Merriam-Webster Dictionary

I stumbled across the Word of the Day a few years ago, and was getting it in my email every morning. I word share it on social media every day. But then it stopped coming. Seriously, MW, what’s up with that? I checked my spam folder, I tried unsubscribing and then subscribing again, but nothing. It just would not send. (I know...this doesn’t really seem like a 5 star review, does it? Stay with me, it gets better. 😂) But finally it dawned on me that I was using the website a lot to look up words, either in the dictionary or the thesaurus, and that I should just look for the app. Hey, I’m 62 and a little slow with technology, OK? I love the app, and I use every day...usually several times a day. I look up meanings of unfamiliar words, of course. But I use the thesaurus a lot. When I am writing an email, or text, or posting on social media I frequently find myself searching my brain for a word that I know is perfect for the context, but my brain just can’t seem to grab onto. (Old and slow, remember?) I go to the thesaurus and start putting in words that are similar, but not quite what I’m looking for. Most of the time, I find the word I want. Occasionally I don’t, but I do find an acceptable substitute. I still check out the WOD, and share it on social media. And I am absolutely LOVING the way they subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) throw shade at the current President and administration. It’s a master class in shade throwing. 😎😂

I read books that often have unusual, or at least not in the common vernacular, words in them. I used to write them down and at the end of the day look them up in my physical dictionary or Encyclopedia set. Now I have one right in my pocket that is constantly being updated (my physical dictionary was from the early 1990s and encyclopedias given to me by my grandpa before he died when I was ten - I’m 30 now. New things are out there, new ideas, new ELEMENTS. And since I’m a writer, and I hate reusing a word too many times in an essay, paper, or story, the Thesaurus is a great and convenient tool that’s a nice little add on. Plus my family and I try to make up alternative definitions for the ‘Word of the Day’. Funniest or most outrageous wins. Try it! It awesome! Especially if you don’t know what the word means in the first place! Also, like me, if you are writing a story and need someone with the ranking of town mayor but in a tribal setting, the Thesaurus can actually give you the word you are looking for. I typed in ‘lord’ in the thesaurus and it gave me ‘nabob’ and ‘nawab’ two Urdu words for a local Muslim governor in the Mogul Empire (so like a mix between governor, lord, tax collector, and sheriff). If my story develops into neading a Muslim- type country, I can make sure the provinces have ‘nabobs’- cause now I know that word!

This has always been my number one dictionary to pick up first and the one I always referred to when expanding my vocabulary and to aid my understanding of the different meanings of a word based on the context it’s used in. I remember when I was a little kid I would just pick up a dictionary (especially Merriam-Webster), sit down, and start reading through it randomly learning new words. Now with this App on my phone I do like the idea of having a dictionary with me everywhere I go, that I can literally carry around with me in my pocket. Whenever I bring it up to check something I don’t even have to turn a single page to find the word I’m looking up. I guess I just appreciate the multitude of uses that technology brings us, the fact that I already appreciated the physical book itself before smartphones even existed and that I just like everyone else had to remember and or write down everyone’s landline number has something to do with it too. This App is definitely useful to have, and it has come in-handy for me on numerous occasions. So far for me it has been working smoothly, no glitches or anything. I absolutely recommend this app if your looking for a good reputable dictionary to have as a part of your phone’s abilities.

I used to read constantly in my youth and into my twenties but it’s so difficult to find ample time to physically crack open a book these days and read the amount of content that satisfies me, so I started listening to more audiobooks to keep up with my “reading” while performing menial tasks like washing dishes and cleaning floors/etc. But I have to admit my vocabulary unfortunately seems to be paying the price for this convenience! But the WOTD calendar and word games help to continue the expansion of my vocabulary, and while sometimes they are words I already know they are usually words that can be used in writing and sometimes even every day conversation, and it’s nice to be reminded of those fleeting words that aren’t quite seared into memory. There are so many WOTD calendars/apps that seem to think finding the most useless, nonsensical and out of date words in the English language is some great accomplishment, but it’s a waste of everyone’s time in my opinion. The point is to expand the vocabulary of words still in use, or words that at least have an interesting backstory... and Merriam Webster does just that in my opinion. Check out the games as well, fun and educational for all levels of proficiency!

Great dictionary app! However, Merriam does not make clear the difference between the Premium app (one time payment of $4.99) and the Original app with a yearly subscription ($2.99/year and $5.99/year). The premium app lists all of it’s features in the App Store, but the Original (free) app says you pay $2.99 for removal of ads and $5.99 for “additional features”. There is no information about this on there website either, so how is a consumer supposed to decide on which to purchase? Will the Premium app eventually be phased out for just the subscription model? I purchased the $5.99 subscription before I knew about the Premium app. I remember there being information on the features before purchase. But now that I’ve purchased it, the section with the features has disappeared. I wasn’t aware of a one time payment premium app, so now I want to compare and see if I’m getting my money’s worth. This information needs to be readily available and in plain sight. Can someone from Merriam please respond with this information? I email you but got and auto response saying “ Due to the volume of correspondence we receive, we unfortunately cannot personally respond to each message” and the generic info included in that email did not answer my question. Otherwise great app. Best dictionary for Americans.