As a journalist, I like to have the tools of my trade handy at all times. It might sound funny, but my “tools” aren’t just limited to whatever words are rolling around in my head. Sitting at my desk is a dog-eared copy of the AP Writers Manual, a thesaurus and of course, a dictionary. That’s all well and good, but I don’t take great pleasure in lugging around books if I’m writing on the go, so I was pretty excited when I was asked to review the free Dictionary! iPhone app.

Dictionary! is about as bare-bones as you could find in a reference iPhone app. Upon installing, you have the entire iPhone app at your fingertips. It doesn’t access the Internet at all, so whether you’re in a bomb shelter with no 3G or Wi-Fi or a Starbucks, you’ll have the same library of words at your disposal.

Dictionary! detects words as you search, so if you’re not quite sure how to spell something, chances are the reference list will find it for you. Most of the words have several definitions, so if you’re locked in a heated Scrabble battle with a friend, you’ll have ample opportunity to defend the word you’ve just placed.

As far as feature sets go, Dictionary! may be lacking, but it does have a button that will pronounce the word you’re reading about. You can also click on a link to take you to Wiktionary for a word, if you’d prefer a more thorough search.

For a free reference iPhone app, Dictionary! seems like it’d be a great companion to anyone interested in words. It is certainly light on features, but still worth checking out.