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Firefox Dictionary Search Extension

November 18, 2005 by debbie T | Firefox Browser

I love the Dictionary Search (DictionarySearch) extension for Firefox.

Download version 0.9.3 for Firefox 1
Download version 1.5 for Firefox 1.5

Once it is installed, it is easy to find definitions for any text on a web page. Next time you are curious about a word or phrase, highlight the text, right-click and choose “Search Dictionary for “xxxx” from the context menu. A new tab/window will launch the definition page for the chosen word.

The power of Dictionary Search is in its ability to customize it for your own individual needs. I didn’t particularly like the default url that Dictionary Search was using to search for definitions, so I changed it.

In the Extensions Manager, (Tools>Extensions) select DictionarySearch and at the bottom of the manager, choose the Options button.

Search options for reference.com and wikipedia

Here you will find options for specifying up to four separate choices for searches. As you can see from my screen shot, I chose http://dictionary.reference.com, http://thesaurus.reference.com and http://en.wikipedia.org as my choices.

When altering the urls, make sure to paste in the exact results url for that particular site. For example, when searching for the word “colorful” at Thesaurus.com the results url is:

http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=colorful

So, the url typed into options would be

http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=$

Don’t forget to include the $ at the end of the url.

Each search url will be added to the context menu. (note: The text typed in text box will display in the context menu. Make sure to also include the $ symbol.)

Wikipedia search for Firefox Extensions