Right-clicking a word Click to see a larger image

If you need to look up a word, Dictionary.app is a stand-alone application in your Applications folder. You can use Dictionary.app to look up definitions, synonyms in the thesaurus, Apple terms and Wikipedia articles.

If you want to lookup a word on the fly as you are reading a document or webpage, there is a quick and easy way to get that info.

In most apps, to look up a word you can:

• Right-click on the word and select "Look Up "word".
• Do a double click with three fingers on a word. (If this doesn't work you might need to turn on Look up in the Point & Click view of the Trackpad preference of System Preferences.)
• Hit Control-Command-D. (I can't ever remember this keystroke–I had to look it up for this tip.)

Once you get the define popup, here are some tips for getting around:

• The popup panel only shows a bit of the info. If the info ends with an ellipsis, click on the info text and the panel will show the entire text. You can click the back arrow to return to the summaries. l
• You can open up Dictionary.app to this word by clicking on the word Dictionary, Thesaurus, etc.
• You can dismiss the popup but hitting Esc or clicking off of it.

The dictionary and thesaurus are set for American English by default. You can change to British English by opening Dictionary.app in the Applications folder and choosing Preferences.

Related Items: Dictionary | Wikipedia