What Does Lexicalisation Mean? Find Out With Blends
Blends ($1.99) by Fizzy Potion is a universal word browser for the english language. “Word browser” sounds suspiciously like a dictionary, and at its core, Blends is indeed a dictionary app.
Right about now I’m sure you’re wondering why anyone would pay $1.99 for a dictionary app when there are so many available for free. Typical dictionary apps and websites like dictionary.com may deliver word definitions, but they don’t do it with flair.
Blends has a simple but functional user interface, consisting of a search bar on the left side of the screen with the word definition presented on the right side of the screen, in an easy to read font.
Words don’t need to be typed in their entirety, as the app will suggest a completed set of words when you enter just a few letters. For example, entering “ausp” for auspicious nets me the word I’m looking for, plus others like auspex, auspicate, and auspice. This is a nice format for exploring various words, and I do have a tendency to enjoy reading other word definitions after I’ve found what I’m looking for.
The app provides a definition, a word origin, synonyms, hypernyms, and antonyms for words (if the word has them). The given definitions and information come from the Princeton WordNet project, which the app is based on.
The WordNet project is a database of English nouns, verbs, and adjectives that are grouped into cognitive synonyms expressing a clear concept. What does that mean? Essentially, it is a dictionary and a thesaurus in one, but it has improved upon the traditional interpretation of those terms by adding in the idea of semantic relationships between words.
The addition of hypernyms is particularly useful for those of you who regularly access a thesaurus because it gives choices that would not show up in a traditional thesaurus.
WordNet is available for free using an Internet browser, but Blends is still the better choice because WordNet is often slow to load and does not have a decent user interface.
Blends also provides the ability to bookmark favorite words for later reference, which is a nice feature. Overall, this is a quick, easy to use word app that is well worth the purchase if you are a frequent dictionary and thesaurus user.
