If you are in a spell check aware application you can just put the cursor in the word you wish to check and hit the option-esc key. This will bring up a list of similarly spelled words. I don't know of a simpler way to get a list of words from the thesaurus.

option esc seems to bring up a list of words that have the same prefix as the part of the word to the left of the cursor. The remainder of the "misspelled" word is ignored. So if you know the first n letters option esc can help you find the word you are looking for, but if you need the best guess taking your entire mis-spelled word into account, then command control D would probably help more. Different tools for slightly different problems.

The problem with Jeff's tip is that you are in either Thesaurus or Dictionary with this choice. I.E. when you choose look up it will only bring either Dictionary OR Thesaurus.

However, if in preferences you choose "open dictionary panel" instead of application, you get a nice small panel that is switchable between both. Plus you can click the "more" button to open both in one panel of the full application.

I find this far more user friendly.

"you'll see a list of synonyms instead os spelling and definitions"

Was that caused because you changed to Thesaurus?

This tip does not apply to "Mac OS X," but to "Tiger." It does not apply to Panther and earlier, which don't have the Dictionary application. Please make that clear when you post a tip. Typing "Tiger" takes maybe 0.2 seconds more.

Well, if you don't have Tiger, you're probably aware that you don't have the Dictionary app either…in which case you don't need to be told!

Thanks, Jeff. I never would have discovered how to get the mini-popup to default to thesaurus without this tip. It makes switching from Word to Pages that much more tempting.

I guess I am missing something. Well in the tip, anyway. When I open the dictionary, BOTH dictionary and thesaurus share the same window – dictionary on top, and thesaurus below. I always thought that's what everyone could see.

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iJack wrote:
I guess I am missing something. Well in the tip, anyway. When I open the dictionary, BOTH dictionary and thesaurus share the same window – dictionary on top, and thesaurus below. I always thought that's what everyone could see.

Well, maybe, but here's one guy who never noticed that before today! I noticed it when playing around with the Dictionary app, after reading the comments here on this thread!

Although, I must admit, typically, when I've needed to look up a word in a thesaurus, I've used the Nisus Thesaurus, which is free from Nisus. It also does definitions, so I've sometimes used it for that too. Oh, and if somebody wants to try yet another dictionary app, Omni has a free one that uses several online dictionary servers--though it's probably not as integrated into the OS, like Apple's own is.

-Jon

I use the drop-down dictionary all the time and would love to see a contol-click drop down that had a range of choices. Along with the "search in Spotlignt/Google" would be Dictionary, Thesaurus, French,... Whatever was loaded. Do you know if this is possible?