Are you always searching for just the right word for your story? I certainly am. When I need correct spellings, definitions or an ally against banal, trite cliché, dictionaries and thesauruses are my tried-and-true tools. I have several at my fingertips on my iPhone.

Word tools at your fingertips!

Merriam-Webster has been a standard in my life since my childhood which for me is a long time ago! Additions on my iPhone app version include an integrated thesaurus, a daily word for vocabulary building, a history of recent searches, the capability of marking favorites and even voice search. Those of us like me who are living with distinct accents that turn one-syllable words into two or three syllables can benefit from the audio pronunciations. Merriam-Webster also offers a premium version with the full thesaurus that are ad free.

Dictionaries are like a glass of fine wine. Why have one when you can have two?

Dictionary.com  offers translation and other entertaining features. I added the rhyming dictionary for $1.99, but medical and science are available, too.

If you’ve already had two glasses that bottle should be finished, right? No! Wait!!! I’ve watched enough Drunk History on Funny or Die and Comedy Central to know that if you’re telling stories you want to be sober. Otherwise truth can go askew or, worse, things you never planned to tell a single living sole might accidently slide trough your lips and land in the hands of the biggest gossip on earth.

Thesaurus Rex, also by Dictionary.com, offers word suggestions scored by relevancy. Complexity is an option which I like because complex can be comedic. A rhyming upgrade is also available. But the rhyming dictionary I have been using to turn my life into song is

RhymeZone, an easy to use rhyming tool that lists words by letter count. Touch a word and definitions pop up.

Urban Dictionary helps me stay on top of current word use as well as avoid making huge mistakes! For instance, I was checking Southern slang for the word borrow and discovered a definition entirely different than I’d heard before and may or may not be usable for me!

Southern Slang helps me feel comfortable with my homies from below the Mason-Dixon line. I’ve been known to use it for a few laughs when I’ve got a few minutes to kill.

When trying to make heads or tails out of posts in my Twitter feed, I use txtDictionary because I’m not 18 anymore.

For just a few bucks I have the tools to help me exude fresh, virgin thought! BBFN!