lcw / dict.nvim

Dict.nvim

• Display in a floating window the result of dict for the word under the cursor.

• Special highlighting for WordNet, The Collaborative International Dictionary of English, and FreeDict Dictionary.

• Replace the word under the cursor with one chosen from dict results.

• Use telescope.nvim to show the list of words in installed dictionaries if the word under cursor is not found by dict.

Installation

• Install dict.nvim as any other Neovim plugin.

• Install telescope.nvim.

• Install dict, dictd and at least one dictionary. On Debian/Ubuntu systems, you can use apt to install them. Example:

  sudo apt install dict dictd dict-wn dict-gcide dict-freedict-por-eng
  

Configuration

Mandatory

You have to create a key binding to run dict.nvim. Example for init.lua:

vim.keymap.set('n', '<Leader>d', '<Cmd>lua require("dict").lookup()<CR>')

You have also to call the setup function:

require'dict'.setup()

Optional

By default, dict.nvim will run dict without any argument other than the word being looked up. It will read dictionary indexes from /usr/share/dictd, and will cache the compiled list of words at ~/.cach/dict.nvim. Instead, you can tell dict to search a single dictionary and can also tell dict.nvim where to read the indexes, and where to store its own compiled list of words. Example:

require'dict'.setup({
    dict = 'wn',
    dict_dir = '/usr/share/dictd',
    cache_dir = os.getenv('HOME') .. '/.cache/dict.nvim',
})

On Debian, Ubuntu and other Linux distributions derived from them, to change the order the dictionaries are searched, edit the file /etc/dictd/dictd.order, and run:

sudo dictdconfig -w

and, finally, restart the dictd daemon.

Usage

• Put the cursor over the word whose definition you want to lookup. Then, press the key binding that you have configured to open a float window with dict results.

• On the float window, you can:

  • press the same key binding to replace the displayed word definition;

  • press <Enter> to use the current word under the float window cursor to replace the word that was under the cursor in the editor;

  • press either <Esc> or q to quit the float window.