《英華字典資料庫》收錄1815年至1919年間極具代表性的早期英華字典，由外籍宣教士及語言學家，如馬禮遜、衛三畏、麥都思、羅存德、井上哲次郎、鄺其照、顏惠慶、翟理斯、赫美玲等人編纂而成。資料庫現有字典24套，其中全文輸入14套（包含11套英華字典、3套華英字典），合計約有英文詞目11.3萬個，中文詞目1.8萬個，對應84萬筆中英文解釋、例句等詞條；其餘10套僅提供影像瀏覽。
字典內容涵蓋各類知識範疇的中英詞彙對照，呈現當時中西文化交流與對話的樣貌。中文詞彙兼收中原官話與區域方言，書中例句亦兼採古籍經典書面語與白話口語；部分辭典另附有動植物、天文、地理、數學等專業術語表。各書語料繁富，可說是近百年間語言文化歷史流變的縮影，不論是歷史、文學、哲學、語言的歷時或共時研究，皆可從中獲得豐富多樣的研究素材。
The English-Chinese Dictionary Database is a collection of representative early English-Chinese dictionaries from 1815 to 1919, compiled by foreign missionaries and linguists, such as Morrison, Williams, Medhurst, Lobscheid, Inoue Tetsujiro, Kwang Ki-Chaou, Yen Wei-Ching, Giles, and Hemeling. There are 24 sets of dictionaries in the database, including 14 sets of full-text input dictionaries (including 11 English-Chinese dictionaries and 3 Chinese-English dictionaries), with 113,000 English entries and 18,000 Chinese entries, which correspond to 840,000 Chinese and English explanations, examples, and other entries; the remaining 10 sets are only available for image browsing.
The dictionaries cover a wide range of knowledge in Chinese and English, presenting the cultural exchanges and dialogues between the East and the West at that time. The Chinese vocabulary is based on both the official language and regional dialects, and the sentences in the book are also based on ancient written and spoken languages. Some of the dictionaries are accompanied by glossaries of professional terms such as flora and fauna, astronomy, geography, mathematics. The dictionaries are rich in language material and can be said as a microcosm of the historical changes in language and culture over the past hundred years, providing a rich variety of research materials for both historical, literary, philosophical, and linguistic studies.
