Best offline dictionary for android in 2018

In terms of clarity & offline features

Oxford dictionary of english 

 

It is free for online usage but you have to pay to download offline database. It claims it has more than 3,50,000 words, phrases & meanings. It has clear and lucid definition, offline pronunciation (Mostly british accent) for most of the ‘common’ words {around 75000 words}, phrasal verbs and proverbs. It also tells you origin of the word and lets you see definitions directly just by touching them (all words are supported). It has good amount of offline examples so that you could understand the meaning of a word more clearly.


Features~

• Offline pronunciation of 75,000 words.

• Search autocomplete helps you find words quickly by displaying predictions as you type
• Keyword lookup allows you to search within compound words and phrases
• Looking for a specific word but don't know how it's spelled? Its automatic ‘Fuzzy filter’  correct word spelling, as well as ‘Wild card’ ('*' or '?') to replace a letter or entire parts of a word
• Camera search looks up words in the camera viewfinder and displays results in seconds
• Use Voice search when you don't know how an entry is spelled
• Tap to Translate entries in other apps.

Words It didn't find:

1) Abluto- phobia/ mania/ philia

2) Cherophobia

3) blair (lists only one definition Tony blair but it also means surname, a male/ female givem name).

4) Paleologism

5) Mononym

6) Normophilia

7) teleiophilia

8) Agalmatophilia

9) Risorial & risorius

10) Melioration (Lists only ameliorate, does not lists one definition that relates to semantics, If you are using 2017's version It will be listed).
11) Pluviophile

12) Chevelure

Pros:

1) Lucid explanations

2) More offline examples.

3) Offline idioms, phrases, proverbs & pronunciation.

4) Good UI.

Cons:

1) Large database download size (120+ MB) 

2) App takes up more space (144 MB)

3) Less words compared to dictionary.com & dictionary by livio.

4) Voice search is not available for android 4.4.

5) camera search feature is difficult to execute (you have to focus the camera on word well).

If you like online features & a good UI (user interface)

Dictionary.com premium

It lists out more definitions of some words but definitions are difficult to grasp than oxford dictionary. Also, when offline, you get less example sentences . You can compensate for these two by going online and sliding across and tapping onto learners & examples respectively. If you are reading the definition of a particular word and did not understand a particular word in that definition E.g., the word ‘inhibits' in sample picture above, you can click on it the definition will open up but not all words can be looked up by this way, for some words you have to type in manually (clicking them won’t do anything!).

Features~

Word of the day- This feature will show you new words every day but you need to connect to the internet once, after that it will show you today's word of the day on home page (the first page that appears when you open the dictionary.com app) and past 30 days word of the day as well as todays' (total 31 words) as you tap word of the day button in sidebar.

Good thing-

♡ As this feature is online you get better words than offline random words.

Bad thing-

× If you want new word you need connect to the internet daily.


Thesaurus searching-

You can switch between a dictionary or thesaurus dictionary by tapping the toggle button. This feature allows you to directly search a word's meaning or its synonym/ antonym (thesaurus dictionary). 

These are the bells & whistles (online):

•  Encyclopedia
• 
 Example Sentences
• 
 Idioms and Phrases
•  Encyclopedia
•  Slang & Rhyming Dictionary
• 
 Medical & Science dictionary
• Etymology: look up the origins of even the strangest English words.
• Grammar & tips
• Science dictionary
• Search by speaking
• Trending words

You also get various online articles like fun language facts, weird etymology, language in the wild and about other linguistic topics, the topics have changed from 2017's  which I don't like.

Offline pronunciation is not available, you need to be connected to internet for hearing the pronunciation of a particular word.

Words It didn't find-

1) Abluto- mania/ phobia/ philia
2) cherophobia
3) paleologism
4) Mononym
5) blairite
6)babymoon
7) agalmatophilia
8)normophilia
9) teleiophilia
10) risorial & risorius
11) Pluviophile
Pros: 

1) More Features.

2) Good UI.

3) Lists more definitions of some words.

Cons:

1) In order to use it offline, you have to download Offline database of 181.4 Mb (After downloading, the database get optimised about 22% and takes up somewhat less space {data 140 MB} ).

2) App takes up about 160 Mb space (varies with device) on device.

3)Less example sentences when offline.

4) No proverbs

5) voice search didn't worked for me on android 4.4.4.

6) online pronunciations.

If you prefer more words and small size: 

English dictionary by Livio

This dictionary is based on wikitionary and is free. User interface is not good, as you can see, However, you can change the font and background colour. Definition are more difficult to grasp than ‘oxford’ or ‘dictionary.com’ and its examples uses complex (i.e., hard) sentences, so you will have to scratch your head guessing the meaning of the sentence.

It supports offline pronunciation (any accent (british/ indian/ american and so on, which you have downloaded in google text to speech and choosen in dictionary’s settings) of words by using google text-to-speech and is 33 Mb in size (varies with device). But has more offline words than any offline dictionary! Moreover, it is Ad-free. If you are reading the definition of a particular word and did not understand a particular word in that definition E.g., the word ‘Scruple’ in sample picture below, you can click on it and definitions will open but only words that are linked (coloured differently like the ones that have yellow colour above ) . As you can see fewer words are linked up, For others you have to type them up, which can be boring as well tedious.

Features~

• Random words & words of the day (offline).
• Search autocomplete.
• Recent words (the words that you have recently typed in), bookmarks & Notes.
• Offline pronunciation using google text-to-speech.

Words It didn't find-

1) risorgimento

Pros:

1) More words than other offline dictionaries.

2)  Small app download size (30 Mb) and you don't have to download database.

3) Takes up less space.

4) free (both cost & AD-wise)

Cons:

1) UI is not good.

2) Definitions & particularly examples are difficult to grasp.

3) Dosen't pack much features.

4)  Doesn't pack much phrases & idioms and have no proverbs.

Conclusion: English dictionary by livio & dictionary.com has got 2018 database update whereas oxford dictionary has only 2017 database update and in new version it has reduced some word definitions like in melioration to reduce its size. However, If you are ready to google some words then the oxford dictionary can be a good choice as it is lucid, have idioms & proverbs, more offline examples & offline pronunciation.

[Afterword:  I have only chosen those 'sample' words (words that these dictionaries didn't find) that have been found in at least one dictionary out of these (some words were not found in any of these dictionaries) to facilitate comparison. There may be others but you will get the same 'ranking' as here. I have tested 11 dictionaries on playstore including Merriam, wordweb, farlex & U & chosen the best out of them  ].