Mac OS X Lion: The Missing Manual

Dictionary

For word nerds everywhere, the Dictionary (and thesaurus) is a blessing—a handy way to look up word definitions, pronunciations, and synonyms. To be precise, Mac OS X comes with electronic versions of multiple reference works in one:

• The entire New Oxford American Dictionary. The third edition, actually. You’ll note that its entries give you more examples, background, and tables that help to differentiate fine shades of meaning (look up weak for an example).

• The complete Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus.

• Two venerable guides to British English: the Oxford Dictionary of English and Oxford Thesaurus of English.

• A dictionary of Apple terms, from “A/UX” to “Xsan.” (Apparently there aren’t any Apple terms that begin with Y or Z.)

• Wikipedia. Of course, this famous open-source, citizen-created encyclopedia isn’t actually on your Mac. All Dictionary does is give you an easy way to search the online version, and display the results right in the comfy Dictionary window.

• A Japanese dictionary, thesaurus, and Japanese-to-English translation dictionary.

Tip

You don’t ordinarily see the Japanese and British reference books. You have to turn them on in Dictionary→Preferences.

Mac OS X also comes with about a million ways to look up a word:

• If you have a trackpad, point to a word in a basic Mac program, and then double-touch the trackpad (don’t actually click) with three fingers. That’s the new Lion gesture for the same dictionary panel described above. (It doesn’t work unless you’ve turned ...