---
name: "mate-dictionary"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "mate-utils"
version: "1.28.3-2"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/mate-dictionary"
---

# mate-dictionary(1)

Look up words on dictionaries

## NAME

mate-dictionary - Look up words on dictionaries

## SYNOPSIS

```
mate-dictionary
mate-dictionary [options]
```

or select **Dictionary** from the **Accessories** submenu of the Applications menu.

## DESCRIPTION

**MATE Dictionary** provides dictionary definitions of words, using a dictionary source.

For full documentation see the **MATE Dictionary** online help.

## OPTIONS

- **--look-up** *word*

  Looks up the specified word using the pre-defined dictionary source.

- **--match** *word*

  Matches one or more words using the pre-defined dictionary source.

- **-s** *source or* **--source** *source*

  Uses the specified source for looking up words.  This does not affect the global settings.

- **-n** or **--no-window**

  Using this switch with the --look-up will print the definitions found on the console without launching the GUI.

- **-D** *database or* **--database** *database*

  Use the specified database for looking up words. This does not affect the global settings.

- **--help**

  Display help information.

## CONFIGURATION

All the configuration is handled using GSettings.

## AUTHOR

**MATE Dictionary** was originally written by Spiros Papadimitriou (\<spapadim+@cs.cmu.edu\>), Mike Hughes (\<mfh@psilord.com\>) and Bradford Hovinen (\<hovinen@udel.edu\>).

Emmanuele Bassi (\<ebassi@gmail.com\>) rewrote it from scratch.

This manual page was originally written by Jochen Voss \<voss@mathematik.uni-kl.de\>.

## SEE ALSO

[**dict**(1)](/dict/1.md), [**dictd**(8)](/dictd/8.md), **http://www.dict.org/**, **RFC 2229**