Comparison

Merriam vs Interactive Thesaurus

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Merriam

Access America's leading dictionary with over 15,000 extra entries for people and places. Enjoy offline access, voice search, and daily vocabulary builders. This app offers expert word guidance with a thesaurus and example sentences.

Highlights
  • Ad-free experience
  • 15,000+ premium entries
  • Offline dictionary access
  • Voice search functionality
  • Daily Word of the Day
  • Vocabulary-building word games
  • Integrated thesaurus
Features
Read full description

Get America's most useful and respected dictionary, optimized for your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Continuously updated with the newest words and meanings, this is the premier iOS app for English language reference, education, and vocabulary building. Key Features: * No ads! * Premium Content: Over 15,000 additional entries covering people and places * Offline access: Complete access to definitions and synonyms whether or not you're connected * Voice Search: look up a word without having to spell it * Word of the Day: learn a new word every day * Word Games: fun, fast quizzes to test your vocabulary * Favorite Words and Search History: keep track of the words that are most important to you * Favorite Word Syncing Through iCloud: share your favorites between devices and on the Web * For Tablets: browse the entire dictionary with a scrolling index * Apple Watch Extension: see the Word of the Day and find watch-sized definitions with voice search Expert Word Guidance: * Integrated Thesaurus: more than 200,000 word choices with examples of their use * Example Sentences: understand how a word is used in context * Audio Pronunciations: voiced by real English speakers, not text-to-speech robots Terms of Use: https://www.merriam-webster.com/terms-of-use

About

Interactive Thesaurus

Explore word meanings and relationships with this smart English thesaurus. It helps you find suitable words, expand your vocabulary, and improve grammar through an intuitive interface with semantic relations and color-coded parts of speech. Offline access and sharing options are included.

Highlights
  • 200,000+ English words and definitions
  • Visual semantic relations between words
  • Color coding for parts of speech
  • Word suggestions
  • Editable bookmarks
  • Offline access
Features
Read full description

Interactive Thesaurus is a new smart way to explore word meanings and relations. This application is a English thesaurus that helps you find the meanings for words and show relations between associated words. You can quickly find a suitable word, extend your vocabulary and improve your grammar. FEATURES: ● More than 200,000 English words and definitions ● Intuitive interface that shows semantic relations between words ● Color coding for different parts of speech ● Word suggestions ● Editable bookmarks function ● Undo/Redo ● Save the result image into Photo library, send it by email or share it with your friends ● No internet connection required FEEDBACK: If you enjoy it, be sure to rate each new version 5 star on the App Store. If you have any comments or suggestions, email me at support@alextataurov.com. THESAURUS SOURCE: The application uses the WordNet® lexical database (created by Princeton University).

Screenshots

Merriam4 screens
Interactive Thesaurus4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Interactive Thesaurus at $2.99 against Merriam's $9.99. Interactive Thesaurus also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). Merriam's advantage is ratings volume (22K vs 759) and chart position (#10 vs unranked). On rating, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Merriam costs $9.99 and Interactive Thesaurus $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Merriam against 4.8 for Interactive Thesaurus. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Merriam has 22K ratings behind it against 759, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 82% of Merriam's written reviews are positive against 71% of Interactive Thesaurus's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Merriam ships an update every 5 months, Interactive Thesaurus every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Merriam versus Interactive Thesaurus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMerriamInteractive Thesaurus
Price$9.99$2.99 — better
Rating4.8 (22K ratings)4.8 (759 ratings)
Positive reviews82.0% of reviews — better71.0% of reviews
Number of ratings22K — better759
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsEvery 3 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreemium — betterPaid
Best chart rank#10 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size238 MB96 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperMerriam-Webster, Inc.Alexey Tataurov

Customer experience

Merriam

All ratings22,135 ratings
Positive97.5%
Neutral1.2%
Negative1.2%
Written reviews516 reviews
Positive82.0%
Neutral6.2%
Negative11.8%

Interactive Thesaurus

All ratings759 ratings
Positive94.5%
Neutral2.8%
Negative2.8%
Written reviews69 reviews
Positive71.0%
Neutral8.7%
Negative20.3%

User reviews

Merriam

From 22K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Clear and intuitive layout
  • 🚀 Convenient offline access
  • 🔍 Comprehensive word definitions
  • 🔠 Helpful thesaurus and word games
  • 🔊 Useful audio pronunciations

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent app freezes and crashes
  • ⚠️ Missing words and incomplete definitions
  • 🔍 Lack of spell-check and word suggestions
  • 🔍 Limited search functionality
  • 🔀 Difficulty navigating back to previous words

Interactive Thesaurus

From 759 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great app
  • 🚀 Fast and efficient
  • 💡 Innovative visual approach
  • ❤️ Helpful writing tool
  • 👍 Useful for writing and expanding vocabulary

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and performance issues
  • 🤔 Overlapping words and cluttered display
  • 🤔 Limited word associations and definitions
  • 🤔 Rotation and movement issues

Bugs and requests

Merriam

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App freezes and crashes on launch
  • Audio pronunciations not working in some cases
  • Inconsistent performance across iOS versions
  • Syncing issues between devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved search with spell-check and suggestions
  • Ability to mark and review words
  • Integration with system search and Siri
  • Support for landscape mode and dark mode
  • Expanded word coverage and more detailed definitions

Interactive Thesaurus

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes when typing
  • Tapping on words doesn't always work as expected
  • Inconsistent behavior across devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Allow users to add words
  • Ability to isolate and expand individual word nodes
  • Option to turn off animation/rotation
  • Incorporate audio/sound features

In-app purchases

None

Merriam

No in-app purchases

None

Interactive Thesaurus

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Merriam free?
Merriam costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Interactive Thesaurus free?
Interactive Thesaurus costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Merriam or Interactive Thesaurus?
Merriam and Interactive Thesaurus are both rated 4.8 out of 5 on the App Store, from 22K and 759 ratings respectively.
Do Merriam or Interactive Thesaurus have ads?
Neither Merriam nor Interactive Thesaurus shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Merriam or Interactive Thesaurus?
Merriam ships an update every 5 months, and Interactive Thesaurus every 3 months. Most recently, Merriam was updated on October 19, 2026 and Interactive Thesaurus on October 16, 2026.

Other comparisons