ios-define In iPhone/iPad, we can select any word in most apps by tapping it for 2 seconds and a popup options will appear, one of them is to “Define” the word using iOS dictionary. However, several people reported that this feature sometimes disappear after they restore an iPhone or iPad. Why does iPhone’s dictionary (or define) feature suddenly stop working? How to solve this issue? (thanks to John for asking me these questions)

The most common answer would be to do a re-install process once again. However, there is a quick trick to “force” this feature to work again without reinstalling.

1. Make sure your iPhone / iPad is connected to a WiFi network with stable Internet connection. This trick will not work otherwise.

2. Go to Settings > General > International > Language

3. Change the language into something else. My top recommendation is to change between US English and UK English (if you usually use US English, this time change it into UK English, vice versa). However, I also found that this list of languages vary between devices, so basically just choose a language different than your current one.

4. Go to any app which allow us to type text. Apple’s default Notes app might be a good idea.

5. Type any common word in your “original language”. For English, try to type : “test”.

6. Select the word by long tap, you should see the “Define” option appears now. Choose it. Then it will ask to download the dictionary.

7. After downloading dictionary, go back to the language setting (step 2) and change the language back to your initial setting.

Now your “Define” pop-up should work properly.
If this trick does not work, or if you find a better way, please do let me know.