Review: Dictionary.com
Score:
79%
Let's get the jokes out-of-the-way now, because I'm not going to check every single word in this review with the app (and in any case I would blame it on transcription errors if you found a mistake), but Dictionary.com is a handy app to have on your phone. It's not just for writers, thanks to the inclusion of some cool connected features. It's nowhere close to being an application that you would buy a Windows Phone for, but it is an app that you can keep coming back to, day after day.
Version Reviewed: 8.0.0.0
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On first loading, and before you even get to the main screen, you are offered the option to download the dictionary database to your phone so the application will work offline. Unless you are so tight on space that you cannot spare a few tens of megabytes, I would recommend that you go for the download option. If you skip over this, you can download from the settings at a later date.
Unsurprisingly, the regular screen you see when opening the app has a search box for you to look up a word in the dictionary. You also have the microphone icon that you can tap to allow for voice input of a word - which is handy if one of the reasons you are looking up a word is to check on the spelling. Unless there's a direct match, you'll get a list of options on the word that dictionary.com thinks you are looking up.
Tapping through, you get your expected dictionary page, with confirmation of the word, pronunciation guide, grammatical structure, and various definitions of the word, including the plural and extended forms. Tucked into the bottom of the screen and in the menu bar are options to hear the pronunciation of the chosen word, add the word to your favourite words list, and share the definition of the word. Some of the sharing is through the Windows Phone UI (such as via email or SMS) but social media shares is via the Dictionary.com app, and will ask you to log on and authorise the app. It would be nice if this could also have used the built-in sharing system.
Alongside the Dictionary.com view you also have the Thesaurus.com view, which allows you to see synonyms and antonyms of your chosen word. There's no pronunciation guide needed here, so the menu simply shares or favourites the word. While the two functions are useful, having to back up out of the view to the main screen, to drill back down into the main view is tiresome process. As there is no panorama view here, the developers might want to consider adding a sweep right or left option to switch between the two main modes of the app.
These modes are certainly useful (at least to me) but they don't really make the app into a keeper. The utilities that do this for me are found in the top-level panorama view, where you can explore four editorial choices by the team behind Dictionary.com, 'The Word of the Day', 'Hot Word', 'Question of the Day', and 'Spanish Word of the Day.' The inclusion of spanish and english, with no other visible options to change the language, is probably down to some US targeting from the parent company. I would love to see different languages in here, Swedish or Danish would be especially useful to me.
These daily features help set the app part. They provide more than the basic functionality without getting in the way of looking up words when you need to do so, but for the lexicography fan they twist the app from a lookup tool to a daily burst of enjoyment.
This is aided by the ability to pin these editorial features to the start screen, so you can pick up a mental reminder to check them out without fail. They flip around to give the start of the definitions, and they'll deep link into the Dictionary.com application.
It's really nice to see a focused application such as this making use of all the UI elements that are available to a Windows Phone developer. While there's nothing wrong with a straight port of an Android or iOS app, taking the time to fit in with the environment of the handset contributes greatly to the feeling of a professional app.
Professional is the best word for Dictionary.com. It's more an app for someone who works with words, although as a daily 'fun thing to read' it also serves its purpose well. It delivers everything you expect, and then a little bit more, and it's a free download as well. I remember the days you would get a dictionary free with your PDA, and while those days have passed, Dictionary.com will let you recall just how useful a tool a digital dictionary and thesaurus can be.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at