Major mode interface to WordNet

Uses wn(1) for searching local wordnet db; injects results into *WordNut* buffer.

Features

• Nothing to configure (except for optional custom keybindings).
• Completion if wn(1) finds the query too ambiguous.
• 1 buffer *WordNut* for all query results.
• Back/forward/view history.

Requirements

• Emacs 24.4+
• wn(1) in PATH
• (optionally) adaptive-wrap

Installation

If you have adaptive-wrap mode installed, wordnut will automatically use it to improve the text formatting (don't forget to add (require 'adaptive-wrap) in ~/.emacs).

Fedora

# dnf install wordnet

In ~/.emacs:

(add-to-list 'load-path "/the/dir/with/the/repo")
(require 'wordnut)

Windows

1. You need a compiled Windows version of Wordnet 3.0. Googling gives us a bizzare WordNet 3.0 windows visual studio. Extract bin & dict directories from it to c:\Program Files\WordNet\3.0\ (for some reason the path is hard-coded).

2. In %APPDATA%\.emacs:

    (if (eq 'windows-nt system-type)
    	(progn
    	  (add-to-list 'load-path "/the/dir/with/the/repo")
    	  (setq wordnut-cmd "c:/Program Files/WordNet/3.0/bin/wn.exe")
    	  (require 'wordnut)))
   

Keyboard shortcuts

There is no default global keybindings. Add something like:

(global-set-key [f12] 'wordnut-search)
(global-set-key [(control f12)] 'wordnut-lookup-current-word)

to begin with.

In the *WordNut* buffer:

kbd	desc
Enter	Lookup a word under the cursor
o	A tooltip w/ a sense for the current lexical category
/	New search
l, r	Move backward/forward in history
h	View history
q	Hide buffer

Auxiliary:

kbd	desc
M-Up, M-Down	Move between sections
Space	PageDown
b, Backspace	PageUp

Senses overview

When reading long entries it's easy to get lost in the number of word senses. For example, do M-x wordnut-search RET part RET. The verb part contains 12 senses. Its Synonyms/Hypernyms section has an entry:

** Sense 3
depart, part, start, start out, set forth, set off, set out, take off
	   => leave, go forth, go away
		  Phrasal Verb-> part with#1

To which meaning of all senses it exactly corresponds? You could scroll back to the overview section, manually find the verb section & look into the item 3. Then you scroll back.

Instead of doing this, press o when the cursor is somewhere in the Sense 3 subsection to auto-retrieve the text from the overview. If you press o (or Enter) when the curson is inside part with#1word, it gets you to the wordnet entry part with → verb → sense 1. To return to the part word, press l.

Bugs

• ≈ 18KB is too much for such a small major mode.

TODO

• Display a lexical category in the echo area akin to eldoc.
• Custom URI handler for wordnut:part%20with#verb/1.
• Mouse support.

Credits

The inspiration was wn-org.el mode.

License

GPLv3+.