Merriam-Webster Dictionary+

This is the only online dictionary I use or recommend. It has so many (free) ways to help people expand their vocabulary, and these extras work for high school & college, to writing for personal reasons. That’s the extra that I use, and love, the most; the common synonyms & antonyms, but also M-W includes a lot much more. The one that’s best for me & my writing is the origin of the words, including the approximate historical date (in centuries) in which the word was “created” and who most likely created it. At times I find that the original meaning (as used when it was created) is very different to the present day meanings! I went ahead & bought the pro-version, as I use it so often in my writing. I’ve found that M-W the dictionary to be the most user friendly, & helpful. Apologies, but I don’t remember how much is was. I only remember that it wasn’t very much. Just try it, (even the free version still has almost all the things I’ve mentioned.) use it for awhile & compare it to the other online dictionaries. I’m confident that you’ll pick, & stay with, the Merriam-Webster dictionary. 👍🏼

I switched from the Oxford dictionary app I previously had for what might appear to be political reasons yet is actually a non-partisan one: defense of word definitions. When President Trump began tweeting out non-sensical statements that twisted or hollowed out the very meaning of certain words he was trying to use in an Orwellian manner, M-W would tweet out a response that focused on the actual definition of the word in defense of meaningful language. It may have appeared partisan to some, but to me it was a simple & timely reminder that words are not empty vessels. They are not window dressing. They are the window itself and attempts to use them to communicate in a way that is deliberately counter to their actual meaning effectively gaslights an entire language & the very culture that relies on it. I am happy with the app, & even happier supporting a company that recognizes that defending the meaning of words is to defend its core reason for being. Thank you M-W.

This review is based specifically around the watchOS version of the app, which just got an update. But alas, ‘twas an update that did not address the most critical shortcoming of the app, which is that you can only use voice dictation to look up words. Hence, one will only ever know the definition of “weather” because it will never know whether you meant wether. Until we get the ability to “scribble” (write in) a word to be looked up, it simply won’t be a very useful app on the watch. Additionally, it gives poor and totally incomplete definitions on the watch. Take “weather”, for instance. The watch only tells us the (rather useless) definition of the adjective form (of or relating to the side facing the wind). Why not the noun? You know, the one that is at the top of the list of definitions when you look it up on the iOS version of the app. Furthermore, why does it curtail the definition on the watchOS app? The screen can easily display text, and guess what, that little crown on the side, it allows you to scroll through text! So, theoretically, they could display all the definitions of a word, and we could simply scroll through to find the definition we’re looking for. And why no support for synonyms? Why why why?? What exactly did they update for the watch in this version of the app? I want my money back.

Nice dictionary app, but a few things: —You ask how we feel way too much, you don’t just ask every couple day, weeks, or months, but mutilple times a day, I’m not sure if it’s based off time, or words looked up, but please, stop. Do not just make it a tad less, but at least make it every couple days or longer that you ask in app how we feel. Until then, I’ll tap the frown face, because this alone is annoying. Feature requests —I think it would help a lot if this app had a spell checker. As you type, it’s not just looking for words you might be typing, but words you might have meant. For example if you typed “kat” “cat” would be an option. Of course this would go for bigger and more complex words too. This would also make it easier if the speaker isn’t available, or you just don’t want to use it. —Another feature I think would be nice is a feature that I think some dictionary apps/programs call “wildcards”. For example you could type “c*d” and it would find all words that start with c and end with d or “c*r*d” for the same thing. * would be any amount of letters between the two letters it’s between. In addition to the * for many letters, a ? for one letter. For example “c?b” would find a words that start with c, end in b, and have one letter in between. “c?a?e” would turn up crate. It would be nice if we could do the above in addition to any number or combination of ? and *. Please add these features, I really think they would add to the app.

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary app is great for anyone learning English. I especially like synonyms, antonyms, and thesaurus features which give me related words and phrases at every word. This app has clear and high-quality audio pronunciations, sentences, and concise definitions. Also, it nicely displays the parts of speeches. I utilize its favorite feature to save words and study them. Another smart and cool feature is that this app beautifully syncs with my Apple devices. Also, it works offline even though its audio pronunciation doesn’t work. I can add the words to favorite or delete the saved words offline, and once my Apple devices are online, they automatically sync. This app is an excellent dictionary. Kudos to everyone who developed this extraordinary dictionary app; thank you to developers for this awesome app! I love it! The best is yet to come....