Microsoft is getting rid of a well-loved Word feature, and you may not like what’s replacing it

If you’ve ever been stumped on what a word means in a Microsoft Word document, Smart Lookup always has your back. The handy tool makes it really easy to look up definitions of a word and also powers the software’s thesaurus feature to find more ways to express what you’re saying. If you get a lot of use out of Smart Lookup, I’m afraid to say that Microsoft is now getting rid of it, and you may not like what comes next.

Microsoft is scrapping Smart Lookup on Word for Copilot

As spotted by Windows Latest, the official documentation for “Get insights into what you’re working on with Smart Lookup” now has this ominous message at the top:

Important: Smart Lookup will be retired starting on January 1, 2025.

Sure enough, there are reports coming in across the internet of people trying to use Smart Lookup and finding that it’s no longer providing any service.

So, why is Microsoft getting rid of Smart Lookup? Well, there’s a good reason for it, albeit it may not be one you like. Microsoft has been bringing its AI assistant, Copilot, to its productivity apps lately. As such, there’s a good chance that Microsoft is getting rid of these features to make way for people to use Copilot instead of the built-in Word tools.

Unfortunately, given how hard Microsoft is pushing Copilot, it’s highly likely that this slow takeover will only get worse in time. As such, now would be the perfect moment to check out the best Microsoft Office alternatives and some free options that may even be better than Word for some ideas.