Not only does the Amazon Kindle give us the ability to read our favorite books, it also comes pre-loaded with The New Oxford American Dictionary. You can access it like any other ebook stored in your Kindle, and you can look up a word from the book you are reading without closing the book.
So for example, if you are in the middle of a book, and come across a word you don’t understand, you can use the 5-way controller to look up the word. Here is how you do this beneficial and simple task.
• Use the 5-way to scroll up/down, left/right until you get to the word that you’d like information on. At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see the word and the definition.
• If you want more details, hit the “Enter” button. It will take you to the page in the dictionary.
• Now you will be able to read all of the definitions of the word. After you are finished, you can click on the “Back” button to return to the ebook you were reading.
If you decide that you want more information, you can use the current place within the dictionary to further your investigation or even search elsewhere.
• The word that led you to the initial search is still available at the bottom of the screen. Move the 5-way to the right where it reads “Search Dictionary“. The dictionary will open and take you to an index to find relevant entries, and you can scroll through them.
• To get more selections, you can move the 5-way controller to find the following: My Items (books, blogs, magazines or newspapers), Store, Google and Wikipedia.
• If you want to access Store, Google, and/or Wikipedia, you need to turn Whispernet on. You can simply click “Menu” and turn it on.
• After Whispernet is up and running, just simply click the option you want and wait for it to open.
Just a reminder, if at any time you’d like to get back to reading, you can click the “Back” button.
This is a great Kindle feature, and can encourage any reader to take the time to look up a word because it is so easy. With a hardback or paperback book, most don’t bother to get the dictionary off the shelf because it can slow the reading down. With the Kindle 5-way controller, looking up a word is easy.