How To Access the Dictionary On Your iPhone

There is a Dictionary built in to your iPhone. Several in fact. But you won't find a separate app to access them. Instead, you can use text selection, Spotlight search or Siri to access the definitions. You can also search the web or get a dedicated third-party dictionary app.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let's take a look at accessing the dictionary built into your iPhone.
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So did you know when you carry your iPhone around you're also carrying around a whole dictionary. Perhaps several of them. There's a dictionary built into your iPhone. But unfortunately there's no dictionary app. You can't just launch an app and look up a word. But there are several ways to access all the definitions that are stored in your iPhone. There are a few other ways to access dictionary definitions as well. 
So first let's start off with the most obvious way to get to a dictionary definition. If you're in an app, like here in Safari, and you see a word and you want to get a definition for it you simply select it and then look for Look Up. If you don't see it in the first set of commands you can always use the arrows there to move around to see more. Use Look Up it will look up the word. It will actually do lots of different things. Like give you suggested websites, Siri knowledge, all sorts of things. The dictionary definition won't always be the very first one. It depends on the word. In this case the Thesaurus is first and then the Dictionary. You could tap on either one and you get the full dictionary definition in this case. So you could read about it. You get the pronunciation at the top. You get example phrases, origin, the works. Yes, you also get a Thesaurus in a lot of cases. You can see other words that you could use instead. This is useful if you're writing. In fact, you can use this in any app where you write as well. So here I am in the Notes App but this would work in any other app like Pages or when writing an email in the Mail App, or even in third party apps where you write text. You can select the text that you just wrote and you could see, in this case, I need to go over to the next set of Commands and I could use Look Up and I get the same thing here. There's the Thesaurus, there's the Dictionary, and that would be full dictionary treatment.
Now if you want to look up a word without typing it first you could do so using Spotlight Search. So just from the Home screen or in many other locations you can swipe down from the middle and you're in Spotlight Search where you can search for all sorts of things like apps and such. But you can also type a word here. If you don't see a dictionary definition appear tap Show More Results. Then if you scroll down enough you usually should find the dictionary definition somewhere. You could even tap Show More here and you'll get Thesaurus and Dictionary in this section. Then you could go and get the dictionary definition for the word without ever having to type it or go into an app at all.
Of course you could also ask Siri. If you ask Siri to define something then you could go right to a definition and you won't get all those other suggestions, usually. Siri is also really useful when you don't know how to spell a word and you're using the dictionary to learn how to spell it or you want the definition but you still don't know how to spell the word. Define hypothesis. Siri's response is Hypothesis - a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence is a starting point for further investigation. Not only do you get a definition on the screen but Siri will speak it. So it could be really useful if you don't actually have your phone out, like you've got your AirPods in or something. 
Now there are some settings for Dictionary even though there's no App. So go to the Settings App, and then it's under General. Go down to Dictionary and then here you'll get to select which dictionaries are included. So you saw how the Thesaurus is always there. If I don't want to see that I could turn that Off really easily. Also a dictionary of computer terms having to do with Apple is included in this Apple Dictionary. You could have that On or Off. There's a ton of other dictionaries in other languages. Some of them translating from one language to another, some of them just showing definitions in that language. 
Now, of course, you're not restricted to using the dictionary that's built-in. Just about any Search Engine has a dictionary built into it. So you could search using your default search engine. So it says Goggle. Then you usually get the dictionary definition when you're just searching for a word. But it really does work in any search engine. So, for instance, if I were to use DuckDuckGo instead I could search for a word there and I'll get a dictionary definition as well. 
Now if you really do want to get a dedicated app with a dictionary in it you can. Some of the major dictionaries have apps in The App Store. So, for instance, here's Merriam- Webster. Here's Oxford, and there are several others. So you can download one that you like. Here's the Webster dictionary I have on my iPhone. It has a free version with ads or you can subscribe. Other dictionaries will have different setups. So you could look up a word. You get its definition. It will even allow you to tap on words inside the definition to jump to another definition. You could speak the word instead of typing it if you don't know how to spell it. Supposition. So different apps are going to have different features but you can just look in The App Store and see which one you like best. 
Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 2 Responses to “How To Access the Dictionary On Your iPhone”

Bruce Cornett

3 years ago

Great post, Gary, thanks! Another dictionary related thing that throws me for a loop is how my iPad and iPhone will memorize some typo that I’ve made in the past, and I can’t seem to get it to forget the misspelling. I’ve played around trying to fix this, including with setting up shortcuts, but without success. Maybe you could do a related post on this issue and potential fixes sometime.

Gary Rosenzweig

Bruce: In iOS 15: Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPhone, Reset, then choose Reset Keyboard Dictionary.

Comments Closed.

How To Access the Dictionary On Your iPhone

Comments: 2 Responses to “How To Access the Dictionary On Your iPhone”

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