As an editor, I have owned many dictionaries, from paperback collegiate versions I packed and unpacked countless times through my college years and early 20s to the hardbound unabridged version my brother gave me one year for Christmas that, packed in its own box, probably would have been over the weight limit for a single item of luggage. (That one, too, made it through about six moves before I just couldn’t bear to lug it around anymore.)

Dictionaries can be amazing treasure troves of words and meanings and nuances, leading to a deeper understanding and a confidence that, at any particular moment, you are using the absolutely perfect word. Or they can be, well, dictionaries, that beat down the spirit of the curious reader with their dull, unsatisfying, workman-like definitions.

This article, “You’re Using the Wrong Dictionary” by James Somers, made the rounds back in May, but I recently reread it after forwarding it to a colleague. My two-paragraph description won’t convince you that you owe it to yourself to use a good dictionary, but this post should. And, even better, it tells you how to install a good dictionary on all your devices. I did, and I am so much happier.