Words
The one problem is the number of foreign words used by words. It’s data base is endless so how can you compete evenly when playing words itself.
Don't Leave (Or Stay) Home Without It.
Without a doubt, this is the best word-game dictionary available. It's actually far more than a dictionary; it's a nimble, lightning-fast, multi-featured, web-scouring, extraordinarily perspicacious word-finding wizard - like your brain, only 500-billion-times faster.
You may have some ethical compunctions about using this app because it CAN be used to cheat (which I do not advocate or recommend) but it can also be used in a perfectly acceptable manner, both while playing a game and between games.
Check out the word lists in this app, like 2-letter words, 3-letter words (etc), words without vowels, words containing Q w/o U, and many more. Study them to increase your vocabulary and become a better player. (Cheating won’t grow your brain at all; learning new words will.)
Check out the anagram feature and learn to unscramble words that could be hiding in your letter rack. Don’t do this while you’re playing a game, which would be cheating, but do it to exercise and challenge your brain to learn new skills you can employ while playing a game. Enter a string of random letters and see just how many words can be made from them. [You could also start playing Boggle, although Boggle won’t teach you new words, like (for example) the names of foreign currencies, coins and bills, and those come in very handy when you’re playing word games. Still Boggle will give you practice unscrambling words.]
This app is indispensable for anyone interested in playing well, playing smart, and scoring big, but it's also a fascinating app for discovering little surprises, sparkling gems of meaning and sound from the language in which we blithely declare ourselves fluent. Many, many of the words in word game lists will not show up in Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary app, so if you’re looking for definitions, you can either search online or open this app.
This dictionary - or word lookup - attempts to give as much documentation as possible to legitimize the inclusion of each word in its collection. I must say it has opened my eyes to the considerable breadth of English usage across time and national boundaries, as word games now seem to allow any English words, including slang, that appear in publication – whether by Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, by Zadie Smith, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, those used by bloggers, rap artists, lyricists, or in the flood of so-called “street novels” - as well as words in colloquial and/or formal usage not just throughout the UK and America, but everywhere that the political or cultural influence of those nations has reached. An extensive territory indeed.
If I were to be critical of anything, it would be of these four things:
1.) (My #1 pet peeve) After a word’s definition, this app gives a series of usage examples, but often NONE of those examples actually uses the word they are supposed to be clarifying! They use a synonym instead.
For example, for clarification on how to use the word “allot,” this app will use something like “The coach said we each get two jerseys.” “Mr Daniels said we are allowed 20 minutes to complete each task.” “The government budgeted two million dollars for the project.” How does that explain to anyone how to use the word “allot”? [Learning English as a second language? This won’t help!]
It’s completely baffling! It should go without saying that all sample sentences clarifying how to use a given word should actually INCLUDE that word! If further clarification were ever needed, a synonym could appear inside [brackets] or (parentheses.) But this app doesn’t even indicate where or how the given word could be substituted for the synonymous words or phrases in their sample sentences.
2.) One can still come across words for which "no definition is available." That's really not good. Sometimes it’s just a plural form of a word that IS listed (with definition) but you wouldn’t know this unless you a) know Latin, or b) searched the internet.
3.) Simple pronunciation guides would be really helpful.
4.) Finally, I would note that the developers have more work to do in general to clarify some of their extensive efforts at documentation, as not all of it is clear. In particular, after the definition of a word, a list of links to synonyms is often given. It is not uncommon, however, for there to be no obvious connection between the original word and the link. Often that’s because the link is a synonym for a different definition of the word, which does not appear in the app, so to make sense of the link, you’d have to search a real dictionary. It may seem a formidable task, but all the definitions of a word really should be listed in the app, at least all those for which you provide a linked synonym. Check out, for example, at the word "scot."
Still, this app has come a looong way since I started using it. The improvements are impressive. I have no reservations about giving this app 5 stars. If you use it a lot, as I do, it's definitely worth it to upgrade to the ad-free version. You get a LOT for your money with this app.
You may have some ethical compunctions about using this app because it CAN be used to cheat (which I do not advocate or recommend) but it can also be used in a perfectly acceptable manner, both while playing a game and between games.
Check out the word lists in this app, like 2-letter words, 3-letter words (etc), words without vowels, words containing Q w/o U, and many more. Study them to increase your vocabulary and become a better player. (Cheating won’t grow your brain at all; learning new words will.)
Check out the anagram feature and learn to unscramble words that could be hiding in your letter rack. Don’t do this while you’re playing a game, which would be cheating, but do it to exercise and challenge your brain to learn new skills you can employ while playing a game. Enter a string of random letters and see just how many words can be made from them. [You could also start playing Boggle, although Boggle won’t teach you new words, like (for example) the names of foreign currencies, coins and bills, and those come in very handy when you’re playing word games. Still Boggle will give you practice unscrambling words.]
This app is indispensable for anyone interested in playing well, playing smart, and scoring big, but it's also a fascinating app for discovering little surprises, sparkling gems of meaning and sound from the language in which we blithely declare ourselves fluent. Many, many of the words in word game lists will not show up in Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary app, so if you’re looking for definitions, you can either search online or open this app.
This dictionary - or word lookup - attempts to give as much documentation as possible to legitimize the inclusion of each word in its collection. I must say it has opened my eyes to the considerable breadth of English usage across time and national boundaries, as word games now seem to allow any English words, including slang, that appear in publication – whether by Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, by Zadie Smith, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, those used by bloggers, rap artists, lyricists, or in the flood of so-called “street novels” - as well as words in colloquial and/or formal usage not just throughout the UK and America, but everywhere that the political or cultural influence of those nations has reached. An extensive territory indeed.
If I were to be critical of anything, it would be of these four things:
1.) (My #1 pet peeve) After a word’s definition, this app gives a series of usage examples, but often NONE of those examples actually uses the word they are supposed to be clarifying! They use a synonym instead.
For example, for clarification on how to use the word “allot,” this app will use something like “The coach said we each get two jerseys.” “Mr Daniels said we are allowed 20 minutes to complete each task.” “The government budgeted two million dollars for the project.” How does that explain to anyone how to use the word “allot”? [Learning English as a second language? This won’t help!]
It’s completely baffling! It should go without saying that all sample sentences clarifying how to use a given word should actually INCLUDE that word! If further clarification were ever needed, a synonym could appear inside [brackets] or (parentheses.) But this app doesn’t even indicate where or how the given word could be substituted for the synonymous words or phrases in their sample sentences.
2.) One can still come across words for which "no definition is available." That's really not good. Sometimes it’s just a plural form of a word that IS listed (with definition) but you wouldn’t know this unless you a) know Latin, or b) searched the internet.
3.) Simple pronunciation guides would be really helpful.
4.) Finally, I would note that the developers have more work to do in general to clarify some of their extensive efforts at documentation, as not all of it is clear. In particular, after the definition of a word, a list of links to synonyms is often given. It is not uncommon, however, for there to be no obvious connection between the original word and the link. Often that’s because the link is a synonym for a different definition of the word, which does not appear in the app, so to make sense of the link, you’d have to search a real dictionary. It may seem a formidable task, but all the definitions of a word really should be listed in the app, at least all those for which you provide a linked synonym. Check out, for example, at the word "scot."
Still, this app has come a looong way since I started using it. The improvements are impressive. I have no reservations about giving this app 5 stars. If you use it a lot, as I do, it's definitely worth it to upgrade to the ad-free version. You get a LOT for your money with this app.
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Use it Every Day
This app is great for helping me with puzzles I do every day. And it works offline! Super useful app!
Rare
Five star
Quick to use !
Not yet used the updated version .....
Can’t fault the earlier version .... very useful .
Can’t fault the earlier version .... very useful .
