Chinese dictionaries.

The eleventh edition of "Xinhua Dictionary" was published in July 2011. In the latest version of "Xinhua Dictionary", more than 800 new orthographic prefixes have been added. In addition, more than 1,500 traditional Chinese characters and more than 500 variant characters have been added.