OS X contains a built in Dictionary that you may or may not be aware of. It is an application that can be found in the Applications folder. It not only functions as a standard dictionary but contains channels such as a Thesaurus, a Wikipedia section (when your computer is connected to the internet) and an Apple specific dictionary. And much, much more……..

To use the Dictionary, simply navigate to your Applications folder and double click the Dictionary icon to open it. You can then click on the desired channel and type a word for the result:

Here, we typed in the word “Belongs” and received the following return:

But what if we want to quickly find a definition without having to go through the trouble of opening the Dictionary application? Perhaps we want to find the definition of a word in Safari such as this:

By pointing on a word, right clicking and selecting “Look Up in Dictionary” from the ensuing contextual menu…

Dictionary will open and show us the definition of the word we selected:

Pretty cool. But we still have the open Dictionary window cluttering up our work space. What if we could see the definition of the word without opening Dictionary?? By holding down the Command + Control + D keys simultaneously and then mousing over the word we would like to view the definition of, the floating Dictionary window pops up showing the definition of the word!

Taking this a step further, we can get around having to remember the keyboard command by modifying Dictionary’s preferences just a bit. Start by opening your Dictionary and then selecting Preferences from the Dictionary menu:

Change Dictionary’s contextual menu result by selecting “Open Dictionary panel” and then close out of the Dictionary.

Now when we right click on a word and select “Look Up in Dictionary”…..

The floating Dictionary panel will appear showing us the definition of the chosen word. If you want to open the Dictionary from here, just click on the “More…” option in the bottom right corner of the floating panel:

That’s it! Keep in mind that the floating Dictionary panel works in all Apple applications and some third party apps, but not all. You’ll have to test it with the apps you use.

Don’t know how to right click? Click here to find out!>>