"Look Up" word feature missing.

Question

I am working on a macbook air with OS15.6.1. If I right-click any word (English or Japanese) I get a context menu that lets me chose "Look Up" which opens a pop-up window and I can see the definition of the word and, for Japanese, the pronunciation. However, with Word for Mac (Microsoft 365 Subscription version 16.107.2) when I right-click a word, there is no "Look Up" choice in the drop-down menu. Why not? Can I fix this?

Answer 1

Good day Marc Keane!

Thank you for posting your question to the Q&A forum.

From what you shared, the “Look Up” option is missing when you right‑click a word in Microsoft Word for Mac, despite the same feature being available in other macOS applications.

when I right-click a word, there is no "Look Up" choice in the drop-down menu. Why not? Can I fix this?

Most macOS apps use the standard macOS right‑click menu, which allows Apple to include system features like Look Up. Word uses a different right‑click menu than the standard macOS one, so Apple’s Look Up feature isn’t shown there, even though it’s still available at the system level. This is by design, not a problem with your Mac or settings.

Microsoft previously offered Smart Lookup as an alternative, but it has been retired and no longer works in current versions.

As a workaround, you can still use Apple’s Look Up in Word by selecting a word and pressing ⌘ + Control + D.

Hope this helps. Feel free to post back if you have more related questions!

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Answer 2

In Word for Mac, the system “Look Up” item from macOS is not exposed in the Word context menu. Instead, Word provides its own web-based research feature: Smart Lookup.

On Mac, Smart Lookup is accessed this way:

1. Select the word or phrase in the document.
2. Right-click the selection and choose Smart Lookup.
   • This opens the Smart Lookup pane, powered by Bing, with definitions, topics, Wikipedia articles, and related web results.
3. Alternatively, go to References > Smart Lookup on the Ribbon.

This is by design; the macOS “Look Up” menu item is not something that can be turned on in Word’s context menu. The available built‑in alternative in Word for Mac is Smart Lookup. Note that Smart Lookup is scheduled to be retired starting January 1, 2025.

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References:

• Make Office Work Smarter for You
• Get insights into what you're working on with Smart Lookup