Microsoft quietly kills a neat Office Word feature

Microsoft recently announced a price increase for Microsoft 365 apps for regular consumers. The reason? New AI features are now bundled with Word, Excel, Outlook, and other applications. Sadly, though, with the arrival of new AI-powered experiences, Microsoft quietly removed some of the existing and quite useful features.

Several days ago, users noticed that Smart Lookup was no longer working. For those unfamiliar, Smart Lookup lets you quickly find a definition of the selected word without switching away from the app or opening a browser. Just right-click a word and click "Search" in the context menu. Here is how Microsoft describes it:

Have you ever reviewed a document or read an email and found yourself challenged by an unfamiliar word or phrase? In Microsoft 365, work smarter and quickly look up the word or phrase to get connected to multiple resources related to it.

Now, when clicking "Search," Word opens a side pane with the following message: "We are sorry, but this feature is deprecated," leaving users only two options: open Office.com or go to Bing (of course).

In the Smart Lookup support document on the official website, Microsoft has only briefly mentioned that the feature has been retired as of January 1, 2025. Sadly, as of right now, there are no direct replacements for Smart Lookup, and people are already ranting about it online. It was one of those small and useful conveniences that many users would miss.

Yes, you can replace Smart Lookup with Copilot, but it is not as convenient since you have to type your prompt instead of just making two clicks to pull a definition. Besides, Copilot in Office apps requires a Microsoft 365 subscription (which is now more expensive), while Smart Lookup worked in perpetual licenses and LTSC releases all the way down to Office 2016. Sadly, it is now gone. Press F to pay respects.

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