Sensory Readable v3 ships with a comprehensive set of word-lookup tools that work entirely offline — no internet connection needed for any of them. The collection includes a built-in dictionary, thesaurus, homophone tools, and the major-upgraded Word Information popup.
Video help
A short look at the built-in Dictionary & Thesaurus — the Ctrl+Shift lookup that works in any application, not just Word. The video only contacts Vimeo once you press play.
Why offline?
Online dictionaries are powerful but unreliable in some of the most important contexts where students and learners need them: secure exam environments, schools with strict internet filtering, mobile use without data, and accessibility tools that need to work even when network connections fail.
Readable v3's built-in dictionary and thesaurus solve this. Both are installed locally with Readable, with comprehensive coverage:
- Dictionary: 147,000+ words with full definitions
- Thesaurus: 110,000+ synonyms across the dictionary entries
This makes Readable a self-contained reading and writing aid that works on any Windows PC regardless of network availability.
Inside Word, and everywhere else
Sensory Readable's word-tools setup is intentionally split between two sources:
- Inside Microsoft Word
- The Readable toolbar's Word Check menu taps into Word's own spell check and thesaurus. Readable's role here is to add speech on top: position your cursor on a suggestion or a thesaurus entry and press the Ctrl key — Readable will speak it aloud. This is Readable enhancing Word's existing tools with audio support, not replacing them.
- Everywhere else
- In any other Windows application — browsers, email, PDF readers, messaging apps, and so on — Sensory Readable provides its own built-in offline dictionary and thesaurus, accessed by holding Ctrl+Shift and hovering over a word. This is the v3 elevation: a self-contained lookup that works wherever you can see the word, with no internet connection required.
Why offline matters here
Adding the offline dictionary and thesaurus directly into Readable v3 keeps Sensory Readable's longstanding offline philosophy intact: the core reading and lookup experience continues to work even on machines without internet access — secure exam environments, schools with strict internet filtering, mobile use away from networks, or simply when you'd rather a quick word lookup didn't involve a cloud service.
Microsoft's Copilot is a capable AI-assisted tool for users who want a richer, conversational reference experience and have a Microsoft 365 subscription. Sensory Readable's offline dictionary serves the complementary need: a fast, private, free lookup that's always there — including in the contexts where Copilot isn't available or appropriate.
The four word tools
- Word Lookup
- Look up the definition of any word — from selection, by typing, or via the right-click menu. Powered by the offline 147,000-word dictionary.
- Thesaurus
- Find synonyms (and where applicable, antonyms) for any word. 110,000+ synonyms, all offline.
- Homophones
- Identify words that sound the same but mean different things — a common source of writing errors. Readable highlights homophone pairs (their/there/they're; pour/pore/poor) so you can check you have the right one.
- Word popup (Ctrl+Shift)
- Major Readable v3 elevation. Hold Ctrl+Shift and hover over any word in any application to get a popup combining all of the above plus a pictogram. Works even on images of words and locked apps, via Smart Dynamic OCR.
Where the word tools work
All four tools work in any Windows application — not just Microsoft Word. The same on-screen recognition (Smart Dynamic OCR) Readable uses elsewhere also makes the word tools work even when text is in an image or otherwise inaccessible. See each individual page for the specifics.