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The simplest way to use dico utility is to invoke it with
a word as an argument, e.g.:
$ dico entdeckung
In the example above, the utility will search definitions of the word ‘entdeckung’ using its default server name and database. The default server name is read from the initialization file (see Initialization File). If it is not present, a predefined value specified at configuration time (see Default Server) is used. The default database is ‘!’, which means “search in all available databases until a match is found, and then display all matches in that database”.
There are two ways to change these defaults. First, you can use command line options. Secondly, you can use a DICT URL. Which method to use depends on your preferences. Both methods provide the same functionality for querying word definitions. However, command line options allow the user to query additional data from the server, which is impossible using URLs.