Dictionaries

Sep 27, 2025 [ misc ]

Growing up, and even into my 20s and 30s I was an avid dictionary user. I was taught how to use them and I always had one or more on hand. Nice thick volumes that had the spelling, the pronunciation, all the different definitions broken into parts of speech, including transitive and intransitive verbs, example usages, and etymology. Maybe even some synonyms or special usage notes if there was something tricky about it. I especially always dug into the etymology. Knowing the history of a word really got that word to sink in for me. And having done that a lot made it easy to understand other words with similar backgrounds.

I haven’t had an actual dictionary for years. But I still try to look up words using the web. It’s just not the same. I didn’t think about it too much, but it finally just got frustrating enough where I snapped. Usually I just type the word, plus “definition”. That usually gives me some kind of search engine definition and links to random dictionary sites. I generally try to go into one of the dictionary sites.

Let me tell you… dictionary sites are horrible.

Dictionary Sites

They’re even generally run by companies that are well known for publishing quality dictionaries. But once they get on the web, it’s no longer a dictionary. It’s a web site. It’s an experience. It’s a social network. It’s a marketing opportunity. You get ads and games and quizzes and trending words, slang guides to the new words kids are using. Word of the day. How-tos, interesting word histories, videos, podcasts, shops, merch, mailing lists. I’m not making this up, I’m just cataloging what I see on the Merriam Webster front page.

See that tiny red bar at the top? That’s the part I’m interested in - where you can enter a word to find its definition.

See all the rest of that crap? Not interested in any of it.

It should just look like the Google home page. Logo, search field. End of story.

Now, that’s Merriam Webster, which is a solid dictionary. But OMG, the site… makes me cry. A computer and a web site should be the best thing that ever happened to a dictionary. No flipping pages back and forth. Just type the word and you’re there. Don’t understand a word in the definition? Click to go to that, then click back. Why did they have to ruin it by doing all this other stuff?

But OK, what happens when you look up a word? Let’s look up “canonical” - for no reason. It just came to mind. No, it’s not a reference to the company that puts out Ubuntu. Just a random word.

Alright. We have a nav menu with games, word of the day, grammar, word finder, slang, newsletters, wordplay, and more. And a sidebar nav of what’s on this page. And a couple of call to actions for games and stuff.

But we do have definitions. And each definition has an example.

And we have more examples, but these are “automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage”. I don’t really like this idea. Real dictionaries hand curate useful examples, not do automated web searches. At least it’s not obviously “AI”.

Then we have etymology and some other stuff…

And more stuff…

I don’t need rhymes and nearby words or citations. This isn’t bad stuff, but it’s just trying to cram everything possible in here.

Keep scrolling and you’ll be back into games and merch and stuff.

The etymology entry links to the root word, “canon”, which is fine because it’s a click away. An actual dictionary would do the same thing.

So honestly, this is decent content. It’s just surrounded by a deafening amount of random crap.

I’m not going to compare other sites. Because this is one of the better ones - at least in terms of content.

What about apps?

My next thought was to try an app. Honestly, I was about to go buy a physical dictionary, but hoped an app might be better than the sites I’d seen.

The two I tried were the Merriam Webster app and the Oxford Dictionary app. Both on Android. Both have free versions with ads and subscription models. Ugh. But I’ll keep an open mind.

The Oxford Dictionary app

The Oxford Dictionary app contains something like fifteen different dictionaries - English, American and a bunch of other languages. It also has full page ads that you have to wait like 10-15 seconds before you can see the content. Every time you look up a word. Like on those really, really crappy free games. So, so, so bad. But, you can get rid of those for just $2.99 per month. $36 a year for a dictionary? OK, fifteen dictionaries, thirteen of which I’ll never touch. Meh.

While the content was decent, the format, layout and overall UX just wasn’t great.

Interestingly, I also checked out the American Heritage Dictionary app. It’s by the same publisher and looks exactly the same as the Oxford app. Only has the one dictionary and it’s $11.99 per year. Or you can buy it for $49.99.

The Merriam Webster app

Alright, we’re getting somewhere. Again, ad supported free app, but it’s a small banner at the bottom of the page. Not awful. And it’s $2.99 per year to go ad free. Also, $5.99 per year for some kind of pro version, which also gives you a kids dictionary, and medical and legal dictionary. Not sure if I needed those, but I went for the $5.99 version. I think it might have some other features. But that’s a decent price no matter what. The physical version of this same dictionary would be around $21. And would not fit in my pocket.

So what’s it look like? Any better than the web site?

Yes! I was very pleasantly surprised!

When you first open it, you get this:

Not TOO horrible. Only two random distractions.

Once you’re in the word though, it’s great.

It’s got the same defintions and embedded examples as the site and some additional info, including etymology. But that’s it. Nicely formatted and readable.

Extra info, but not too much.

Other nice features

• Audible pronunciation
• Thesaurus too! That’s always useful, practical, applicable, functional.
• Click on any word on the page to look up that word.
• Scroll left/right to go through your history. I actually missed that at first and was trying to back navigate, which just took me to the home page, which was very annoying. For words that are in the kids, medical, and/or legal dictionaries, you get links there as well.

To be honest, the kids dictionary is pretty good if you just want a quick idea of what something means.

The app menu also lets you see a list of recent words you looked up, as well as any words you’ve saved. You can also share definitions… oki doki, whatever.

Overall, this is a winner. Just what I wanted.

Other options

Desktop app

I thought of trying Stardict. This is an open source dictionary app, which you can add different dictionaries to (there are a lot). On my ebook readers (Onyx Boox devices) I use KOReader which integrates with Stardict compatible dictionaries. It’s a great concept, but the content varies widely, depending on which dictionaries you add to it. Many of them are outdated and oddly formatted. But it’s great to have it integrated in the ebook reader. Just tap a word and get a definition. But all too often, there’s no result found in any of the three dictionaries I have installed there.

At any rate, a couple of attempts to install Stardict on my computer just led to segfaults. I’m sure I could debug it, but I’m pretty happy with the Merriam Webster app for now.

Wiktionary

It was also suggested trying Wiktionary. This is a free dictionary operated by Wikimedia, who also operate Wikipedia, etc. This is also very good, but goes a bit deep. Oddly, etymology is up front, followed by usually several different pronunciation guides before getting to an extensive list of definitions, often very specialized and obscure ones - politics, engineering, medical, economics, finance, programming, philosophy, etc. Plus derived terms, related terms, translations, references, etc.

Definitely errs on the side of being complete, but a bit overwhelming sometimes.

Summary

Just my thoughts on dictionaries and how good they can be and how bad some have gotten by going on line, which should make them even better. Find whatever works for you.

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