How to access the built-in dictionary for iphone?

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ayiti2015 Author

Level 1

6 points

How to access the built-in dictionary for iphone?

i want to access the iphone 4 built-in dictionary. i have the current operating system installed, and i have enabled and downloaded the new oxford american english dictionary and the apple dictionary. to avoid ANY confusion with my post, i do not have a problem accessing the dictionary when selecting a typed word. what i mean by 'access the built-in dictionary' is that i want to be able to type words in and look them up in the built-in dictionary. i want that functionality only. i do not want to go thru ibooks (as i've seen posted elsewhere), i do not want to download a separate app, and i do not want to open other apps just to type words and look them up. none of these alternatives are acceptable to me; since the iphone has an internal dictionary, all users should be able to access and use it like any other app, and i don't give a **** about encouraging people to buy dedicated dicitonary apps when there is one already in the phone. i want to access and use the native/internal dictionary such that i can freely type in new words from within the dictionary app, and i want to be able to do this offline. i have been frustrated with this for over a year--please, someone tell me i am doing something wrong and can easily access the functionality i am describing.

iPhone 4 (8GB), iOS 7.0.4

Posted on Jan 19, 2014 4:54 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 19, 2017 12:44 AM in response to ayiti2015

Switching To Mac

iPhone – How to Add Words to the Dictionary

I just upgraded to iOS 5 on my iPhone 4S and I wanted to add a few words to the dictionary since I am always texting in two languages, English and Hindi. Obviously, the dictionary has no Hindi words, so it’s a royal pain when it tries to autocorrect everything that I type in that language, which is usually a few words here and there.

If you have a similar issue with language or just plain like to use a word that is not in the English dictionary, then you can easily add it to the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch so that it does not try to autocorrect the phrase when you type it in. Note that this is just a setting in iOS 5 and you can add as many new words or phrases as you like to the dictionary.

To get started, go to Settings

and then General. Scroll down to Keyboard and then you’ll see a section called Shortcutsand an option to Add New Shortcut.

When you click on Add New Shortcut, you will see two boxes, one for Phrase

and one for Shortcut. This screen basically has two functions: adding new words to the dictionary, which is just adding a new phrase without a shortcut and adding an entire phrase to the Phrase box and then adding a shortcut so that you could type the letters “omg” and it would auto-expand to “oh my god” if you really wanted too.

In the above screenshot, I added the word “jaldi”, which is Hindi for fast. I will leave the shortcut field blank since I want to add it as a new word and not an auto-exanding phrase. Now when I go to send a message to someone, it will no longer put the red line underneath the word.

Note that this will work anywhere you can type text, so it can be in the messages app, Mail app, any AppStore app, etc, which is really cool. Also, now that’s it a word in the dictionary, if you misspell it slightly, it will try to autocorrect to the new word you just added!

One thing I noticed through was that after adding the words to the dictionary, I had to turn off my phone and turn it back on in order for it to register the new words. Enjoy!

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Answer 2

ckuan

Level 10

120,680 points

Jan 19, 2014 4:57 PM in response to ayiti2015

You cannot extend the internal dictionary.

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Answer 3

ayiti2015 Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 19, 2014 4:58 PM in response to ckuan

what do you mean by 'extend?' what does it mean to 'extend the internal dictionary?'

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Answer 4

ckuan

Level 10

120,680 points

Jan 19, 2014 5:10 PM in response to ayiti2015

what i mean by 'access the built-in dictionary' is that i want to be able to type words in and look them up in the built-in dictionary. i want that functionality only

That's exending the functionality, there's no option to interact directly.

If you do not want download a separated app, there's no way to do that.

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Answer 5

Feb 5, 2014 6:19 AM in response to ayiti2015

Just Type in any field then press hold to those words then select a pop up will appear then select Define. thats it, your built in dictionary shoould appear right in front of you. hope this help

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