Free Windows 8 Offline Dictionary App: English Dictionary
English Dictionary is a free offline dictionary app for Windows 8 and 8.1 which allows you to easily look up words and their definitions even if you don’t have an active internet connection. The app’s size is somewhat heavy (at about 11 Mb), but it’s worth it as there are many places when you might want to look up the meaning of some word and might not have an internet connection. This app comes very handy in those situations. The app’s interface is kept to a bare minimum, with only the essential elements being there. But this does not mean that the app looks ugly, on the contrary, a minimal interface makes the app look very classy.
English Dictionary is available as a free download from the Windows App Store.
Main features of English Dictionary for Windows 8 and 8.1:
When you fire up the app upon its installation on your machine, you will be greeted with the main interface of the app. The main interface of the app can be seen below.
In the app’s main screen, you can easily look up words by searching in the word search bar at the top of the screen, and you will be able to see the words pop up in the pane as you type. You can then click on a matching word in the left pane to reveal its definition on the right side of the screen.
When a word’s definition is displayed at the pane on the right, you will also be able to hear its pronunciation by either clicking on the red loudspeaker button or by clicking on the loudspeaker button in the bottom control bar. At the top, you can see three panes, namely Recent, Favorite and Definition. In the definition pane, the definition of the word appears when you search for a word and click on it from the left pane. In the recent pane, your recently searched words will appear. In the Favorite pane, you will be able to see the words and their definitions which you have marked as favorites. To mark a word as favorite, simply search for a word, click on it to reveal its definition and click on the star button at the bottom of the screen to add it to the list of favorites. You can see that I have added Paranoia to the favorite list via the same procedure in the screenshot below.
You can also clear the words under the Recent or Favorite panes by clicking on the trashcan icon in the control bar under each of these panes. The other controls in the app allow you to copy the definition, or to reveal the settings of the app at the bottom right. You can see the Settings pane of the app shown below. Here, you can tweak the text style used to display the definitions and the language settings.
This winds up the main features of the English Dictionary app for Windows 8 and 8.1. You can also check out the Urban Dictionary Plus and the WordWeb dictionary apps for Windows 8.
The verdict:
English Dictionary is a well designed dictionary app for Windows 8 and 8.1 which has a huge strength to its arsenal – the offline mode! It really beats all the dictionary apps on the store due to this strength, and this makes for a great download for all Windows 8 and 8.1 devices. You should definitely give it a shot!
I rate the app a 4 out of 5!
Get English Dictionary.