Wordsmith
Local dictionary and thesaurus to lookup synonyms, anthonyms, and definitions
Version 2025.1 by Vítor Galvão
Setup
Open Dictionary.app. In the menubar: Dictionary → Settings…. Install the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus.
Build their databases with the :wordsmithbuild keyword.
Usage
Thesaurus
Search for synonyms via the the keyword.
- ↩ Show all synonyms in the current entry, with definitions.
- ⌘ Show example phrase with the original word.
- ⌥ Show antonyms. ↩ to show all in the current entry, with definitions.
- ⇧↩ Open original word in Dictionary.
When listing all entries from the thesaurus, each word shows a single definition.
- ↩ Copy word to clipboard. Pastes to frontmost app if activated via the Universal Action.
- ⌘↩ Lookup in thesaurus.
- ⌥↩ Lookup more definitions.
- ⇧↩ Open in Dictionary.
Dictionary
Search for word definitions with the def keyword.
- ↩ Copy word to clipboard. Pastes to frontmost app if activated via the Universal Action.
- ⌥↩ Lookup in thesaurus.
- ⇧↩ Open in Dictionary.
Universal Actions
Both the thesaurus and dictionary can be accessed via Universal Actions. With this method, a word selected with ↩ pastes to the frontmost app.
Configure the Hotkeys for faster triggering.