Among many small new additions, Apple brings built-in thesaurus in iOS 12 for iPhone and iPad devices. Some of the previous iOS versions allowed its users to look up definitions using a built-in dictionary with “Look Up.” With Apple’s transition to 64-bit apps, Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus was one of the casualties of this move, but now it has become a part of the operating system itself starting from iOS 12.
While thesaurus is not an overly exciting feature but will prove a great deal in day to day use. If you use thesaurus and dictionary in your daily life, this addition to iOS 12 will be appreciated. The best thing about the built-in thesaurus is that is works with most iOS word processing apps. The only catch is that you will have to first enable thesaurus and then use it. In this guide, you will learn how to enable Thesaurus in iOS 12 and use it on your iPhone and iPad.
How to Turn On Thesaurus on iOS 12
Here are the steps to enable iOS 12 thesaurus feature:
- Launch the Settings app.
- Tap General.
- Look for Dictionary and tap on it.
- Look for and select “American English: Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus.”
- It should begin downloading the thesaurus which may take a few moments.
How to use the thesaurus on iPhone and iPad
Now that you have enabled thesaurus on your iPhone or iPad, here is how you can use it:
- To use the thesaurus, open a document in any word-processing app for iOS such as Pages, iA Writer, Google Docs, etc.
- Find the word you would like to change and select it by tap and hold (long press) on it.
- Tap the “Look Up” option that appears on the pop-up (its position may change depending on the application that you are using.)
- Dictionary options that you have turned on in previous steps will appear at the top of the new screen that appears as listed items. At the top, you will see the dictionary, the second will likely be the thesaurus. Click on the list item that says “Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus” along the bottom.
- This will bring you the list of related words. Unfortunately, iOS 12 does not allow you to replace the existing word with the one from thesaurus by just selecting one; you will have to remember it and type in manually in the document yourself.