Why Dictionary Software?

Dictionary software is a reference tool for your computer desktop that will improve your writing skills, your vocabulary and reading comprehension. Good communication skills can make or break a deal, get you that job promotion and improve the way you express yourself.

It can assist with many projects like creative writing, professional proposals, academic papers, marketing, B2B communication and fun word games.

Many of these programs are much more than a dictionary; they allow you to search words through a number of methods. You can search by definition, find rhyming words and use advanced searches to limit your search by time period, origin and more. In addition, the dictionary will interact with your word processing, email and other applications making it easy to find definitions, synonyms and spell-check.

Dictionary software can provide more than just a definition-you’ll have access to phonetic symbols, audio pronunciations, illustrations, parts of speech vocabulary exercises and more.

In this site, you’ll find articles on dictionary software along with comprehensive reviews on dictionary software packages that include our top ranked products Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary & Thesaurus, Babylon 8.0+ and MasterWriter. The intent of the review is to help you make an informed decision on which product is best for you. At TopTenREVIEWS We Do the Research So You Don’t Have To.™

Dictionary Software: What to Look For

Dictionary software should be accessible at any time while you’re writing or reading. It ought to be easy and convenient to use and provide all of the information pertaining to words and language that you need to communicate and understand.

Below are the criteria TopTenREVIEWS used to evaluate dictionary software:

Feature Set
Dictionary software should have a number of practical features that will provide information on words and more. These features may include a thesaurus, parts of speech, audio pronunciations, illustrations and word origins.

Ease of Use
The programs should work alongside other programs so you can quickly find definitions of the words your reading or writing. The average person should feel confident in using the software regardless of their computer knowledge.

Search Capabilities
The best dictionary software will search entries using a number of different methods including: by clicking or dragging a word, entering the word in the search box, browsing the entries alphabetically and more.

Content
The dictionary should contain a large number of entries. The largest collection of words we found was over half a million.

Ease of Installation
The software should be easy to install and set up, not include adware and not cause run errors on your computer.

Help/Support
The manufacturer of the program should provide various ways to find answers to questions you have and teach you to use the software. This support may consist of FAQs, tutorials, an online form, email address and a phone number.

Be sure to look at our side-by-side comparisons on dictionary software.