Abstract: This article describes the compilation method of special dictionaries based on the English-Chinese parallel corpus. In comparison with the traditional compilation method, the corpus-based method can improve dictionary’s systematization and standardization, whatever its size is. How to choose corpus texts and how to do word frequency statistics etc are the key of compilation. The meanings of general words in this kind of dictionary will contribute to learning functions and are useful for understanding of specialties. The determination of true special terms depends upon the compilation goal and dictionary users etc. The corpus-based dictionary can also provide a linking service for special dictionaries. Certainly, there lies disadvantages by compiling the dictionary in this way and should be treated carefully during the compilation process.