Remember those days when you had to look up words in a dictionary, and I am referring to the printed “big-book-like” version? I sure do (I guess that makes me quite old), and I have to confess that I was not a big fan of scanning entire pages up and down for specific words.
Nowadays, online dictionaries have changed the game a lot, and it’s all for the better (in my opinion, at least). Wiktionary is a very interesting online dictionary project. In fact, it’s the “sister” or “brother” project of Wikipedia and it’s run by the Wikimedia Foundation. It’s also collaboratively edited (meaning it’s community-powered) and it’s available in 192 languages.
What if you want to use Wiktionary for checking out word definitions and you’re a GNOME user? The answer is simple – just use Quick Lookup.
Quick Lookup is a stylish and beautiful tiny application that uses the Wikimedia REST API of Wiktionary. In short, it’s a Wiktionary client or a generic dictionary desktop app, nothing more, nothing less.
Is it perfect for me? Is it perfect for you? I really enjoy the app’s simplicity, and since English is my most used language on a daily basis, it’s perfect for me.
However, I do understand if some users might want a bit more from the app. As it stands, the app is incredibly stripped down. There are no fancy features, no hidden menus, and literally nothing in terms of customization options.
For instance, this might not be the perfect app for everyone since it only supports the English version of Wiktionary. You can, however, look up all words of all supported languages and view their definitions, but the description is only in English.
There’s no offline version, and according to the developer, there probably won’t be one. Last but not least, it’s not a good app for users who are passionately about checking the etymology of words.
Quick Lookup is a classic example of an WYSIWYG app. It does exactly what it says on the tin, and it should be a perfect fit for most typical users who just want to quickly check out words directly from the desktop.
As mentioned before, it’s not perfect, in the sense that it doesn’t offer much in terms of features and customization. Still, I really like it and I think it’s worth keeping around if you’re a GNOME user.
