A remarkably efficient and powerful reference tool

I have mentioned Dictionary Tooltip – an addon available for Firefox and also Chrome – and want to mention it again. It is one of the most useful reference tools. It allows one to double-click on any word on a web page and then shows a small icon. When the icon is selected a popup window will appear with a reference lookup from one of any number of dictionaries or reference sources. New reference sources can be added.

Today I figured out how to get Dictionary Tooltip to work with dict.org which is perhaps the best online dictionary. Dict.org is more than just a convenient online dictionary however, it involves a whole set of Open Source tools including dictionary servers and clients using and open protocol. Dict.org is committed to the philsophy of openness similar to other Open Source projects and Wikipedia. It is certainly worth supporting and is a meritorious project.

The trick to adding a lookup at dict.org for Dictionary Tooltip is to go into the options and select Add/Edit Custom sites, then use the following URL for dict.org:

http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict1&Query=$$&Strategy=*&Database=*