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10.5: Disable dictionary and calculator results in Spotlight System 10.5
Wed, Dec 19 2007 at 7:30AM PST • Contributed by: Anonymous
You can prevent Spotlight from showing dictionary results by typing the following into Terminal: 
defaults write com.apple.spotlight DictionaryLookupEnabled NO
The same goes for calculations: 
defaults write com.apple.spotlight CalculationEnabled NO
Note that for either of these changes to take effect, you need to restart Spotlight. Use Terminal to do so: 
sudo killall Spotlight
I'm not sure why anyone would want to disable either of those features, but it is possible.

[robg adds: To reverse either of these settings, repeat the commands but replace NO with YES, then kill Spotlight again.]
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10.5: Disable dictionary and calculator results in Spotlight
Authored by: FOOOD on Wed, Dec 19 2007 at 8:03AM PST

Thanks a lot. I've been wanting to disable Dictionary results there since Leopard was released.


'I'm not sure why anyone would want to disable either of those features, but it is possible.'
I just don't want it there. I use Spotlight to search for & open files & apps. It's been very annoying to have Dictionary results there at the top whether you want it or not.

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10.5: Disable dictionary and calculator results in Spotlight
Authored by: dille on Wed, Dec 19 2007 at 12:24PM PST
Not only do I lack the need of dictionary results when searching for files, I have the distinct feeling that it slows stuff down as well.

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10.5: Disable dictionary and calculator results in Spotlight
Authored by: ecbtln on Wed, Dec 19 2007 at 8:39AM PST
just for clarification, you dont need to sudo killall spotlight, one only has to killall spotlight in order for it to restart

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10.5: Disable dictionary and calculator results in Spotlight
Authored by: xanadu420 on Wed, Dec 19 2007 at 11:03AM PST
I'm not sure why anyone would want to disable either of those features, but it is possible.

To stump the Geniuses at you local Apple Store when you demand to know why your Spotlight doesn't work as advertised? ;)

[ Reply to This | # ]

10.5: Disable dictionary and calculator results in Spotlight
Authored by: macshasta on Wed, Dec 19 2007 at 5:52PM PST
Great hint!

I'd like to see a full list of Spotlight options available through the terminal.

TIA
macshasta

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10.5: Disable dictionary and calculator results in Spotlight
Authored by: pflo on Sun, Mar 2 2008 at 10:18AM PST
Oh my .. thank you! That's what i was looking for. Finally I could kill the annoying dictionary... :-)

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