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Improve the Dictionary app with Terminology for OS X

Based on the WordNet project, Terminology for OS X supercharges your Mac's dictionary.

Matt Elliott Senior Editor
Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.
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Matt Elliott

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Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

The built-in Dictionary app for Macs is a powerful and useful tool, offering definitions, of course, along with thesaurus and Wikipedia entries. You can make it more powerful and more useful with the Terminology for OS X add-on from Agile Tortoise. Terminology is free and installs into the Dictionary app.

Terminology is based on the WordNet project from Princeton University, a large lexical database of the English language. In addition to providing the basics -- thorough definitions and synonyms for words -- WordNet examines word relationships in an effort to deliver a better understanding of a word.

After trying it out for a bit, I have quickly come to find that the standard dictionary in the Dictionary app pales by comparison.

To install Terminology, install and uncompress the Terminology for OS X ZIP file from Agile Tortoise. Next, double-click the Install.command script, which will copy the "Terminology.dictionary" file to the hidden ~/Library/Dictionaries folder.

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Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Now, open the Dictionary app, head to Preferences and scroll down until you find Terminology listed. Check its box to add its tab to the Dictionary app. In that same preferences window, you can also drag to reorder your Dictionary tabs.

(Via OneThingWell)