I seem to have missed something.
I remember there used to be a way to link directly to the entry for a word or character in one of the online dictionaries. Now I see a pop-up that is more complete than the one before but no link anymore. Why?

If you click on the little magnifying glass (top right) when studying a word, there is a drop-down list allowing you to look up the word in several different dictionaries. Is that what you meant?

Yes, I see what you mean. I can see it too on this computer but on my android phone the line "Dictionary + dropdown box + "look up" is not visible. There is probably a good reason for this, although I can not see what it is.

We hacked out a bunch of stuff on the Android layout that was going to take more work to get right, or that didn't fit very well. The dictionary links were one of those, unfortunately. The intent was always to improve the layout later, but now that mobile embedded Flash is on the way out, we've put those layout improvement plans on hold.

"mobile embedded Flash is on the way out"

So what are the plans for Android development?

Let us finish the iPhone app and catch our breath, then answer that question.

Fair enough :) Looking forward to that.