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When I use the "Look up word" right-click menu option on a StackExchange comment in OS X, the system selects other text and looks that up instead:

Step 1: select a word in a StackExchange comment to look up

select text

Step 2: right click & "Look up word"

right-click, "Look up _word_"

Step 3: watch OS X select some other text next to yours and look that up instead:

OS X selects other text and looks that up instead

  1. Why?

  2. How can I fix this?

I'm using OS X 10.10.5.

It appears to shift the selected text by 10 characters to the right in all cases, and happens in Chrome but not Safari.

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  • 1) Does this also happen when you don't select a word/phrase, but simply move the mouse on a word then right-click? 2) Does this happen with a mouse or the trackpad, or with both? – 3) Does this happen in all applications? – 4) Does this also happen when you just copy text?
    – Dictionarics Anonymous
    Mar 8, 2016 at 7:41
  • @DictionaricsAnonymous In fact, it only happens when I try to look up words in StackExchange comments. I'm assuming there is some style/script magic which is interfering with the way OS X parses the text but haven't figured it out yet.
    – user148073
    Apr 28, 2016 at 19:44
  • @DictionaricsAnonymous To your questions: 1. both 2. only tested with trackpad, don't have mouse 3. no, see edit 4. no
    – user148073
    Apr 28, 2016 at 19:50
  • I just tried it and it worked fine for me. I'm using an old iMac running High Sierra.
    – Natsfan
    Aug 2, 2018 at 22:44

2 Answers 2

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Note: An update to the SE site (which I believe happened on July 18th, 2018) has fixed this problem—at least on all Stack Exchange sites. This issue is most likely still present on other sites, so this answer should still be useful.

I know some ways to get the dictionary to work for Stack Exchange comments (and a few other places I've seen this happen on the internet):

  • Hover over the word, and use control+command+D.

  • Three finger tap the word. (Make sure this is enabled, of course.)

  • (Stack Exchange specific) Browse Stack Exchange logged out.

As for why, I've mostly figured it out (finally). There are two lines in the source code (that only appear if you have privileges to upvote/flag):

<a class="comment-up comment-up-off" title="this comment adds something useful to the post">upvote</a>


<a class="comment-flag" title="Flag this comment for serious problems or moderator attention">flag</a>

However, the problem is resolved if you change those lines to:

<a class="comment-up comment-up-off" title="this comment adds something useful to the post"></a>


<a class="comment-flag" title="Flag this comment for serious problems or moderator attention"></a>
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I'd be tempted to try the "standard toolkit"…

Do all of these, in this order.

  • Reset the SMC
    As I don't know which Mac you have, read this for instructions for your specific machine - https://support.apple.com/HT201295

  • Reset the NVRAM
    At the boot chimes, hold Cmd ⌘ Opt ⌥ P R
    Keep holding all 4 keys until you hear the chimes again, then release.

  • Fix permissions, Verify & if necessary Repair disk, using Disk Utility

  • Reset Home folder permissions & ACLs using OnyX [make sure you get the version appropriate to your OS] - Maintenance tab/permissions, tick the box at the top then Execute.

  • Re-apply the 10.10.5 update using the 10.10.5 combo update, not the delta from App Store

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