Old English Wordhord

Learn an Old English word every day in an app with a unique medieval style.

Add Old English word-of-the-day widgets to your Home Screen, Lock Screen, StandBy mode and on macOS.

Search thousands of words in the archive using Modern or Old English.

Hear audio pronunciations or read them in simplified and IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) styles.

View medieval manuscript illustrations (with human-written Alt Text) and follow links back to the online archives that store them.

Save your favourite Old English words.

Share Old English words with your friends as customizable images.

Browse categories: animals, arts + crafts, battle, body + health, colours, education + knowledge, emotions, food + drink, kennings, language + writing, magic + supernatural, measuring, monsters, people, phrases, religion, runes, sounds + music, things to wear, time + seasons, travel + trade, trees + plants, water, and weather.

View the date written in Old English in the app and in widgets.

The design of the Wordhord is inspired by the lines and colours used in medieval manuscripts. Even dark mode is influenced by a medieval-style “dark mode” where manuscripts were inscribed in gold on pages dyed a deep bluish-black.

Gold shimmer! Many manuscripts would shimmer under the light due to their use of gold leaf. Gold elements in the Wordhord can shimmer in the same way when you move your device. (This feature can be turned on in settings.)

The Wordhord aims to be accessible to all with support for Dynamic Type, Reduced Motion, VoiceOver and Voice Control.

What is Old English?
Old English is the language you think you know until you actually hear or see it. Used throughout much of Britain over a thousand years ago, it is rich with words that haven’t changed (like word), others that are unrecognizable (such as neorxnawang, or paradise) and some that are curious even in translation (gafol-fisc literally means tax-fish).

All words hoarded by Old English scholar and author of The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English, Hana Videen.

Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Version 2.0 Features:
- Share any Wordhord word as a customizable image with ALT text. (iOS 16+)
- Old English date widgets. Show the time of day (morgen, middæg, niht…), weekday (monandæg, tiwesdæg, wodnesdæg…) day, month, and year with medieval manuscript marginalia. (iOS 17+)
- Dark Mode and tinted icons (iOS 18+)
- Old English dates in the Wordhord (Enabled in settings).
- Old English dates spoken (long press on date).
- Full word classes instead of abbreviations (eg. "weak verb" instead of "wk.v.". Enabled in settings.).
- Tooltips for word class abbreviations. (long press on word class or description)
- Open word on the oldenglishwordhord.com blog or copy the blog link. (long press the word or share bow and arrow).
- New buttons to rate and share the app.

Updates:
- Widgets have better support of the Tinted Home Screen mode.
- Search field wider on iPads.
- Links to Twitter removed.
- Links to Old English Wordhord on BlueSky added.
- Medieval marginalia “banner ad” showing ways to support the Wordhord can now be disabled in settings.

Bugfixes:
- Old English searches with "ae" will now match “æ”.
- Old English searches will ignore hyphens and spaces to improve matching.