EtymologyExplorer Hack 6.2.0 + Redeem Codes

Unique way of visually exploring word etymologies. Data comes from Wiktionary and includes a large number of languages besides English. Can get lost in this app for stretches of time. I wish the lifetime membership was on par with other vocab type apps ($20-$30). Overall great job by this sole developer, the attention to detail and thinking that has gone into usability have produced a beautiful app. UPDATE: Saw an offer for lifetime membership pop up in the app a few days after posting the above review, and didn’t hesitate to purchase. Using it daily. Rarely used words who meanings I kept forgetting have now become easily memorized, just by seeing once how the meaning arises from the roots of the word. Brilliant.

I’m a huge etymology nerd and have spent many many many hours of my life on Wiktionary exploring etymology trees of words across many languages. This app is super exciting to me and offers some features that were either painful or impossible for me to do before, so it’s almost immediately improved my life and I bought the lifetime unlock pretty much right away. It’s a great example of applying fairly simple technology to a problem that ends up providing a ton of benefit.

The iPad app isn’t great, it feels like a stretched out iPhone app, and it has some notable layout issues (especially the family view while in portrait, where part of the display is cut off). The tree view also feels really large and displays very little information on the screen at once. I wish it made better use of the larger iPad screen, especially with long and complex etymologies where scrolling around a lot gets annoying. Horizontal scrolling in the tree is also pretty painful. Even just the ability to zoom out and see more of the tree at once would be awesome. The other feature that I’d really like is the ability to search for words across all or multiple languages. Right now it seems like it’s only possible to search within one at a time and it really limits my ability to find the words I'm looking for.

So, there’s definitely some basic stuff that could be improved, but even in its current form this app is a great supplement in etymological research!

Knowing the etymology of words aids you in learning and remembering the spelling of words and aids you in seeing the resemblance between the word itself and its meaning. In my opinion, this application does a good job in presenting the origin of words and how they are related to other similar words.

I just wish this application had a feature that could teach users how to read the IPA spelling of non English words, or at least uses a IPA text-to-speech feature instead of the current American text-to-speech. Then again, this might be asking for to much, the application is great how it is.

Regardless of the aforementioned, this application is radical 😎

Great app! The paid version is obviously leagues beyond the free one - but, I must say that, especially for writers, the purchase is well worth it. This is definitely the best money I've spent in the app store. Every aspect of the app is intensely useful to me.

My one and only gripe, at all, is that the Word of the Day notifications disappear as soon as you open the app. I like to leave the new words up that I may learn them, but it makes me tentative to use the app when I want them to stay up.

Since I decided to attend grad school, and started studying for the GRE a little while ago, I have been looking for an etymology app to increase my studying productivity. For me at least, this app has been a fantastic tool to quickly look up the origin and definition of a word, as well as any roots of that word. It also has a beautiful overlay. I’m very grateful there is another word nerd out there who took on the task of creating this app. Quickly becoming my favorite app. A+

Etymology is an interest of mine and this app works well. While you can pay to get rid of ads and receive some unique features, the ads are really only a banner on the bottom of the page and don’t distract from/cover content. For everything I’m getting (audio, dictionary definitions, word origins and families, and a search option.) I’m more than satisfied with this app as a learning tool.

Pros: Incredibly useful, fantastic resource for curious folk wondering "How did that word come to be?" or more dedicated armchair etymologists. Info is pulled from wiktionary so it won't have the level of detail etymological books do, like all the various uses of a word, development over time, etc but if you're interested in that sort of info an app would never cut it anyway.
Easy to navigate.

Cons: Design-wise, it looks a little outdated, think circa 2010.

I buy almost all the educational apps I find to be indispensable. There are several etymology apps, but if you want to flow through a crisp User Interface, then this is it. And the setup is just so clean. I love the tree, the fact that you can scroll between views, and the attention to detail. Can’t wait for further updates. And I’m glad I bought it outright with no Subscription.

I now spend time I would have spent scrolling down bottomless feeds tapping through word root trees. Soon I will fluently speak Proto-Indo-European — only to myself and my cat — since nobody else finds this knowledge impressive. I have finally found the etymology app of my dreams. If only I could pay once and stop justifying my obsession to myself every year to renew the subscription.

This app has a really nice user interface. I primarily use etymonline, but this is an excellent additional resource, which is visibly a bit easier for my students to navigate. The price is very reasonable. I definitely recommend this app to any teachers who teach etymology to younger students. It’s also very useful when working with bilingual students.