Lexpad
The word and its meanings
As the card showed them, ready to edit in your notebook.
Desktop app for macOS and Windows · BetaEvery app on
your computer.
The Lexpad desktop app brings the browser extension’s card to the whole computer. Select a word in a document, an e-mail, a PDF or a chat, press one shortcut, read its meaning, and press Enter. The word goes into your notebook with the sentence you met it in.
Checked against the app on 7 October 2026.
- Price
- Free beta
- Systems
- macOS 11+, Windows 10 and 11
- Shortcut
- ⌘⇧L or Ctrl+Shift+L
- Password
- Never typed into it
Select, press, add
- Select a word or a short phrase in any app and press ⌘ ⇧ L on a Mac or Ctrl Shift L on Windows. You can change the shortcut in Settings.
- A small card opens beside the word with its part of speech, level, pronunciation and up to three meanings with examples, written by AI with your sentence as context. Below them, the sentence it was in and where you saw it.
- Press Enter to add it, Esc to close.
- Nothing selected? A small box lets you type the word. Selected a whole sentence? Pick the word out of it, and the sentence comes along.
- On a Mac you can also right-click a selection and choose Services, Add to Lexpad.
The menu-bar and tray panel
Lexpad lives in the menu bar on a Mac and in the system tray on Windows. Click its icon for a small panel:
- An Add a word box, for a word you want to type.
- Your shortcut, as a reminder.
- Added from this computer: the last five words you added here. Click one to open it in Lexpad. This list is kept on the computer only and is forgotten when you sign out.
- A Notebook picker for where new words go. A word in a script that notebook cannot hold goes to the one that can, as in the extension.
- Open Lexpad, Settings and Quit. Right-click the icon for a short menu with the same three.
It opens when you log in (you can turn that off in Settings), runs once, and has no Dock icon while it waits. It follows your system’s light or dark appearance.
The panel pictures show the app’s own panel with sample words, not a real person’s notebook; the account line is left out. The card above is a real capture from our own test account.
Sign in without a password
The desktop app never asks for your password. You allow it from Lexpad in your browser.
- Click the Lexpad icon and choose Connect to Lexpad. Your browser opens.
- Lexpad asks “Connect the Lexpad desktop app?”. Sign in there if you need to, and choose Allow.
- Done. The app has a sign-in of its own, listed under Settings, Account, Signed-in devices as “Desktop app”. Sign it out there or from the app’s Settings at any time.
Its sign-in is kept in the Mac’s Keychain or the Windows Credential Manager. It can add words and look up meanings; it cannot connect other apps, change your password or allow an assistant.
What is saved
A word you already have is reported as already in your notebook.
The sentence
The sentence the word was in becomes its first example, when the app could read the text around your selection. When it could not, no sentence is kept, and none is made up.
Where you met it
A private note with the app’s name, such as “Seen in Microsoft Word”.
Why “Seen in” names the app, never the window
The note says “Seen in Microsoft Word”, not the window’s title. Window titles carry document names, e-mail subjects and the names of the people you chat with, and the note travels with the word into exports and shared notebooks. So Lexpad keeps only the app’s name.
Privacy and permissions
- Lexpad reads your selection only when you press the shortcut (or use the Services item), and only the selection. It does not watch what you type or read.
- When you look a word up, it sends the word and the sentence it was in, as a hint for the meaning. When you add it, it sends the word, its meaning, that sentence and the “Seen in” note.
- Never a window title, a document name, the rest of the text, or anything you did not select.
- Password fields are never read.
- Where an app does not share its selection, Lexpad copies it (⌘C or Ctrl+C) and then puts your clipboard back exactly as it was. If nothing was copied, the clipboard was never touched.
On a Mac, Lexpad asks for the Accessibility permission. macOS only lets an app read another app’s selection with this permission. Lexpad explains it and opens the right pane: System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility, then switch Lexpad on. Without it you can still type a word.
Download
Beta
Mac
Version 0.1.1, 4.2 MB .dmg. macOS 11 or later, Apple silicon and Intel.
Windows
Version 0.1.1, 1.7 MB installer. Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
For managed Windows PCs there is also an .msi package (2.3 MB). All three are listed in lexpad-desktop.sha256.
SHA-256
lexpad-desktop-mac.dmg
eb49007db016ca0fabfa95e7f6b7ab9c3e2e49ecbae2b83397b7af5b5d5f6120
lexpad-desktop-windows.exe
1db72b9ddc8f6f5938032bda2173b02743b4abcfbab4887bfb71c0a958daaf2a
lexpad-desktop-windows.msi
82393aa2d051425168d1868e1d4f2c91995201cd3f831ffb188dd3bb6a8fd7ec
Lexpad for Mac and Windows is a beta. It is free; its meanings use the same AI allowance as the app, which Pro raises. Its own screens are in English, and adding a word needs a connection.
Install
These builds are not signed yet, so your computer warns you once. This is expected for now.
Mac
Open the .dmg and drag Lexpad to Applications. The first time, macOS says it cannot check the app. Open System Settings, Privacy & Security, scroll down and choose Open Anyway. On macOS 14 or earlier you can instead Control-click Lexpad in Applications and choose Open. Then allow Accessibility when Lexpad asks; after an update macOS may ask again.
Windows
Run the installer. If Windows says “Windows protected your PC”, choose More info, then Run anyway. It installs for your account only, with no administrator rights needed.
Coming
Signed builds for Mac and Windows, and Lexpad in the Microsoft Store, are planned; there are no dates yet. There are no automatic updates in this beta: download a new version from this page.
Requirements
Mac
macOS 11 Big Sur or later. One download for Apple silicon and Intel.
Windows
Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
Account
A free Lexpad account. Sign in once from your browser.
Good to know
Questions
Does it read everything on my screen?
No. It reads only what you selected, only when you press the shortcut. It never records a window title or the rest of the text.
Why does my Mac say it cannot check the app?
This beta is not signed by Apple yet. Use System Settings, Privacy & Security, Open Anyway once. Signed builds are planned.
Why does Windows show “Windows protected your PC”?
The installer is not signed yet. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Signed builds and the Microsoft Store are planned.
Is there a Mac App Store version?
No, and none is planned: the Mac App Store does not allow apps to read the selection in other apps, which is what Lexpad does.
Do I need the browser extension too?
No. The desktop app works in every app, browsers included. The extension adds a + button on web pages and the page’s address in the note.
Lexpad
Keep the word where you meet it.
Lexpad is free to start, on the web, on Android and now on your computer.