Google’s Define Operator, No Longer Useful

Last month, Google added a new search options in the sidebar: dictionary. It’s a new interface for Google Dictionary that combines definitions from a reputable dictionary with definitions from the Web, usage examples and other useful information.

At the same time, some users reported that Google’s define: operator no longer works. The operator was useful to find definitions obtained from Web pages, so you could type [define:iffy] and find a list of definitions. Now the operator is no longer broken, but it only shows the definition from Google Dictionary and links to the dictionary page. You could type [define iffy] and get similar results.


Maybe Google should send users to the dictionary page when they use the define: operator. It’s an advanced feature that’s not used by many people, but it’s very useful.

Here’s how it looked:


{ Thanks, Henry. }



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