diff --git a/app/src/main/java/com/ganjoor/android/ui/PoemScreen.kt b/app/src/main/java/com/ganjoor/android/ui/PoemScreen.kt
index 3bc1fe4..527d85c 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/com/ganjoor/android/ui/PoemScreen.kt
+++ b/app/src/main/java/com/ganjoor/android/ui/PoemScreen.kt
@@ -97,6 +97,14 @@ fun PoemScreen(
     // finds, so the couplet's own actions live at its foot rather than behind a tap between words.
     var tapped by remember { mutableStateOf<WordTap?>(null) }
 
+    // One side panel at a time. The dictionary and the reading settings both want the left of the
+    // screen, and opening the second put two panels there at once — or, where there was no longer
+    // room for two, left the dictionary as a sheet in the middle of the page while the settings
+    // sat beside it. Either way the reader is asked to look in two places. The settings replace
+    // the dictionary instead; closing them leaves the poem, which is where the reader was.
+    val sidePanelOpen = LocalSidePanelOpen.current
+    LaunchedEffect(sidePanelOpen) { if (sidePanelOpen) tapped = null }
+
     Load(
         key = fullUrl,
         block = { Ganjoor.poem(fullUrl) },
diff --git a/app/src/main/java/com/ganjoor/android/ui/WordSheet.kt b/app/src/main/java/com/ganjoor/android/ui/WordSheet.kt
index db88f04..692140e 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/com/ganjoor/android/ui/WordSheet.kt
+++ b/app/src/main/java/com/ganjoor/android/ui/WordSheet.kt
@@ -48,6 +48,15 @@ import com.ganjoor.android.data.LocalAssistant
 import com.ganjoor.android.data.Pronunciation
 import com.ganjoor.android.ui.theme.readingStyle
 
+/**
+ * How wide the dictionary sits beside the poem.
+ *
+ * Narrower than the reading settings, deliberately: the settings fold the columns away and take
+ * the room that frees, while the dictionary is read *against* the line it came from, so the verse
+ * keeps the width instead. A definition is short; a hemistich is not.
+ */
+val DictionaryPanelWidth = 216.dp
+
 /** English prose inside an otherwise right-to-left sheet. */
 @Composable
 private fun LeftToRight(content: @Composable () -> Unit) {
@@ -102,7 +111,7 @@ fun WordPanel(word: String, onDismiss: () -> Unit, passage: Bookmark? = null) {
     BackHandler(onBack = onDismiss)
     Surface(
         color = MaterialTheme.colorScheme.surfaceContainerLow,
-        modifier = Modifier.width(360.dp).fillMaxHeight(),
+        modifier = Modifier.width(DictionaryPanelWidth).fillMaxHeight(),
     ) {
         Column(Modifier.statusBarsPadding()) {
             Row(