Use This Trick to Easily Look Up Words in Different Languages on Your iPhone

By default, Look Up only gives you definitions of words in the language your iPhone is set to. However, if you’re multilingual, you can get Look Up to define words in other languages, too.

Add Your Secondary Dictionary Languages on Your iPhone

You can add a dictionary for your secondary language on your iPhone from either the Settings app or the Look Up card.

In the Settings app:

1. Go to General > Dictionary.
2. Find your secondary language on the list and tap on it to download its dictionary.

Alternatively, you can add your secondary language dictionary from the Look Up card like this:

1. Go to any app where you can use Look Up.
2. Long tap and hold a word and select Look Up from the context menu. You may need to swipe left on the available options to reveal Look Up if Apple Intelligence is enabled on your iPhone.
3. When this brings up the Look Up card, scroll down to the bottom, and select Manage Dictionaries.
4. Finally, locate and tap the language whose dictionary you want to download, and it’ll start downloading.

When you download a dictionary, you’ll see a checkmark next to it. If you want to remove a dictionary at any point, simply tap on it again.

For certain languages, you’ll see two dictionaries: one that defines words in that language and the other that does it in English. The latter is useful when you’re learning a new language.

Related

The 10 Best Language Learning Apps That Really Work

Becoming a polyglot is so much easier with these apps to help you out.

Use Look Up to Define Words in Your Secondary Language

With your secondary language dictionary added to Look Up, you’re now all set. Simply long tap and hold the word whose meaning you want to know and select Look Up from the context menu. Look Up will then return its meaning in the same language.

To learn more about the selected word, tap Search Web on the Look Up card. This will take you to the Google Search result for that word in the Safari app.

Look Up simplifies looking up definitions of unknown words on your iPhone. Adding your secondary language dictionaries makes the feature even more useful and saves you the trouble of looking up words in a separate dictionary app.

You’ll appreciate this ability the most if you browse the web in your secondary language or frequently exchange texts with people in your secondary language. Moreover, it’ll also come in handy when you’re learning a new language.