Mac Tip: Look Up A Dictionary Meaning In The Terminal Application

This Mac tip is provided by Mark Greentree and was originally posted on Mark’s blog – Everyday Mac Support. For more of Mark’s tips visit his site, follow him on Twitter, or browse his archive of posts here.


How To: Look Up A Dictionary Meaning In The Terminal Application

Did you know you can look up dictionary meanings in Terminal?

Simply navigate to Applications>Utilities>Terminal. Then launch terminal and simply type:

open dict://support

Please note support is the word I wish to look up. Please replace support with any word you wish to find the meaning of.

Upon successful entry and pressing the return key you will be presented with your Mac’s dictionary opening to the page relevant to the word you have typed in as shown below:

Warning: Terminal commands have the ability to change the running operation of your Mac. Please copy and paste the Terminal command as shown directly from the article. Mistakes in keystokes can cause your Mac to perform differently and may in-fact result in a loss of data. It is advised that you only use the Terminal if you feel comfortable with the command line interface. If you are ever unsure please consult your local tech support person.

Mark Greentree

Mark Greentree is the principle blogger and podcast creator of Everyday Mac Support. His aim is to inform users at all levels of experience how to get the most out of the Apple hardware and associated software. He is the lead host of Not Another Mac Podcast, an Apple based round table discussion with Mac users and experts from all over world.