smsdict: Dictionary lookup via SMS/email (beta)

Now you can look up words from your cell phone. I've never seen a similar service, which is weird, because it seems pretty obvious.

How it works

Your phone emails dictionary@ransford.org with the word you want to look up as the message's Subject. The message body will be discarded. A computer performs a search on the web1913 dictionary at dict.org, formats the result for SMS (i.e., throws away unnecessary stuff), and sends it back.

How to use it

These steps apply to my pretty generic Motorola phone on Verizon Wireless, so they'll probably work for you too:

• Make an address book of type email; call it Dictionary and enter dictionary@ransford.org as the email address.
• Give the Dictionary entry a voice name so that you can impress your friends by saying dictionary into the phone to pull up your dictionary, like Dick Tracy.
• Send an email to the Dictionary address. Your cell phone provider's SMS-to-email gateway will send the message.
• Wait several seconds for an SMS message to arrive.

How to improve it

I'd like to receive feedback from would-be users, so please contact me if you have any suggestions. (I am already aware that the web1913 dictionary is a little out of date; after all, it was published in 1913. I am working on incorporating better/more sources.)

Thanks to Marcel Molina, Jr. for information about dictionary sources.