My friend Jessica thought she was going to bust her daughter for playing on a smartphone when the girl was supposed to be studying spelling words. Instead, Abi explained “I wanted to hear how to pronounce this word,” and the phone said “Autumn.”
The 9-year-old explained to her mom that the Dictionary.com mobile app will speak words for you.
Abi’s story led me to check out dictionary applications for my smartphone, and I download the Merriam-Webster app, which offers similar features to the Dictionary.com app.
Here’s what you can do from your smartphone or iPad:
- Voice search for a word. The feature worked when I pronounced “downtown” with my best Pittsburgh accent, “dahn-tahn,” and successfully located “y’all.”
- Listen to the correct pronunciation of a word.
- Find synonyms for the words you look up.
- Learn a Word of the Day.
You don’t need an Internet connection to search words, but you may need one for some features, depending on the app. Free apps are available, or you can pay $2.99 for an ad-free version with premium features, such as illustrations.
With an app like that at your fingertips, you have no excuse for making a mistake with a word, even if you didn’t study your spelling words when you should have in elementary school.
What apps do you recommend?
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