The dictionary mode provides the following features:
looking up word definitions in all dictionaries
search for matching word
words/phrases marked with { } in the dictionary definitions
are recognized as hyper links and browseable
easy selection of dictionary and search strategy
backward moving through the visited definitions
in the latest versions of GNU Emacs and XEmacs you get
support for popup menus
in GNU Emacs 21 and XEmacs 21 you can lookup words by
simply pointing the mouse cursor to them (tool-tips)
supports HTTP proxies for port forwarding
supports dictionaries which are not encoded as utf-8
Here are three sample screen shots showing the dictionary mode
in action within an Emacs 21 buffer:
This buffer shows the result of searching the definition
for distinguished. A lot of entries have been
found, including translation into german and russian
language. The blue words are hyper-links that points to
the definitions of these words. The hyper-link with the
green background will be activated when pressing the
middle mouse button.
This buffer shows the result of looking for matching words
to possible. You can now select one of the found
entries or ignore the search by pressing any mouse button
outside the menu.
This screenshot shows the tool-tips supported in GNU Emacs 21.
Whenever the mouse cursor stands still for a certain time
(about one second) the word at cursor is looked up in the
configured dictionary. This example shows the german
translation for originally, in this context not the right one,
ursprünglich would be better.