Install Any OS X Dictionary on iOS with Dictionary.appender

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Apple included essentially a perfect copy of Dictionary.app from iOS X in iOS 7, one that lets you download new Apple dictionaries from the cloud and can show definitions from multiple dictionaries at once. The only downside compared to the Mac was that you couldn’t install your own dictionaries.

Of all crazy things, that gap has now been filled thanks to the free Dictionary.appender app. It lets you install any .dictionary file from your Mac as a new dictionary on your iPhone or iPad, one that’ll show up in your iOS dictionary inside any app. With iOS’ well-known sandboxing limitations, it seems impossible that it really works — and yet it does.

Here’s how it works: you can download a number of built-in dictionaries and install them from the app (mainly Wikitionary dictionaries that didn’t tend to be that great in my tests), or you can copy any Mac .dictionary file over from your Mac to the app via iTunes (and you can find all of your installed dictionaries at /Library/Dictionaries/ on your Mac). Once there, open the app, select the dictionary you added, and install it. There’s one odd thing: your iOS device will have to be connected to your computer while installing a dictionary, whether one you download from the app or one you copied from your computer — I have no idea why, and hope they can remove that little limitation in the future. Either way, a few seconds later you’ll have a new dictionary installed on your Mac.

Now, go open any other app, select a word and hit define. Voila — you’ll see definitions from your new dictionary right along with definitions you’d get from the preinstalled dictionaries. What’s more, you can even manage the newly installed dictionaries and remove them right from the quasi-Dictionary.app in iOS without opening the Dictionary.appender app again. It’s full, fast, and complete dictionary integration, just like installing an extra dictionary in OS X. There’s suddenly no reason ever to have another 3rd party dictionary app installed on your iOS device

It’d seem like Dictionary.appender must have just flown under Apple’s radar, and that it’d be removed from the App Store if they noticed what it could do — and yet, it’s been in the App Store since May, with a new major iOS 7 redesign just added this month. I’m hoping that means it’ll stay.

So if you’ve ever wanted another dictionary on your iPhone — I’ve wanted a Thai/English dictionary integrated in mine for forever — then go download Dictionary.appender and install the dictionaries you want. Prepare to like your iPhone a bit more than you did before you read this.

Now, someone just needs to figure out how to let us add our own dynamic wallpapers and fonts (just for use as a writing/reading font in apps, not an option to change the default system display fonts), and my major “To Add” list for iOS would be complete. Anyone?

Update: Actually, you now can install your own fonts on iOS. Here’s how.

PS: Say what you want about iOS 7’s design, but one thing’s for sure: basic apps like this sure look a lot nicer with iOS 7’s stock design than they ever did with the older stock iOS list UI.

Thoughts? @reply me on Twitter.