How many times happened that you were reading a great article from your favorite website and you encounter a word that you didn’t understand? I can only speak for myself that this has happened more than once, and what I usually do is to select and copy the word, then go to Google or Bing, I type define: the_word, I get my result, I read the definition and then I go back to my article.
I think there are too many steps and it makes you lose focus in your reading, so to avoid all this I found a really handy Google Chrome extension called Google Dictionary, with this extension you can just double-click the word and view its definition in a small pop-up bubble without leaving the page, which also has a speaker icon (only when available) that you can click and hear how the word is pronounce; additionally you can read the full definition of any word or phrase with the toolbar dictionary.
Defining word just by double-clicking:
Defining word using the dictionary toolbar:
Tip: If while you are reading the definition you don’t understand a word in the definition, you can always double-click it and view that unknown word definition as well.
Google Dictionary — by Google — supports the following languages:
- Chinese, Simplified (中文 – 简体)
- Chinese, Traditional (中文 – 繁體)
- Czech (Český)
- Dutch (Nederlands)
- English
- French (Français)
- German (Deutsch)
- Italian (Italiano)
- Korean (한국어)
- Russian (Русский)
- Spanish (Español)
Useful links
Aug. 5, 2011 Update
Google Dictionary has shutdown forever. Now if you try to go to the Dictionary site you will get a friendly message saying: “Google Dictionary is no longer available. You can use Google web search to find definitions or Google Translate for your translation needs.” It is uncertain what will happen to the Google Dictionary extension for Google Chrome, for the time being you still get definitions when a word is double-clicked, but when you click the more link you will be redirected to the “no longer available” message, and when you search for phrases definitions from the Google Dictionary button in the toolbar, the definition are being pull from the web.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].