Lion: Three finger double tap brings up the dictionary

July 28, 2011

Mac, Tips


Most of the time looking up words and proper spellings is as easy as typing a word right into Spotlight: input the word, and get a definition. This is great for trying to figure out if you’ve spelled a word right, or better yet, if you want to make sure you’re using the word properly. But, in this case you have to know the word you’re looking up. If you don’t, Spotlight isn’t much help in this capacity.

With Lion, Apple has introduced a new trackpad tweak that lets you bring up the dictionary, and look up words you don’t know from directly within the text. All you have to do is mouse over the word, then double tap with three fingers. Doing this should highlight the word yellow, and load the dictionary.

There you go. You no longer have to head to Google to look up that word that’s outside of your lexicon.

Don’t forget to check out our Lion review.

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About Joshua Schnell

It started as a hobby and turned into a full-time job for Josh. One minute he was keeping notes on his switch to the Mac and the next thing he knew he was the full time Editor-In-Chief for Macgasm. He spent his early years designing and developing Web sites, but now it's all writing, all the time. Josh also currently contributes to PCWorld. He produces two podcasts, The Macgasm Podcast, and The AppOrchard, and can be heard on CBC Radio once every couple of years, despite secretly wishing that was a more frequent gig.

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We’ve had this feature since at least Snow Leopard, just not with the trackpad. Control + Cmd + D. I use it several times a day!!

This is not working. The option is checked as suggested and my magic trackpad is definitely working yet the three-fingered-double-tap dictionary lookup still doesn't work. I guess this is a Lion bug?

Sorry but I tried several times and nothing happens...

You need to activate this feature first.  Go to System Preferences -> Trackpad -> Point & Click and check the Third Box for Look up.  

Hi Charlie,
Thanks for your interest. I had already did it but it is not working...I do not know why..

Hi again,

Good news...i did a permissions disk repair, reboot and...it is working...
Lion surprise...
I do have yet the problem with the battery lasting, before with Leoparda I had 7-8 hous and now I can get 5 hours...
Let's wait for un update form Apple.
Thanks,