How to reactivate dictionary/thesaurus in 3 fingers’ tap click on track pad?

Question

Level 1

26 points

How to reactivate dictionary/thesaurus in 3 fingers’ tap click on track pad?

Hi Everyone.

I keep updating IOS and noticed some features disappeared. I have a trackpad and it is recommended to use the three fingers tap on a word to look at definition or open thesaurus. These functions have disappeared from the menu. I do have the Dictionary App but find more convenient to just 3 tap click on a word to have a quick definition or the use of Thesaurus to look for better vocabulary.

How can I reactivate Dictionary and Thesaurus in 3 fingers' tap click on the trackpad, please?

Thank you for your help

IMAC (RETINA 5K, 27-INCH, MID 2015), macOS Sierra (10.12.2)

Posted on Dec 25, 2016 2:10 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 8, 2017 2:55 AM in response to Mcfred73

I had the same problem! You may want to read this article and you shall find the answer.

OS X: The Three-Finger Tap & Opening the Dictionary – The Mac Observer

Or, to be simple, just open dictionary and choose "preference", see if you have chosen the right dictionaries to search from 😉 hope I can offer some help, if this works.

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Answer 2

dominic23

Level 10

84,018 points

Dec 25, 2016 7:16 AM in response to Mcfred73

System Preferences > Trackpad > Point & Click > Look up & data detectors

Uncheck and recheck the box beside "Look up & data detectors".

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Answer 3

robsup

Level 1

35 points

Jan 29, 2017 11:55 AM in response to Mcfred73

mine is active, but it no longer does any function - it just comes back with a blank box saying "no results found". this is since my Sierra update. How do I get the dictionary back? please help

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Answer 4

dominic23

Level 10

84,018 points

Jan 30, 2017 4:50 AM in response to robsup

Try this as a test.

Launch Launchpad.

Open the Dictionary application.

Enter a word in the search box at the top right corner.

Does it return the result?

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Answer 5

robsup

Level 1

35 points

Jan 30, 2017 6:57 AM in response to dominic23

thanks for the reply...

That works fine, but the 3 finger quick lookup is still not giving anything back. If I select a word and right-click and say lookup it does the same thing: no results!

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