Dictionary.com

This is a great app to have on your iPhone if your kids are readers and are constantly asking you to define words. Mine will come to me with a question about a word they’ve come across in a book. My mind is not as sharp as it once was so it usually takes me a minute to come up with an appropriate definition. I know we have a dictionary around the house somewhere but I can’t tell you where that somewhere is. In the past if the kids have got me stumped I’ll have them turn on the computer and go to the Dictionary.com website. Needless to say I was excited to see this app and give it a trial run.

The Dictionary.com app lets you look up words, right on your iPhone. It’s extremely easy to use. Tap the dictionary button at the bottom of the screen and then type in the word you’re searching for.  You’ll get a list of words and then you touch the one you’re looking for. The app will then pull up a dictionary definition for you. There’s also a thesaurus search feature. Great if you’re trying to explain to a child why you can’t use the word happy thirty times in a paper. To access that you touch the thesaurus button and type in the word you want. The “Recent” button will show you all the words you’ve recently searched for. I like this feature because my kids will generally ask me several times for a definition. Depending on what’s going on at the time there’s a very good chance I’ll have forgotten. The recent feature makes it easy to pull the words back up again.  The last button on the bottom of the screen is for “Word of the Day”. Tap this and you’ll see the selected word of the day along with it’s definition. I probably ought to be checking this out frequently in an attempt to sharpen the mind back up.

I like how simple and straightforward this app is. If you find yourself needing to frequently provide definitions more accurate than “That word has too many syllables, go ask your father” this is the app for you.

Price when Reviewed: Free

Available at iTunes

Seller: Dictionary.com