If you are experiencing this annoying issue: the Dictionary keeps popping up when you type or use the mouse on your Mac, here is the solution for you.
The issue appeared on my MacBook Pro all of a sudden, I had no idea what I did. I was just typing to type on a Google doc and some words got automatically highlighted, followed by a Dictionary app showed up providing a definition of the word the mouse pointed at. And my screen sometimes enlarged by itself.
At first, I thought it was that I haven’t updated my MacBook to the latest macOS, so I went ahead and updated. But the issue still persisted.
The Solution
It’s actually quite simple to disable dictionary from popping up on Mac. All you need to do is uncheck an option in the trackpad setting.
Step 1: click on the Apple icon on the top left corner, then select System Preferences.
Step 2: click on Trackpad.
Step 3: under the Point & Click tab, uncheck the Look up & data detectors option.
That’ll do it. Now the annoying dictionary keeps popping up issue should not re-appear.
Quite simple, right?
Not sure how I mistakenly checked this option. My guess is that I might have mis-clicked it while I was cleaning my Mac screen and keyboard.
Anyway, hope this tip has helped you out.
Linda Fraser
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! The dictionary constantly popping up automatically every time I try to highlight a word has been so annoying. I can’t tell you how many times I almost threw my MacBook across the room.
Sally Grommeth
Nice job explaining your idea.
Would be even more outstanding of unchecking “Lookup and Data Detectors” prevented the MacPro from failing to run, because some dbags at Apple thought it was more important to wreck our efficient work procedures by burdening us with a popup that does nothing we need and stops what I need to do (copy text to the clipboard). My “Lookup and Data Detectors” already was unchecked. So, you were successful in adding further damage to the damage already inflicted but the dbags at Apple.
Nelson
On MacOs Ventura:
-> System preferentes -> Search for Trackpad -> Trackpad gestures -> Look up & data detectos -> Off.
Jerry Romero
Thanks for sharing!
Marco
Thanks for the hint. The interface may be different, it depends on the os version, mine is quiet different, but the concept are just the same. What I discovered, at least on my MacBook Pro with OS 13.4.1, that you have more the one layer of clicking. If you make a soft click, like the single click, you may grab your contente around (it also depends on the options in the trackpad options, I’ve enabled about everything), if you press more, you will feel and hear a deeper click, that one may activate a dictionary (at least it is what it does in notion Mac app) or maybe other functions in other apps, I don’t know.
I hope may help others.
Thanks again for your article.
Jerry Romero
Thanks for sharing this, Marco!
Vanessa
Thank you so much! This has to be the most annoying apple feature EVER!
Jamie Davey
You’ve saved my sanity! Thank you 🙂
Jen Cook
No, that isn’t all you need to do. I’ve unchecked the dictionary and it still keeps popping up when I try to highlight something with my trackpad.
Allison
Thank you, I was going crazy!
Zul
Thank you! It worked for me. Good bye annoying issue.
althea
thank you so much for taking the time to write this, this issue was so annoying
a name
Thank you thank you! I did not “accidentally” turn this on – I let apple update my software and their update turned it on, along with “force click and haptic feedback.” It’s been driving me crazy, it makes it impossible to scroll on a map or do any of a number of things. Stupid apple at it again. Yay!!
Akmerve
No, It does not work on my Mac book pro, which Catalina installed. I do not think mouse or trackpad has anything to do with it. At least in my case. I have had a clean install OS on it, and it stopped for a while. As soon as I installed Adobe DC Pro, it again started. The culprit, I think, is Adobe. Once you’re done with Adobe, make sure use Force Quit option that it is not there anymore.
Norrie
Thank you for this fix. It drove me berserk, and i resorted to shouting matches with poor senseless Siri. Fixed now, phew!
Adam P
Thank you! It’s on by default. So annoying.
Danny
Here’s the rundown of what “Force click” can do for you on Mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204352 — it’s likely a feature enabled by default on new macbooks.
Super annoying to have it on by default I agree…and quite a learning curve to understand the implications on all of these apps. I would rather it be something we can teach the trackpad to do. “Force Click in this app does x workflow” sorta thing. CC @SteveJobs
drive-by poster
“Force Click” sounds like some kind of Jedi computer trick.
michael
thank u very much for this solution !
Max
THANK YOU! I love the web, people helping each other contain these toxic tendencies of software. Hard to remember a more annoying feature since “Clippy.” Apple is rotting…
drive-by poster
MacOS seems to be chock full of annoying defaults and surprise behaviors meant to be “helpful.”
For me it’s a tossup between “Of course when you maximize a window you want to spawn a whole new desktop space and there’s no way to turn that off”, “Well, when I disconnect an external monitor I’m fine if I don’t have a way to summon all my open windows to the laptop’s main screen”, and “Whenever my bluetooth headset leaves the area around my laptop and comes back, launch Apple Music because surely if you’re wearing headphones it’s in order to buy music from Apple and not, say, join a Zoom call.”
Infuriating product management/design choices.
Lise Thomson
thank you so much – this was driving me crazy!
Wayne
Man, what a useless, annoying feature. What were they thinking. Of course, as usual, I had to Google the question to find you help. Thank you!!! Wayne
Helen
Many thanks. Save lots of time.
deb
OMG, thank you, this was driving me NUTS!!! I went out and bought a fancy mouse, when I should have looked up what the problem might be beforehand!
Deb
Andrew Warner
Thank you! That drove me crazy. What an odd thing for Apple to make a default.
Majid
Woow, Thank you Jerry💐.
Med
Thanks man, you are a life saver!!
Megan
THANK YOU! that was driving me crazy!
Lara
Thank you! My jupyter notebook coding was hellish until I found your fix.
Pierre
This didn’t work for me, at least not in all apps. I’m using Adobe Dimension, and right-clicking and dragging turns the camera around, but whenever I try it, the dictionary almost always pops up.
James
Thank you, that certainly makes using Google sheets easier.
Zirrus
Thank you!! this has been driving me crazy. It severely hobbles the ability to cut and paste. I’d read the Keyboard shortcuts, but not the trackpad version you’ve posted. Let me add my vote of thank you to the comments here.
Stuart
Well done fella, this was turned on by default and made copying text from the terminal impossible. Cheers,
Laura
Definitely helped! I was loosing my mind. It only started after the new update on my computer. This is why I hate updates!
Lola
thank you for the answer. this really helped me.
Jordi
Love you! Could not find how to delete this option, and I had done several searches! All my searches took me to shortcuts, but that wasn’t it! Thank you so much, I finally found the solution!
Anupam
Thanks! worked !
Asaf
Thank you so much!
Steff
Thanks!!!
Neil
Either my new MacBook Pro came with this option set or it might have happened with a software update. I did not have this problem on my old MacBook Pro. Like many others, this was testing my sanity. I had resorted to very specific placing of the cursor when trying to perform functions such as cut and paste, sometimes taking three or four attempts to get the placement of the cursor such that the dictionary/wikipedia window did not appear. This fix appears to have solved the problem and has greatly reduced the chances of my MacBook hitting the wall. If you ever make it to Amsterdam the beers are on me. Thanks .
Jerry Romero
Hi Neil,
Thanks for the comment. Glad to see it worked!
annie
ditto!!! it was not turned off in services as others have posted but in the trackpad itself! many thanks! hugs!
Lily
I moved recently from a PC laptop to MacBook Pro and this constant dictionary pop up has been most annoying! Makes sharing screen in meetings very challenging, so thanks very much for pointing out the fix to opt out.
Surely the UX leads at Apple could listen to the many voices of frustration and recommend this feature to be disabled by default in future instead?
Jamie
Don’t be silly! Users NEED to have the definition of the first one of every sentence they’re trying to highlight. Particularly really common words, like “the”!
Vignesh Miriyala
Thank you so much!!!
Amee
I cannot thank you enough for this tip. You have saved my sanity!
Helina Fedorchuk
Oh, thank you so much! I was getting dispaired…
Coe
Thank you, thank you very much…I was beginning to count how much time a day did I lose because of this popup
chuck
Thank you, that was so annoying especially while day trading, slowed down my losing money 😉
youraveragearmy
thank you so much! i’ve been having this problem for a while and it was so annoying. such a simple but hidden solution T-T
Sunny
Woohoo! It works beautifully. Thanks
S O Anon
Its astonishing this thing still exists.
My father took his mac back after I suggested trying one. When I asked him what he didn’t like, it was 1) ctrl-c/v/x doesnt work (Thats on me, I probably should have explained that one to him in advance, that macs use the command-c/v/x thing) and 2) “It kept constantly popping up a dictionary and I think it was broken”.
Mac User
Thank you very much. Curse Mac’s annoying dictionary app. I can’t even delete it.
Ed
Heaps of gratitude whizzing your way from across oceans and seas! This has annoyed the hell out of me and I had no idea what I was doing wrong. Force touch indeed…
Andie
Thank you! Ever since the latest iOS update, the dictionary was popping up almost every time I tried to copy text. Much gratitude – may have saved the MacBook from going airborne in a fit of frustration.
Bob Hunt
You are my hero!!! This has been annoying me for 3 years!
Had no idea the fix was so simple… 😀
Jerry Romero
Great, glad that you fixed it Bob 🙂
Helene A Bardinet
Thank you!!!
Ellen
THANK YOUUUUUU – This has been driving me insane.
K
Awesome, thanks for the tip!
Stephanie
Thanks so much! That was utterly annoying.
luke
Steve Jobs who have never allowed for this crap, thank you for saving my sanity.
Phyzus
Just got my new MacBookPro and dealing with that made me furious. Thank you so much for the right answer. It’s gone. I’m appreciating my older MacBookPro more as I use this one with problems like that. I’m finding that a lot of my problems were not an 8-year old MacBookPro but apparently is the software.
tatiana
It was already unchecked. This did’t work
Shelby
Life saving – I was going mad. thank you 🙂
Anonymous
thank you so much
charlotte
Thank you so much!!!!! This was driving me CRAZY!
Xaria
This is a game-changer!! I can finally highlight, thanks so much!
Jeremy Carlson
THANK YOU!! MAN that has been annoying.
karen berk
i did what you instructed on the trackpad page, i found only the middle choice checked.
The first choice, which you said to “uncheck” wasn’t checked, and the third wasn’t either .
I hope someone can figure this out. i am so disabled i can’t do my work!!
Sutter
I appreciate your help.
Thanks soooo much!
CK
It popped up again for me after I did what you said. Why don’t they get rid of it? Ban it? It blocks other things. Very annoying.
Angie
Thank you! It was popping up in meetings – very distracting. Now I know why – I was pausing on my trackpad. Argh.
Kevin
many thanks!
Jackie
Thank you! I received a laptop to work from home (having always used a desktop computer) and the dictionary popup has been driving me insane. This worked a charm.
Jason Turuc
THANK you!!
Anne Allodi
you have saved my sanity! thank you!
Erin
Holy crap, thank you so much! I was losing my mind!
Mehmet Subasi
Thank you. I think the default must have been an unchecked ?Look up & data detectors?. Bad Apple.
Susan Sedro
Thank you! This was driving me crazy.
Rachel
OH MY GOD THANK YOU…. I was about to throw the damn thing out the window!
Ed Cochran
My god this was driving me insane. I really cant thank you enough.
Nargis Suleman
Yes, can’t thank you enough. It was so frustrating trying to finish a report with the constant pop-ups
Jeff
Thank you! I’ve been trying to find a solution to this irritation for a while!!
Nice to not have this annoying feature constantly coming up!!