GNOME Dictionary is a free, open source, simple and great looking software project designed to act as a standalone desktop dictionary app for the GNOME desktop environment, running on any distribution of Linux.

The program allows users to easily look up word definitions, view and hear pronunciation of words. It is a windowed application with good search capabilities, typographic results, bookmarks for favorite words, and search history. It also features a structured API (Application Programming Interface) that's capable of displaying bubbles with short definitions, at a given location, for a given word.

GNOME Dictionary is designed in such a way that it integrates well with the GNOME-Shell user interface, allowing you to search words directly from your GNOME graphical desktop environment. This means, of course, that you won’t have to open the application to search for word definitions when you’re using GNOME.

The application’s GUI (Graphical User Interface) is written with the help of the GTK+ toolkit, following GNOME’s HIG (Human Interface Design) specifications. It is easy to use, allowing the user to quickly navigate between definitions, copy definitions, print definitions, change the dictionary source, as well as to customize it the way you like it.

Advanced Linux users can use the command-line to force the GNOME Dictionary application run on a specific X display, use a program class/name as used by the window manager, enable debugging mode or to load additional GTK+ modules. Just type “gnome-dictionary” (without quotes) followed by an option on a X11 terminal emulator. Do not hesitate to type “gnome-dictionary --help-all” for a list of available options.

Besides running on GNOME, the GNOME Dictionary application is supported on any other open-source desktop environment, as well as all of its dependencies are installed (e.g. GTK+). We’ve successfully tested the application on the Cinnamon, MATE, LXDE, Xfce and Unity desktops.