It’s been quite a while since I did a full review of Agile Tortoise’s Terminology, an extensible dictionary and reference tool for the iPhone and iPad. It’s hard to believe the app has been around for 15 years now, but with today’s release of version 5.0, Greg Pierce has introduced a thoroughly modern ground-up rewrite of the app that is richer and more extensible than ever, making it one of my favorite research tools.
Let’s take a look at what’s new.
A lot has changed on iOS and iPadOS since Terminology was first released. With the latest update, the app has been rewritten using SwiftUI, positioning it well for its next decade and beyond.
But version 5.0 isn’t just about under-the-hood changes to Terminology’s code and its new SwiftUI design. There are plenty of new and improved features, too.
To start, the app’s offline, open-source dictionary has been updated to use the Open English Wordnet project. The previous offline dictionary, Princeton’s WordNet, was released in the 1980s, whereas the new Open English Wordnet dictionary is actively updated and will be refreshed in Terminology as well. That’s good news because language has evolved a lot since the ‘80s and continues to change. Now, Terminology will change along with it.
What I don’t think enough people appreciate, though, is that Terminology is much more than a dictionary. From its earliest days, the app has supported searching a wide array of resources.
When I reviewed it back in 2017, Terminology offered 27 resources. Now, it has 42 of them organized into multiple categories, including dictionaries, references, AI providers, search engines, entertainment databases, news sites, and tech reference sites. Each of these sources can be customized, too. For example, if you add an AI source like Claude, you can include a custom prompt that simply asks for a word’s definition or one that’s more expansive, asking for examples of usage, pronunciation, historical context, and more.
Moreover, you can create your own resources and share them with others. For example, Greg Pierce sent me one that uses the search syntax for MacStories, allowing me to run quick searches of our site alongside searches of the app’s other reference materials, which I love.
The process of setting up custom reference materials is easy. From the app’s settings, you tap the Plus button and select ’New Blank Resource’. There are several options you can configure, but the main ones are the URL template for searching and the Prompt Template if you’re using an AI service. If you create a resource you want to share, the same setup view includes a Share button for doing so. Plus, you can position resources in the menu at the bottom of the app’s Definition view or as part of the footer beneath the word’s definition for faster access.
It’s also worth noting that Terminology still allows you to view results tied to third-party services in either Safari View Controller or your browser. However, the browser integration now supports logins and cookies for sites that require an account, expanding the sorts of resources you can add.
Terminology has added the ability to create multiple notes for a word, which appear at the top of its entry. Each note has a date stamp and can be copied, edited, or deleted by long-pressing on it. The app previously supported adding words to a Favorites list, but now, you can add words to any number of lists that you define yourself in addition to the predefined Favorites list.
Other features of the app include:
- Lock Screen and Control Center controls to open the app’s Search view or kick off a search with the contents of your clipboard,
- the ability to share deep links to a definition that will open directly in Terminology,
- a history of words you’ve searched for,
- iCloud syncing of lists, notes, and history,
- multiple icon, tint, and font options, and
- audio pronunciation of words.
I’m glad to see Terminology get such a comprehensive update. It’s the sort of focused app that I love using even if I could search for definitions with Google or drop a word into ChatGPT. Those methods work, but in both cases, they’re less precise than Terminology’s approach. Plus, Terminology works with both Google and ChatGPT out of the box. The advantage of choosing Terminology is that both of those services – and many others – have been set up in the app to make retrieving exactly what you want work better than any generalized search can, whether you’re using a search engine or LLM. That’s why I use Terminology and wholeheartedly recommend it.
Terminology is available on the App Store as a free download for iPhone and iPad (as well as in compatibility mode on Apple silicon Macs and Vision Pro). A Pro version of the app, which is required for adding custom resources and creating unlimited word lists and notes, is available for $4.99/year or as a $19.99 one-time purchase for a limited time. Those prices will rise in the future.
