Lookup

Emacs facilitates looking up items in a dictionary, programmer's manual, or any similar list. The search results appearing in an Emacs buffer can then be transformed or reorganized.

Wikipedia:Lookup notes that "In computing, lookup usually refers to searching a data structure for an item that satisfies some specified property."

Operational schemes

Here "dictionary" can mean any list of items, including programmer's manuals.

Note that "sends a query" could be as simple as a keystroke sending a character at point or region.

Examples:

• Emacs searches local dictionary and displays results in a buffer
• Emacs sends a query to another program (dictionary server) on the same machine, and displays results in a buffer
• Emacs sends a query over a network and displays results in a buffer
• Emacs sends a query to another program (dictionary server) on the same machine, but results are in another program, not an Emacs buffer
• Emacs sends a query over a network, and results are displayed in another program (e.g. web browser tab)

The edict.el package searches for character at point or a region in a local dictionary such as Edict or Kanjidic, and displays results in a buffer.

External Links

Lookup

can display results from CD-ROM books and online dictionaries

Dictionary lookup

Xahlee: Emacs sends a query and displays results in a buffer

Emacs lookup

Xahlee: Emacs sends a query and switches to browser for results

DictMode

package for querying RFC 2229 dictionary servers