MacOs Monterey look-up (long press) pulls up freedictionary.com ad/spam?

[pabloonbreak]

Hi. I'm new here so forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this, but anytime Monterey doesn't know a word I'm requesting look-up for it pops-up a useless, I guess ad for thefreedictionary.com. It feels very spammy and I can find no way to turn it off, much less access an English dictionary that actually seems to know the entire language. It's like trying to discuss Shakespeare with a ten year old. See attached image. I've looked everywhere but not only can I not find a solution but I don't see any discussion of the problem itself.

Is it possible that MacOS is spamming and in cahoots with the thefreedictionary? Doesn't seem likely.

 

[stradify]

There's an app, located inside your Application folder, called Dictionary.

Open Dictionary and choose whichever source that you prefer from the Tabs.
You can also choose the All tab which provides you with definitions from all the sources:

New Oxford American Dictionary
Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus
Wikipedia
Oxford Thesaurus of English
Oxford Dictionary of English
Apple Dictionary

In order to access the Dictionary app when placing your cursor over a word and pressing Command-Control-D,
Dictionary needs to be running. Once I figured that out, I added the app to my Login Items in Users & Groups so it launches automatically whenever I start up my computer.

 

[NoBoMac]

In addition to checking your Dictionary preferences, might want to scan for malware/adware: might have installed a spammy program or Safari extension that is overriding value, similar situation to adware that overrides search preferences.

Might try Malware Bytes to see if something shady installed.

 

[stradify]

I took the Dictionary app out of the Login Items and rebooted to see if I defaulted to the FreeDictionary which I recall from years ago being the default if MacOS Dictionary hadn't been launched. PB, what version OS are you on? I think there's got to have been a change in how all this works as its been years since I came across the above fix. I'm on 12.6

 

[pabloonbreak]

Yeah. I tried all these things. Apple Customer Service even got into the mix. It seems that when the dictionary can't find the word, MacOS defaults to Siri suggestions. Turning that off then unfortunately results in 'No definition found' or some such. If you just highlight tenebrous then it will look it up. Still, it seems that some dictionary out there would be able to grab 'tenebrously' and make hay out of it. I have multiple English dictionaries included the OED in the dictionary app, but none of them return a result. It wouldn't be a big deal but I read a lot and I regularly run into this problem. Many words end up not being defined, words which should be easily defined by a computer.

 

[pabloonbreak]

It's easy to check: If you're accessing this forum from 12.6, force click this word:

tenebrously​

…does it pull up the freedictionary popup? I'm on 12.5 and will upgrade here soon, but I'm not confident it will fix it.

 

[hobowankenobi]

I see this on my M1 with 12.6. Never used it before...never force-clicked a word for s definition. Behaves the same, both with Siri on or off.

Whatever the old default was, I don't remember it being this.

Not a feature I have used very often, so I can't say when this behavior changed.

The point here...is that the odds are that this is a change Apple made, not adware.

I should add: It works ok for me....if I click on the link in the popup, it takes me to that word as expected. Does ot not work for you? Or do I not understand the problem?

 

[pabloonbreak]

I see this on my M1 with 12.6. Never used it before...never force-clicked a word for s definition. Behaves the same, both with Siri on or off.

Whatever the old default was, I don't remember it being this.

Not a feature I have used very often, so I can't say when this behavior changed.

The point here...is that the odds are that this is a change Apple made, not adware.

I should add: It works ok for me....if I click on the link in the popup, it takes me to that word as expected. Does ot not work for you? Or do I not understand the problem?

Yes. You're right. Not adware.

I sometimes look up hundreds of words each day. I need the definition to be there and immediate. I don't want to leave the book/article/whatever, especially not to go to a spammy site like thefreedictionary.com. It works, sure, but a reader shouldn't have to leave what they're reading to look up a word. Not with a sleek, modern OS like MacOS. Reading is about focus.

 

[Ruggy]

The Dictionary app you've been recommended above is excellent and I use it a lot for translations.
As a work around I suggest you drag it to the dock and then copy and paste the word you are interested in.
You can then use the Oxford dictionary included or translate it etc.
And it does find tenebrous:
adjective literary dark; shadowy or obscure: the tenebrous spiral staircase of the self.

 

[yitwail]

It's easy to check: If you're accessing this forum from 12.6, force click this word:

tenebrously​

…does it pull up the freedictionary popup? I'm on 12.5 and will upgrade here soon, but I'm not confident it will fix it.

11.7 Big Sur does the same, and it also pulls up its own definition for tenebrous as Ruggy noted

 

[pabloonbreak]

The Dictionary app you've been recommended above is excellent and I use it a lot for translations.
As a work around I suggest you drag it to the dock and then copy and paste the word you are interested in.
You can then use the Oxford dictionary included or translate it etc.
And it does find tenebrous:
adjective literary dark; shadowy or obscure: the tenebrous spiral staircase of the self.

Yeah. I can access many dictionaries if I move away from the text that I'm reading. The idea with the force click is that the definitions are inline. But thank you.