If you want to find out the definition of any word or expression in a web page currently displayed in Mozilla Firefox, you can do it, on the spot, without having to open a new window or a new tab or to search for the definition at Google. And, you can view the definition on the fly just by pressing the Shift key and hovering the mouse over the word, and a small popup window will display the definition of the word. This is very convenient and perhaps the fastest way to find out the definitions of any words or expressions, made possible by a free Firefox add-on WikiLook.
Have a look at the following figure to see how WikiLook displays definition of a word in a popup window (here I wanted to know the definition of the word “documents”):
Looking for the definition with WikiLook is very easy. In fact, WikiLook gives you several options to view the definition of any word or expression. For example, you can do any of the following to view the definition, provided proper options are enabled:
If you want to view the definition of any phrase or combination of two or more words, then simply select or highlight that phrase (or combination of words) with your mouse and hover the mouse over that or right-click with mouse.
WikiLook is an open-source tool. This add-on uses the Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Uncyclopedia to find out the definition of a word.
While WikiLook works in English language by default for looking up definitions of words, it supports definitions or words in over 70 languages. You can change the language in which you want to see the definition of a word with the help of WikiLook. For changing the language, change the URL of Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Uncyclopedia in the Options page for this add-on from the English site to the site of the language of your choice. For example, for changing the language from English to French, the Wikipedia page will have to be changed from “http://en.wikipedia.org” to “http://fr.wikipedia.org” in the Options page of this add-on. Make similar changes to Wiktionary and Uncyclopedia also, if your chosen language is supported by them. Have a look at the following image which displays the relevant portion of the WikiLook Option dialog box where you can change the URLs for choosing a language of your choice:
WikiLook comes with a large number of about 100 customizable options, though its default options should suffice for most people. The main options can be changed in its WikiLook Options dialog box which can be accessed in Firefox from Tools menu, Add-ons menu-item, followed by selecting the WikiLook add-on and then clicking on Options button. However, most of the other options for this add-on can be accessed only by typing about:config command in the location bar of Firefox; then in the Configurations window, filter the results by typing “WikiLook” word. You’ll see a large number of options that you can customize. However, please be careful while using the about:config command in Firefox since any wrong change made by you can disturb the browser’s basic settings which may even make it dysfunctional. So, please use the about:config command in Firefox only if you’re sure what you are doing. In fact, in most of the situations, you may not have any need to change settings using about:config command, since the default settings should work for most people.
My overall assessment is that WikiLook is a fast and a light tool to quickly check the dictionary definitions of words and phrases in Firefox without there being any need to open new tabs or windows.
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