Merriam-Webster (M-W), the online dictionary, now offers free iPhone apps and free iPad apps. What's better than free? And if it's an actual useful app that can help you spell better, find the right word, or help you solve that crossword puzzle to the amazement of your friends, all the better.

The iPhone app contains all of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary definitions, synonyms, antonyms, sentence examples...

You’re writing along—a text message, a Facebook update, or something a little more important like an online article—and all of a sudden you type a word that’s a contraction. Contractions? you say. Hint: I just used two of them in my first sentence. Merriam-Webster defines a contraction as “a shortening of a word, syllable, or word group by omission of a sound or letter.” And I’ll add that when the letter or sound is omitted, an apostrophe takes its place. By the way, the contractions I used are “you’re” and “that’s.”