Which dictionary app? Gloss, next to seven others.
Each page says what the other app does better and what Gloss does that it does not. Prices and ratings were read from the App Store in October 2026.
The short version
Every dictionary app on this page will give you a definition. Most are free, most have ads, and the good ones are very good at being dictionaries. Gloss is smaller. It is the explanation you understand the first time, in the style you think in, and the one word a day you will still have next year.
Merriam-Webster and Oxford are the reference, every sense, offline. Cambridge is for learners, Dictionary.com is the free one most people know, Vocabulary.com and WordUp drill lists for a test, and Urban Dictionary has slang as people say it. Gloss is for understanding what you read and keeping it.
Gloss vs Merriam-Webster
Merriam-Webster is the reference. Gloss is the explanation.
Read the comparisonGloss vs Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com is the dictionary most people already know, free in the App Store, with Thesaurus.com inside it.
Read the comparisonGloss vs Vocabulary.com
Vocabulary.com is a learning machine: 50,000 word lists, adaptive questions, points and badges, built for people studying for a test.
Read the comparisonGloss vs Oxford Dictionary
The Oxford Dictionary & Thesaurus app, published by MobiSystems, carries the Oxford name and 18 Oxford dictionaries across several languages, downloadable for offline use.
Read the comparisonGloss vs WordUp
WordUp is ambitious: a knowledge map of the 25,000 most common English words, an AI tutor, celebrity chats, nine kinds of challenge.
Read the comparisonGloss vs Urban Dictionary
Urban Dictionary is where slang gets written down first, by whoever gets there first.
Read the comparisonGloss vs Cambridge Dictionary
The Cambridge English Dictionary app is a learner’s dictionary from Cambridge University Press: 140,000 words and phrases, British and American audio, offline.
Read the comparisonThe roundups
The best dictionary apps for iPhone · The best vocabulary apps · The best word of the day apps · Dictionary apps without ads
Something out of date? Prices and features change. Write to support@gloss.day and we will fix the page.