This is one the applications on my mobile that I frequently use. Every writer should have a dictionary app on their phone and there is no excuse not to as there are loads of free options to download. The version I have is by Dictionary.com. This was the website I generally used before when working at my PC but now I have the site with me when I am on the go. My app is on the iPhone but I just checked their website and it is now available for iPad and Android mobiles too.
Word Search
On my bookshelf I do have a dictionary and a thesaurus but I must admit I lazily enjoy just tapping my phone and typing a search word in to find what I'm looking for, rather than going upstairs to retrieve a large book and flicking through pages. I like that the app remembers all the words I've previously looked up in the past where as with a manual book, I'd have to fold down a page and I hate doing that.
In addition, you can save your Favourite words and you can retrieve your list at the click of a button (profluent, pachyderm, paramour) and if you want to check the meaning of a word on your list just tap it.
You can check "Trends" to see what words other people are searching on today (meta, diocese, postpone), the overall most popular words searched for (decorum, egregious, austerity). You should be able to see what people nearby are searching on. For some reason the app thinks I'm in Oakland, USA which I'm sure is a lovely place but I'm nowhere near there - I feel like a ninja that's dropped off their radar, he he.
Articles
Every day, I get an alert for 'Word of the Day'. The little prompt helps increase your vocabulary and consider words you've forgotten on never knew about. The words can prompt your imagination, for example, today's word is Matrilineal (inheriting or determining descent through the female line) which has got me thinking about a world where procreation has became a problem and wars break out to protect fertile women, treated like goddesses, caused by the break out of a matrilineal virus. I'm not sure why but there is always a 'Spanish Word of the Day' too.
The app has a sporadic article (appears roughly every other day). Today's article is about the meanings behind flowers. The articles are varied, informative and always well written. You can read back past articles too. There is a daily questions "What is the origin of grinder, as in sandwich?" and then the answer. The daily questions are usually about where words or phrases have originated from.
Thesaurus
At the top of each page, you can switch to thesaurus and get a choice of other words and then you can switch back to dictionary to check their meaning is what you want.
Links
http://dictionary.reference.com/
