wuDict Hover by glwnd

With the wuDict Hover extension you can quickly get a definition for any word in Firefox by hovering (with an optional key) or via the right-click context menu - no need to copy-paste words into another app.

The extension needs the open-source wuDict server — see https://github.com/wuweidict/wudict — to be running on the same computer or another computer in your local network. wuDict server is a web app that for local dictionaries in AARD2 (.slob), Octopus (.mdx/.mdd), Babylon (.bgl), Stardict (.ifo), Abbyy Lingvo (.dsl) formats.


You need a running wuDict server, by default listening on 127.0.0.1:6888. You can also configure the wudict server to run on another computer in your local network, and then set the IP address in the extension settings.

Without a running wudDict server the browser extension cannot work.

1. Start wudict.
2. Install the extension (above).
3. Hover any word, keep holding Alt. The popup opens.
4. Release Alt, move into the popup — it stays while your pointer is inside; leaving dismisses it after 400 ms. Esc dismisses instantly.

If not triggering: Options → Test connection says which of the three things is wrong — nothing listening, a wudict too old to answer extensions, or a working connection and a hover setting.



Hover is the fast path, not the only one. Nothing here requires the others to be enabled.

1. Hover — point at a word, hold Alt (configurable, or no key at all)
2. Selection — select text, right-click → Look up "…" in wudict — or Alt+Shift+W
3. Toolbar — click the wuDict Hover icon → type in the search box and hit Enter

The selection menu exists for exactly the case where hover is unwanted: turn hover off entirely and the extension still works, with no key held and no pointer timing.


Clicking the icon opens a panel with the most common actions.

• Connection — live: connected · n dictionaries, or the failure named for what it is — Cannot reach … (nothing listening) or … is not answering extensions (a wudict older than this release) — with Retry, and, only in that second case, a Grant access button that switches to the host-permission fallback in place
• Search box — opens the full wudict page for the word, all dictionaries
• Hold key — the setting people actually change
• This site — pause hover on this host without touching the master switch; the list of paused sites is on the options page

The icon itself reports state before you click it: coloured when hover is live here, grey when paused globally or on this site, with an amber ! badge when wudict cannot be reached. Hover the icon for the whole sentence.

Right-clicking the icon adds Pause on host · Test connection · Open wudict · Options above the browser's own items.


Alt+W — open the toolbar panel
Alt+Shift+W — look up the current selection



The popup shows one entry per dictionary (up to 3 by default), streamed in as dictionaries answer — the fastest result paints first.


wuDict does no morphology: the word running is found only if a dictionary has this exact entry. The extension compensates with a fallback chain — apostrophe, possessive, hyphen, suffix variants (4 attempts by default), each one request, only for words that would otherwise return nothing.



Default base URL for the wuDict server is http://127.0.0.1:6888

Test connection verifies the server connection.

Hold key
You can pick the key that must be pressed to trigger to on-hover popup: ⌥ Option, ⌃ Control, ⇧ Shift, ⌘ Command on macOS, Alt/Ctrl/Shift elsewhere.

Hover delay — defaults at 200 ms

Search opens — popup OR full wudict page

Dictionaries per lookup — 3
Entries per dictionary — 1
Selected Dictionaries — automatic when nothing is selected, or explicit