iPhone App Review: WordDigest
May 15, 2009 by Jason Kaneshiro
The name says it all: WordDigest is a dictionary, thesaurus, and spell checker all contained in one handy app. Note: we have two free copies of this app to give away - see the bottom of this post for more details.
The Good
- Easy word look up via the search section. Get live results as you type, or use a letter column on the right side of the screen to scroll through the alphabet. Clicking on a word takes you to its definition in the dictionary, which boasts more than 147,000 words.
- Thorough word definitions, including pronunciation, word type, synonyms, hypernyms, and hyponyms, and even etymology (requires an Internet connection).
- A star in the upper right corner of each definition allows you to mark words as favorites so you can return to them later. Otherwise, there is a history of previous searches accessible via the “more” button.
- Spell check: type a word, press search, and the app provides you with likely spellings.
- A web section lets you look up words on Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and Answers.com.
The Bad
- Spell check could be better integrated with the search function - a misspelled word in the search area just results in a dead end.
- The spell check doesn’t provide results as you type.
- No audio. The free app Dictionary.com provides sound samples to help with pronunciation, making good use of the iPhone’s abilities.
Conclusion
WordDigest is a solid dictionary app with some useful, additional features. But if all you want is a basic dictionary, you’d do well to check out the free options first.
For a limited time, WordDigest is selling for $1.99 - regularly $3.99.
We have 2 free copies of WordDigest to give away. Just be one of the first two people to leave a comment, and I’ll email you the free promo code.
Hi, am i one of the first, i would love to have one for my iPhone for going on trips to england really soon!
This app looks pretty good. But I’m not sure if it compares to the free dictionary.com app… Why would someone pay for something that doesn’t seem to have as many features?
I didn’t see any other comments so I hope that I’m one of the 2. Thanks and have a great day.
I use the Dictionary App. It is good as a basic dictionary and free…