Why does an ereader need a dictionary?

[taosaur]

Don't take nothing personal. We'll be here all week--try the veal!

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

...(so says my Mensa card)...

I belong to Sansa. Cost me $25

[DiapDealer]

Mensa... isn't that one of those flat-topped hills?

[mousy courage]

I think it's actually good to have a dictionary. My ereader doesn't really have one and I don't miss the function but that's because I'm used to not looking up words when I'm reading a physical, paper book. That and I tend to read cheap, contemporary books. Most of what I don't know I can use context clues to guess at. But yeah, a dictionary function is nice to have. Though most people probably don't really need it (I mean no one goes around carrying a dictionary with the book they're reading. But then, an ereader I would think, should not only emulate the reading experience and also enrich it. Otherwise what's the point of paying $100+ for an ereading device?)

[GraceKrispy]

I love that my new reader has a dictionary built in. I rarely use it, but it's a really nice added feature. If there is a word I don't know, I'll usually discern it from context (so as not to interrupt the flow of the story), and then later look it up to see how correct (or not) I was.

I didn't know ha-ha (since I guess it wasn't a hearty guffaw in that context) or quintain. And I'm ok with that! No need to quickly tell you all the words I do know. My interests don't fall in areas that would encourage my knowledge of those two words, but I'm always open to learning.

[Penforhire]

You guys are too funny. I'm responding in the OP's tone. But thanks for telling us what Mensa and the people who join it are all about. Tough room, lol. One of us is improving our vocabulary and the other... is not. That is the whole point of a built-in dictionary.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by taosaur

The substitution of two unrelated words complete with apostrophe was a typo? C'mon guy, we all have gaps in our vocab, and often fill in etymologies that seem about right but are very, very wrong. I once described myself as "scatological" in conversation, thinking it meant something along the lines of "jumping from topic to topic."

Go ahead, google that shit if you don't know it off the top of your head

I would love to know who you described yourself as scatological to, and what their reaction was!

[Astrakan]

Originally Posted by DMB

I tried using the Kindle dictionary look-up recently -- and it was totally useless! I was reading a novel written in the 1930s where a large chunk was a narrative by an elderly Scottish character... The dictionary didn't seem to have any of the Scots words at all. So I seriously doubt its efficacy for unfamiliar forms of English.

Did you change it from the American English dictionary to the British English? The Kindle comes with both, but Kindles sold in the U.S. have the American English as the default dictionary.

This is not to say the British one would've for sure had those words, but the odds are much better.

[ardeegee]

I use the dictionary on my 350 more than I thought I would before I had one, but it is far from a deal breaker on buying a reader without one. Often the words I try to look up aren't in the Sony's (English language) dictionaries anyway. I'd love to have a much better dictionary than what Sony includes.

[vxf]

Originally Posted by DMB

I note that in various discussions people refer to looking up words when reading. Me, I just read. I find in practice that I sometimes need a dictionary or thesaurus when writing, in order to find the mot juste. And then I am happy with my dt reference books. So I wonder why anyone needs to look up words so frequently as to interrupt their reading to do so and look words up in a dictionary in the reader. Of course, if you are reading in a language not your mother tongue, it's a different matter. There are always going to be words you're not sure of or have never even met. But if it's your own language and you are an adult, why the dictionary?

English is not my mother-tongue, so maybe I use the dictionary a lot because of that. But I have been in the US for 16 years, gained a BS, and MBA, an MS and a PhD - and I read a lot, for both work and pleasure. Yet, often enough, I don't know the meaning (often, I know it broadly, but not the exact nuance) of some words. I just finished a round of Rushdie's books (read the Enchantress of Florence, Midnight's Children and Shalimar the Clown over the past weeks) and I am not ashamed to say the dictionary came in handy.

And the touchscreen on SONY's is great for it. But you have tu sue the stylus with it, otherwise you risk tapping the wrong word (well, at least I do, with my chubby fingers).

I would venture further and say that having an easy-to-access dictionary is, to me, the biggest advantage of reading on an ebook.

[CommonReader]

The foreign language dictionaries of the Sonys are very useful and one of the main advantages of the Sony readers.

[djgreedo]

It's pretty simple.

An ereader's main function is to display words.
Words have meanings and uses.
Nobody knows every word and every usage.

also:
Ereaders are capable of storing a full dictionary without compromising other features.
It's a great selling point.
Some readers read in a 2nd language.
Some books use obscure words or usages.
A dictionary doesn't impact on a user who doesn't use it.

I find it hard to believe that anybody would not understand that a dictionary on an ebook reader is a no-brainer.

I get a fair amount of use out of mine from reading mythology books from the late 1800s and early 1900s (obscure words) and from reading scientific/academic books (technical terms).

An electronic dictionary is another way that ebooks are superior to paper books. If I need to look up a word there is less effort required. When reading a paper book on the bus I'm not going to be carrying a dictionary with me (or even get out my phone and do a search). On an ereader a definition is a few clicks away.

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by DMB

I note that in various discussions people refer to looking up words when reading. Me, I just read. I find in practice that I sometimes need a dictionary or thesaurus when writing, in order to find the mot juste. And then I am happy with my dt reference books. So I wonder why anyone needs to look up words so frequently as to interrupt their reading to do so and look words up in a dictionary in the reader. Of course, if you are reading in a language not your mother tongue, it's a different matter. There are always going to be words you're not sure of or have never even met. But if it's your own language and you are an adult, why the dictionary?

I read a lot of non-fiction. Sometimes, there's a word I'm just not familiar with, and it's important to the concept I'm reading about. And I don't find the Kindle's dictionary lookup interface so cumbersome that I really need to think about it much (especially the tablet version).

But I don't think it's a matter of need, necessarily. Your question, applied to cars, might sound something like, "Why does a car need a stereo?"

[jshzh]

I read in three languages. One foreign language (Russian) was my undergraduate major but after 10 years of not using it I forgot a lot. I need dictionaries to help me recall words I used to know. English is my second foreign language that I have advanced degrees in and use everyday now. I can't say I have "mastered" it at all. I know some jargon that native English speakers may not know but I do not know every word in Stephen King, which is considered light reading for entertainment. A good dictionary can also provide cultural background information. As to my native language, since I read much more ancient work written in classic Chinese, I would like to have a dictionary too. Fortunately, I can always find pdf books with annotations for that purpose. A perfect e-book reader for me should support custom dictionaries (pop-ups) in at least these three languages.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

I can see using a thesaurus while writing, if you are trying to write in a style not your own and want to convert the words you'd normally use to something else.

But a dictionary? That seems odd to me.

But dictionary while reading? To look up words they don't know. I seriously doubt most people know every single word in their native language. Beyond that, dictionaries are useful not just for definitions of words, but as a very simple Encyclopedia.

I was just reading a book that dealt with "Woolworth" paper. While I happened to be old enough to remember that Woolworth's was basically like Wal-Mart (cheap discount store) and thus the author presumably meant cheap, watermarkless paper, it might baffle a lot of people.

And for all I know, I might be wrong. Maybe it's a brand of paper in the UK. That's the other thing, English has at least 4 different types - American, British, Canadian, and Australian/New Zealand. While mostly we agree on names of objects, sometimes we have different ideas of what something is called. Good dictionaries will have meanings in different dialects.

I found an article from 1893 dealing with Dr.Woolworth's paper. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive...DA415B8385F0D3 Apparently he had a contract with the government to provide postcard paper but due to the inferior quality of his product he ran into problems. So it might not have anything to do with catalogs at all.