Dictionary - Merriam-Webster

A Google user

4 years ago

Holy cow, intrusive ads. I'm looking up a definition in this app when my phone starts taking to me: " Swipe up now to install the Grammerly Keyboard!" It keeps saying this repeatedly. I notice a X next to a tiny ad on the bottom of my screen. Clicking the X doesn't close the ad. "Swipe up now to install the Grammerly Keyboard" repeats 10 more times with me trying the close the ad before i give up and decide to uninstall this nonsense from my phone forever.

Dan Kubus

3 years ago

A good app. I can often look up definitions on demand. While it hasn't done so often, it has increasingly often interrupted my searches with intrusive ads. This is problematic when I need a definition in a rush. Attempting to back out of the ad does no good. I must instead close and reopen the app and search for my word again. I uninstalled when this scenario became too frequent.

Trina Byrd

4 years ago

So, I didn't mind the adds before. But the new ads that get stuck on the screen and the timed ads are getting to be too much. I'm editing work for school and can't get past these ads without closing the app and restarting and I have to keep pausing when looking things up because ads keep popping up more frequently than they did before. In search of a new dictionary app.

Kelly Tobin

3 years ago

Living with limited dexterity, I find it extremely frustrating that accidentally tapping words, even those not underlined, immediately refreshes the page to a new definition. So, in the gratifying process of expanding my vocabulary, I suddenly find myself looking at the definition of an article or a preposition, for ex. I would pay to use the app apart from a glitchy behavior that renders the app inaccessible to me. My touchscreen sensitivity settings are otherwise appropriate.

A Google user

5 years ago

Y'know, I've seen quite a few bad reviews complaining about new updates and the ads and all that, and I wonder why people don't think about the good! So, let's focus on the good! The definitions of the words are concise, easy to understand and everything is pretty clear! The Word of the Day and quizzes are enlightening, and the Dictionary gives writers and readers alike the tools to enjoy literature! It's a really awesome app that makes things easy to navigate.

A Google user

6 years ago

I think this app is below mediocre. The words should include quick links at the top to go to the definitions. For example, a word like "record" should have links for the noun definition and the verb definition so scrolling to find it is minimized. Also, there should be an option to have IPA pronunciations. It is unfair and disappointing that only the current word of the day can be viewed. Finally, the words on the favorites list should be able to be viewed one after the other instead of needing to press the button to click the list. There should also be a feature to manually edit the order as well as automatic sorts such as alphabetical, recently viewed, and last added.

Nelda Barbosa

4 years ago

Too many ads now that don't allow you close them. I've had this app for years but I won't put up with this anymore. I didn't mind the occasional ad because it was a free app and I could close the ads when they ended, but now I have to force close the app and reopen it every time one pops up. Im lucky if can I read the definition of a second entry before an ad pops up that I can't close, even though it has timed out.

A Google user

5 years ago

This app is pretty good. Ironically or not, it's better to run it without data/Wi-Fi because the dictionary entries load much faster that way. I love that this works offline, but it's annoying that I have to turn off the internet to get it to load entries in a reasonable amount of time. I wish that the entries gave more detailed etymology information. I like that I can save words, although I haven't reviewed them yet to verify the saving works.

Jared Heersema

4 years ago

I love the app's content, but the ads are a major problem. The ad content has always been intrusive, and the way the pop-up ads load has caused me to tap into an ad inadvertently on multiple occasions. However, this problem has only been made worse by the latest update, which introduced an ad for Current that cannot be closed and requires stopping the app and reopening it. This is an unacceptable problem and needs to be fixed immediately.

Daniel Katona

2 years ago

A dictionary app is a great tool, and MW's pedigree is undeniable. However, words often do not show up in the app, but do when viewed on the MW site in browser. The touch feature (allowing user to tap almost any word on screen and link to its definition), while potentially very handy, is WAY too sensitive, making the simple act of scrolling up or down a nightmare. The app is structured in a way that is intuitive, but it needs a lot of tweaking.

A Google user

5 years ago

I've had this app for about five years now. When I first got the app, the ads were unobtrusive, and it loaded searches very quickly. It's been steadily downhill ever since. Ads now pop up and cover the whole screen, and it takes significantly longer to load definitions and searches, especially compared to how it used to be near-instantaneous. Very disappointing.

Arthur Cole

2 years ago

This is better than the other dictionary apps. This app lets you slide left and right to review words that you have recently looked at, which is very convenient. There's a button at the bottom to swap between dictionary and thesaurus. My main issue with the app is the homescreen/splash page. If you tap the back button, it doesn't go to your last word. It goes to the main screen. To access the words you were viewing, you have to open the menu and go to dictionary. It's an awkward GUI choice.

Nikita Eremeev

4 years ago

The ads are invasive, but the worst is the ui. Pressing back doesn't go to your previously searched word when you inevitably hit another word in the definition of the one you actually want, no that'd be too obvious. Instead pressing back takes you to the home screen. Many little niggles throughout, and it doesn't preload a dictionary. I'll stick to internet searches, thanks.

Joseph Edgar

10 months ago

It's actually impressive in a way that this company was able to take something so incredibly straightforward (a dictionary) and make it ridiculously annoying and difficult to use. The ads are intrusive and repetitive (and for some reason in spanish) and the fact that nearly every word on every page is hyperlinked with no return button makes reading entries feel like a minefield. Just finding a word and scrolling down through the definition is a struggle.

Lew Worthington

11 months ago

The app is ok, but the subscription process is deceptive. After subscribing (which apparently is their dictionary 'lite', which I didn't know because it didn't communicate that), the first word I looked up to check etymology was gibbus, which shows up in the list. I click the word and it's not in the dictionary, but I can pay AGAIN to get words that should already have been in the dictionary in the first place. Plus, no CS contact.

Rick Muniz

11 months ago

The UI is terrible and makes the app extremely frustrating to use. To scroll up/down on a page, you must very consciously only touch white space because there are so many hyperlinked words. If you accidentally touch a hyperlink it takes you to that word's page. Pressing the back button takes you to the home page, not back to the previous word, so now you have to search the word all over again. For words with long entries, this sequence can happen multiple times as you scroll the page.

Koleton Jenkins

9 months ago

Great app for learning and defining words. It certainly helps broaden your vocabulary. My only complaint is that it has no way of learning these words. The vocabulary games are fun, but it would be immaculately more useful if we could do these games with our bookmarked words! This is so we can help polish our words and help us integrate them into our heads. It is overall a great app and easy to work with