Sure, dictionary databases replace the primary reference-focused use case of huge—the really good ones are multi-volume, and cost a lot more than $400—dictionar

Sure, dictionary databases replace the primary reference-focused use case of huge—the really good ones are multi-volume, and cost a lot more than $400—dictionaries, much as desktop reference books of facts & figures, books of field-specific tables, et c., are all but entirely replaced by Google or other, more specialized databases. This is the same dynamic that saw filing cabinets and card catalogs replaced with computer systems—I'm not sure it applies to books, broadly, but certain types of reference books, so far as their primary role as on-demand lookup systems, are generally much inferior to searchable digital databases, that's clear.