As an IMPULSIVE REVIEW looks closely at a dictionary and thesaurus application called “WordWeb,†one can rejoice! A free App is available on the iPhone for the English major, professor, writer, or enthusiast who is on the move, and who is measuring life with coffee spoons, to paraphrase a line of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.â€
Though the Oxford English Dictionary and Thesaurus are considered by many scholars to be among the most comprehensive tools available on the vast earth, one can hardly fit these huge books into a pocket. O.E.D. is available in the App Store, but the price is harder on the frail pocket than the ripped jeans are after stuffing a 10-pound dictionary into them.
So we come back to “WordWeb†the ingenious App that is simple, easy to use, quick and free. You type in a word, click search and view myriad different meanings of the word and synonyms, as if it were found in a reference book. There is even a convenient function that can be clicked on to thumb up a list of recent words that have been looked up on “WordWeb.†Bravo!
Grade: A