Terminology for Mac

Install Terminology in Apple Dictionary App

< Terminology for iPhone and iPad

Terminology for iOS is based on WordNet, a great semantic lexical reference. We do not offer a full Mac app for Terminology, but have prepared a dictionary using this same great data for use in the built-in OS X Dictionary app.

Terminology for Mac is not an app, and does not have some of the features of the iOS version. It is, however, a great resource and the integration with the OS X Dictionary makes it work great with contextual “Look up…” commands and other integrations provided by the Dictionary app.

Installation and Activation

To install Terminology for Mac Dictionary (instructions also in README in download):

  • Download the Terminology for OS X zip file and uncompress it.
  • Copy the “Terminology.dictionary” file to the hidden ~/Library/Dictionaries folder. You may need to use the Finder’s “Go” command to open this folder, because it is hidden by default on macOS.
  • Open the Dictionary app (in “Applications” folder).
  • Open Dictionary app preferences and check the “Terminology” dictionary to activate it.
  • Optionally, drag to arrange the priority of your installed dictionaries in this preferences list.
  • “Terminology” will now appear as one of your dictionary search options in the dictionary app.
  • This dictionary file is distributed free of charge. If you get value from it and would like to support maintaining future updates, consider making a donation below or purchasing Terminology for iPhone and iPad

Download Terminology for OS X Dictionary

Known Issues

There are not any “known issues”, per se, but I also did not spend a lot of time testing. Please feel free to offer feedback. The OS X Dictionary formats are not super-well documented, but I tried to make it fit into the look and feel of the existing dictionaries.

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