Dictionary.com (download) is a free app that lets you carry an entire dictionary and thesaurus around in your pocket. It’s a well-designed app that helps you look up words quickly and easily while you’re on the go. And when compared to Merriam Webster’s $24.99 dictionary app, we’d say it’s quite a bargain. Check out the commercial below for an example of the app coming in handy:
Dictionary.com is based on the well-respected Random House Unabridged Dictionary. The app provides full definitions that include pronunciation, word type (noun, vowel, etc), and word origin. One nifty feature is that, after looking up a word in the dictionary, you can tap the Thesaurus tab at the bottom and instantly switch to a list of synonyms for the same word.
After typing a few letters into the app’s seach bar, a drop-down shows a list of suggested words that can speed up the typing process, as you won’t always have to type out the full word to find it.
The drop-down list can speed up typing.
Dictionary.com has a few features that require an Internet connection. One is a “similarly spelled words” list that appears if you misspell a word. Dictionary.com will send your spelling to its servers and produce a list of similarly spelled words that hopefully will contain the one you’re looking for.
Similarly spelled words can help solve misspellings.
Another feature that requires an Internet connection is the audio pronunciation. Tap the speaker icon next to each word, and the word will be read out loud. I find this particularly useful for rare words like weird medical terms.
A thesaurus is also included.
There is also a Word of the Day tab that focuses on a word every day and gives a definition and examples of the word being used in print.
Dictionary.com is a free download in the iTunes App Store.
Name: Dictionary.com
Developer: Dictionary.com
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Price: Free
iTunes Link: Download