Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Noah Webster's ghost happily haunting your iPhone
With the availability of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, for the iPhone and iPod touch, Noah Webster must be a happy ghost. His namesake dictionary, converted to Apple's handheld platforms by Paragon Technologie GmbH, now gives teachers, writers, and students a fully searchable reference at their fingertips.This is a pocket version of the best-selling dictionary in the USA, featuring over 225,000 defined words. Since it is a self-contained application and not a web front-end to an online dictionary, it can be used in situations where your device is in airplane mode.
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary isn't cheap -- it sells for US$24.99 in the App Store (click opens iTunes). However, carrying this app on your iPhone is a lot lighter than lugging around the US$23.95, 3.6 lb. (1.63 kg.) printed version.
The other major competition to this application, Webster's New World Dictionary (click opens iTunes) from AcroDesign, is a bit less expensive at US$14.99, but is less complete with only 163,000 entries.
What's the favorite reference you'd like to have on your handheld device? Leave us a comment!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
david said 2:08PM on 10-22-2008
Stedman's Medical Dictionary!!!
Reply
who? said 2:12PM on 10-22-2008
weDict
Reply
Jon said 3:53PM on 10-22-2008
Agreed!!!
WeDict = Free, and at least "good enough" for a portable dictionary.
William said 4:32PM on 10-22-2008
Second thumbs up for WeDict! Free, and definitely "good enough" for those on-the-spot situations where you have to look up a word's definition.
ronl12 said 2:25PM on 10-22-2008
All the ones that I had on my Treo:
Steadmans Medical
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy
Reply
Ryan Trevisol said 2:37PM on 10-22-2008
It's not worth $25 to have a dictionary available in airplane mode when I can access m-w.com when I'm not in airplane mode.
Reply
bj said 2:43PM on 10-22-2008
I'm interested in having the same dictionary & thesaurus as on Mac OS X: New Oxford American Dictionary and Oxford American Thesaurus. That is my fantasy.
Reply
db cooper said 2:49PM on 10-22-2008
For $25, if I need a word on an airplane, I'll make one up.
Reply
Gabe said 3:20PM on 10-22-2008
I'm gonna take a wild stab at this $25 dictionary thing and say its probably not gonna sell that well. I'd rather put my $30 3G data plan to good use and go to dictionary.com or one of the other 1000 online dictionaries.
Chris Howard said 3:24PM on 10-22-2008
WordBook.
I couldn't afford to spend $25 on a dictionary-thesaurus that I really only need when i'm away from my Mac or the internet, so WordBook was more appealing. And I really like the way it works, plus it includes helpers for crosswords, anagrams and Scrabble.
Reply
Dalton said 6:46AM on 10-23-2008
Agreed - WordBook is great. Only $8, it has plenty of words, Dictionary and Thesaurus mode, and an excellent interface.
Quix said 3:31PM on 10-22-2008
I know the App Store has set unreasonable expectations for application pricing, ("$2.99??? What a rip-off!!!"), but $25 *is* steep for a downloadable app like this. If I can get the 4-pounds-of-ink-and-paper version for $24, why should the paperless version be $25, particularly when you can get exactly the same stuff online for free? (Yes, I can make the same argument for a $10 digital album download vs. buying an actual CD at the store for $10.)
The day will come when people will gladly pay good money for great iPhone apps (and not gripe about it), but a $25 replacement for a free online resource is probably not a viable candidate.
My guess: they'll lure as many buyers at the $25 price as possible, then drop it to something "reasonable" ($5? Who can say...) to reap the rewards of volume purchasing by the masses.
Reply
Tad Davis said 3:49PM on 10-22-2008
Actually, there are LOTS of choices for dictionaries on the App Store. The Merriam-Webster offering is not the best of the bunch, in my opinion. (If any of these items have been updated in the last couple of days, my apologies.) It leaves out many of the biographical and geographical references that can be found in (for example) the eReader version of the same dictionary. It also omits the etymologies. Simple word counts don't necessarily tell the whole story. My impression of the New World Dictionary from AcroDesign is that it's not just cheaper but more complete (it has the biographical and geographical entries mentioned above) and a shade faster. I've also had very good results with the Collins Pro dictionary from UltraLingua, which includes all of the above at about the same price as the MW. You can, of course, for a little bit more, plunk down for the full American Heritage 4th Edition: quite good and very complete (and reasonably fast), but HUGE. If all you want is a handy list of definitions (and maybe some wildcard functions when you're not so sure about the spelling), WordBook from TranCreative Software gives you an elegant and fast interface to a comprehensive word list for only $8.
Reply
bj said 5:03PM on 10-22-2008
Thanks for the complete notes on dictionaries! So if money is no object are you saying that the American Heritage Dictionary is the best? Better than the Concise Oxford? Thanks!
Tad Davis said 1:04PM on 10-23-2008
To reply to the question about AHD4, as it appears to be affectionately known: yes, I believe the American Heritage Dictionary, v4, is the best and most comprehensive standalone dictionary available for the iPhone at present. But I've found myself unwilling to give up that much memory to the app, even though I have plenty to spare. The one I'm using on a daily basis is the Collins Pro. I also have the MW Collegiate installed in eReader, because with a dictionary installed you can look up words in eReader books by tapping and holding the word. I wasn't aware that the unabridged was available. Generally, though, my preference is for standalone dictionary apps. (My order of preference, among those currently available: Collins Pro, New World, WordBook, Merriam Webster. I would go for the Oxford, but I'm put off by the word Concise in the title. If there were a NonConcise edition I would buy it.)
Galley said 4:03PM on 10-22-2008
WorldWiki Plus is a steal for 99 cents. Sure, it's nothing but a fancy front-end to the CIA World Factbook, but it's beats using Safari.
Reply
Fred said 4:28PM on 10-22-2008
Huh?
Capt. Bob said 4:36PM on 10-22-2008
I have the Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (It is not cheap at $69.95, but 36.8 MB gives you 2,662 pages minus the 12.5 lbs. of the paper version. It also works well with the iphone e-reader program. Highlight a word and you are instantly taken to the definition.
Reply
Keith said 9:27AM on 10-23-2008
Add my vote for Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. This is the big one, folks, the one that they kept on its own special wooden stand in the high school library when you were a kid. I have yet to look up a word that wasn't in it. Furthermore, most entries are lengthy and have lots of background information on word origin, examples of usage from famous texts, etc. I bought it for my Palm a while ago and transferred it to my iPod Touch. It's $69.95 from ereader.com, which is expensive compared to the free or nearly free options out there, but then my experience with these less comprehensive dictionaries is that most of the words they contain are the ones I already know. What good is a dictionary unless it contains those bizarre words that you encounter only once in a lifetime?
Bill Ferguson said 4:58PM on 10-22-2008
I'd prefer to have the OED, at about $10
Reply