Daily Dictionary: A New Word of the Day App

Today developer and writer Benjamin Mayo launched his latest iPhone app on the App Store: Daily Dictionary. From the app’s website:

One word every day. Words that you have known but long forgotten. And some that are entirely new.

Daily Dictionary is written by real people, not machines. No technical jargon or esoteric science terms. Just words you can use to improve your writing and expand your speaking vocabulary.

Get a word of the day with a push notification, lock screen widget, or ask Siri using iOS 12 Siri Shortcuts.

I’ve been testing Daily Dictionary over the last month, and it’s a beautiful app with a design language that feels like a preview in some ways of where Apple could take iOS in the future. There’s lots of big text, buttons that are easy to press, and gestural navigation of the app which works great one-handed. These things are all perfect fits for increasingly larger iPhones.

Regarding the app’s functionality, all it really does is provide a different interesting word each day, including pronunciation, definition, example sentence, and list of synonyms. But it does offer that word through a variety of means, which I appreciate: Siri shortcuts, notifications, or the app’s widget can all feed you each day’s word.

In many ways Daily Dictionary reminds me of ‘sodes, the podcast client by Jared Sinclair that I wrote about earlier this year. It’s light on features compared to competing apps, but its interface is a delight to use. And sometimes, a simple app that puts a smile on your face is all you need.

Daily Dictionary is available on the App Store.