It's very stupid, but I check dictionary definitions in an incognito window because I'm horrified of someday people coming across my browser history and thinking "Wow, he didn't know the definition of that?! What an idiot!" The idea of a dictionary that tracks my searches horrifies me in a silly way. Ha!

I look up words for which I already know the primary definition all the time. Sometimes it's just to confirm that it doesn't mean something subtly different than I remember. Sometimes it's to find alternate/secondary uses. Sometimes it's to confirm spelling. Sometimes it's a jumping off point for synonyms or related words. I wouldn't assume you were totally unfamiliar with a word just because you looked it up.

I’m amazed how often I “know” the primary definition, only to discover I’m wrong when I look in a dictionary. Same with pronunciation of words I’ve only seen written.

> Same with pronunciation of words I’ve only seen written.

I had the opposite experience when visiting the US for the first time. I saw a bag of 'luh-too-ché' in the store. For about 10 second my mind was wondering what it was. Then I realized that the word that is (to my Dutch brain) pronounced as 'ledice' is not spelled that way, it's spelled 'lettuce'. I came to the US with C2 level proficiency (thanks to subtitled media and MMORPGs), but I still had a lot to learn!

I do this all the time to look up pronunciations. I'm interested in linguistics so I taught myself IPA, and with things like stress being pretty unpredictable in English, while I might know the meaning of a word I like to make sure I'm pronouncing it correctly

Honestly, 99% of the time that's what I'm doing too. I'm pretty sure I'm using it correctly, but want to double-check before embarrassing myself in front of all of 10 people still on Twitter.

Looking up words is not stupid. Misusing words because you assume you know what they mean, that is stupid.

> Misusing words because you assume you know what they mean, that is stupid.

But if you're sure you know what it means (albeit incorrectly), because that's what you've picked up or been taught and no-one has ever corrected or queried you, where would the impetus to look it up in a dictionary come from?

You might have a case for "deliberately misusing words [...] is stupid" but there's a long comedic and literary tradition there...

Isn't simple curiosity enough of an impetus? Wanting to now the etymology, alternative or similar words or phrases?

I also think there is a shared sense of how fancy, big or difficult a word or phrase is considered. Look up the fancier words more often!

Another possibility of course is wanting to correct somebody else, but double checking the definition just to be sure before you do!

I suppose you could look at it that way. I certainly did, and it has taken me a very (stupid) long time come to a slightly different understanding. Not saying it is better necessarily. I just find it closer to true more of the time in my life.

Misusing words may or may not be stupid—without more information, including some nebulous stuff about intent and interpretation, I have no way of saying for sure in a given encounter.

What I would say instead is that many people seem to see “misuses words because [cocky/pretentious/know-it-all/careless]” as a heuristic for stupid. It isn’t a great heuristic, but knowing that people use it to rank you and choosing speech accordingly…isn’t stupid.

I think this is also a mechanism for languages to evolve: for whatever reason people start using a word differently from the dictionary definition. After a while if it has enough support the new usage gets added in. Sometimes the new way can be so entrenched that the old definition becomes archaic.

> Looking up words is not stupid.

That's for the ML algorithms to decide.

I look up words all the time. Etymology is fun. I use several languages though, so I often get confused about nuances and subtleties.

Consider this very popular hn link: http://jsomers.net/blog/dictionary it gets posted once a year at least and strongly recommends looking up words you already know.

I also do that but when I know I won't come back later for it. I use my history as shortcuts, so I avoid cluttering it with random word lookups.

I look up everything in an incognito window!

But for dictionary/thesaurus I usually use spotlight to access MacOS' built-in resources, which is faster.

Me too, it’s the most low-key killer feature of the OS imo. I use it automatically just to check my assumptions most most of the time; it’s just so easy and easily ingrained.

hey dictionary, what is cat?

Somewhat related: https://xkcd.com/1053/

Excellent work, just downloaded it, thanks.

Apps that work offline are my favourite as even though I have 4g and wifi, these connections can sometimes be slow or just down and it’s sad seeing apps just not work in those scenarios.

Edit: I know you said it’s not finished, but that website is impressively broken!

Fantastic tool, thank you! Any chance you could include usage in a sentence for each word? As a non-native speaker, sometimes it is not obvious from the description on how the word is typically used.

> Great confirmation of the unmet need in the space.

Hmmm, I've been using a dictionary app for years that is offline, ad-free, remembers words you look up, and has a word of the day feature. Also has favorites and you can add personal notes on entries. It's also free. It's based on Wictionary. I use the ones for Spanish and Portuguese but I think they have versions for many languages. The name is fairly generic "Spanish Dictionary - Offline" by Livio.

Those dictionaries are fantastic, I've also been using them for years.

Adding to the long list of features,... full verb conjugation tables and audio for most words.

App looks amazing, I didn't know I wanted this but can see myself using it a ton now that I do.

By the way, you may be aware but there's a typo in the iOS app in the "Your Words" tab when your list is empty.

> You can swipe words off your list later if [you] add a word you'd rather not see.

I love it, it definitevely cover and unmet need, as a no native english speaker it is important to me to keep track of words that I have looked up, thank you, please let us know when it is available in android.

Great list of features! I was thinking of building exactly the same app few years ago. So agree with your statement that it is all verification of “unmet need in the space”

Your website is horrifically mangled on my iPhone 12 Pro iOS v15.5

https://i.imgur.com/hXriy52.gif

Yeah, mobile is brutal right now. The website is incomplete by every measure and i've been experimenting with a dekstop concept so far. I'll post a proper Show HN this week once the website is complete and i am on the play store!

Just what I wanted for years but gave up and wrote words on pieces of paper that eventually get lost.

Great execution, thanks for sharing it with the world

I've also tracked a lot of words I have needed to look up, but made little posts out of the interesting ones. Of course, I immediately forget all these definitions, but that just makes it fun to go back through them.

https://coldewey.cc/tag/vocabulary/

Sorting the definitions by length is a nice touch. What's with the different 'editions'? I thought that they were grouped by perhaps subject or book, but can't figure out what for instance WRITHEN SHINE EDITION exactly represents.

loooks good when in google play?

Why does Apple App Store say your app is 4 years old if you just released it this past week?

Same goes for the OP?

That is the App Store's age rating, not the actual age of the app.

Nice try being cheeky.