Make Yourself into a Word-Wizard with Blends – iPad App Review
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Describing itself as a fun word browser, Blends is basically a dictionary but with a few extra features that make it more fun and useful to work with than the usual reference app. Begin by entering a word while the built-in search engine locates it in real-time and lets you select the correct choice from the list that reflects what you were wanting to find.
This app is based on the Princeton University WordNet Project and is delivered with a library of over 147,000 words which makes it a very thorough and thoughtful guide.
As my first test, I looked for the word ‘apple’. This brought up the single word as a direct match but also suggested phrases like ‘apple fritter’ and ‘apple jelly’. Selecting those phrases gives a definition for the words as they are defined when grouped together. I can see how this would be very helpful when trying to understand contextual meanings of things.
For instance, when you select the ‘apple of discord’ phrase you will learn that it is from classical mythology and describes an apple having been thrown into a banquet of the gods by Eris. This entire story is significantly different than if you were to look up the words ‘apple’ and ‘discord’ separately.
What I liked: Each entry contains relevant hyperlinks to other terms, synonyms, antonyms, hypernyms and hyponyms.
What I didn’t like: Even though this is a very simple app to work with it would be nice to have a brief instruction of some sort shown when the app is opened suggesting you begin by searching for a word.
To buy or not to buy: Writers would enjoy this app but I also think it could be very useful for a younger audience that may benefit from learning the contextual meanings of the various included phrases.
- App Name: Blends
- Version Reviewed: 1.1
- Category: Reference
- Developer: Fizzy Potion
- Price: $1.99
- Score:
