Walk through the Kids section of the App Store and you’ll find two overlapping piles. The first is reading apps — Epic, Reading Eggs, ABCmouse, Khan Academy Kids, Homer, Lingokids. They teach phonics, run through leveled books, hand out stars, and keep a kid engaged for twenty minutes at a stretch. The second is dictionary apps — small, utilitarian, built around the moment a kid asks “what does that word mean?”.
Parents often buy into the first pile and forget the second exists. Both do real work, but they do different work. Here’s what each category is actually for, which specific apps are worth it, and how to decide what belongs on your kid’s tablet.
What a Reading App Does
Reading apps are designed to teach your kid how to read — or to give them more things to read once they can. The best of them are modeled on structured literacy research: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension in sequence. The Reading Rockets 101 course is a good primer on what good reading instruction actually looks like, and most of the apps below draw from it to varying degrees.
Epic
Epic is the largest kids’ digital library — over 40,000 books, audiobooks, and read-alongs. It’s less of a “teach you to read” app and more of a “here’s a library to explore once you can.” It skews ages 7 to 12, is free for teachers at participating schools, and runs about $12 a month for families. If your kid can already read short chapter books independently, Epic is the single highest-leverage subscription you can buy.
Khan Academy Kids
Khan Academy Kids is free, ad-free, and research-backed. It covers ages 2 to 8 with a mix of reading, math, and social-emotional lessons. For families on a budget, it’s the single most defensible app to install — it does more than it has any right to, free. Won’t replace a dictionary, but is a legitimate early-reading tool.
ABCmouse
ABCmouse is the longest-running paid preschool-through-second-grade app. It’s broad — curriculum covers reading, math, science, art — and the gamification is heavy. Opinions on it vary; it works best for kids who respond to point-and-reward systems and less well for kids who find them distracting.
Reading Eggs
Reading Eggs is the most phonics-forward of the paid reading apps. Ages 2 to 13, structured by level, with a strong research base. If your kid is specifically struggling with phonics, Reading Eggs is the targeted pick.
Homer
Homer is the premium end of the early-reading market — ages 2 to 8, personalized learning path, lots of original content. It’s expensive relative to the alternatives but polished. Reviewed well by Common Sense Media as a legitimate learning tool, not just a kept-busy app.
Duolingo ABC
Duolingo ABC is Duolingo’s free reading-for-kids app, aimed at ages 3 to 8. Shorter lessons, phonics-focused. The best free alternative to Reading Eggs for the early-reader bracket.
Lingokids
Lingokids blends English reading, vocabulary, and social-emotional skills for ages 2 to 8. Good for ESL/bilingual families. Pricing is subscription-based.
What a Dictionary App Does
A dictionary app does one job: when a kid hits a word they don’t know, it gives them a clear answer in under thirty seconds and lets them get back to what they were doing. That’s it. No lesson plan, no stars, no leveled progression. Just a reference, available on demand.
That sounds limited — and it is — but it’s the specific limitation that makes a dictionary useful. Reading research going back decades (see Reading Rockets on vocabulary) shows that kids acquire most of their vocabulary incidentally — through reading, listening, and the small moments where they ask what a word means and get a useful answer. A dictionary app exists to make that moment frictionless.
Kids Dictionary
Kids Dictionary is the one we make. Every entry on a single screen, text-to-speech audio, an illustration for every primary definition, no ads, no sign-in, no behavioral advertising. Ages 4 to 12. iOS plus a Chromebook/web PWA. We wrote this because the alternatives aren’t built for the way kids actually ask questions.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary App
The Merriam-Webster app is the free standard. Not built for kids — the definitions assume an adult-ish vocabulary — but authoritative. For a reading-confident ten-year-old, it’s a reasonable graduation point.
Wordsmyth Kids
The Wordsmyth Children’s Dictionary isn’t a native app, but its web version is the gold-standard free kids’ dictionary on the web. Covered in more detail in our roundup of free online dictionaries for kids.
Britannica Kids Dictionary
Britannica Kids leans slightly older (8 to 12) and crosses over into an encyclopedia. Great for the kid who’s moved beyond “what’s a word?” into “what’s this topic?”.
They Solve Different Problems
Reading apps and dictionary apps solve adjacent but distinct problems:
- Reading app: “My kid needs practice reading.” Session length: 10 to 30 minutes. Used proactively, often on a schedule.
- Dictionary app: “My kid just hit a word they don’t know.” Session length: 15 to 60 seconds. Used reactively, in response to a specific moment.
Confusing these produces predictable mistakes. Parents try to use Epic to answer a vocabulary question (slow, imprecise) or try to use a dictionary to teach phonics (not what it’s for). On a well-provisioned tablet, you want at least one from each category.
The Overlap Zone
Some tools blur the line. Vocabulary.com is a dictionary with a learning layer bolted on. Quizlet is a flashcard app that works well for vocabulary once a word has been introduced elsewhere. Flocabulary teaches vocabulary through hip-hop videos and is loved in middle-school classrooms. Membean is an adaptive vocabulary trainer aimed at older students.
None of these replace a dictionary — they assume one exists — but they fill the gap between “encountered a word once” and “owns it in long-term memory.”
The Minimum Setup
If you want the shortest reasonable list on your kid’s device:
- One reading app matched to their reading level. For most families: Khan Academy Kids (preschool), Reading Eggs (early elementary), or Epic (independent readers).
- One dictionary app for the moments reading isn’t the activity — when they’re reading a chapter book, overhearing a conversation, or watching a show. Kids Dictionary is ours; Wordsmyth is the best free alternative.
- One general-knowledge app, optional, for the questions a dictionary can’t answer — Britannica Kids or National Geographic Kids.
Everything beyond that is diminishing returns.
What Teachers Say
In classroom use, the most common setup we hear from elementary teachers is: Khan Academy Kids or Reading Eggs for assigned work, Epic as the free-choice library, and a kid-friendly dictionary accessible on the same device. For writing-heavy upper-elementary classrooms, a dictionary plus Thesaurus.com or Vocabulary.com rounds out the toolkit. Edutopia and Scholastic Parents both have good roundups of what elementary teachers actually install when they’re given budget to pick.
The Short Version
Reading apps teach reading; dictionary apps answer questions. They’re different categories, both legitimate, and most kids benefit from one of each. If you only install one of either, make it Khan Academy Kids on the reading side and Kids Dictionary (or Wordsmyth) on the dictionary side. That’s the floor.
Kids Dictionary is the on-demand reference built for the moment a kid asks “what does that mean?”. Free to try, no sign-in.
Download Kids Dictionary