Vocabulary.com
“A positively addictive app for aspiring wordsmiths.” —Fast Company
“Vocabulary.com reveals the truth about your vocabulary skills and helps you improve.” —AppAdvice
“An addictive word-learning app... an approachable dictionary and quiz machine.” —TIME
IT’S A SCIENCE...Vocabulary.com is a comprehensive program for lifelong learning of vocabulary, in which each activity is specially chosen for you.
• We use sophisticated algorithms to help you learn more effectively.
• We start with 120,000 questions that teach 12,000 words.
• We use the science of learning to model how you learn (and retain) new words.
• By comparing your answers to the hundreds of millions of answers given by other Vocabulary.com users, we personalize your learning experience and choose the best question for you at just the right time.
...AND IT’S A GAMEWe’ve turned learning vocabulary into an addictive game. You may not even notice that you’re learning along the way.
• Accumulate points, achievements and badges.
• Compete with Vocabulary.com users from throughout the world.
YOU CHOOSE...Studying for an exam like the SAT, GRE, or TOEFL? We have learnable lists for you, covering everything from standardized tests to breaking news — you name it.
• Choose from one of our 50,000 ready-to-learn lists.
• Or if you see a word in the dictionary that you want to learn, just click "learn this word" and we'll teach it to you.
...OR WE CHOOSEDon't have a specific word or list in mind? Let our adaptive learning system find the right word for you.
• Just play a few questions, and we'll pinpoint the words that are appropriate for your level.
• We won't waste your time on words that are too easy or too hard.
YOU IMPROVELike a good coach, Vocabulary.com won’t give up on you. Whether you pick the words or let us find them for you, we’ll work with you until you've mastered them.
And even after you've achieved mastery, we'll continue to reinforce what you have learned to make sure that it all stays fresh in your memory. Next thing you know, you’ll be expanding your vocabulary and improving your communication, a key to success in school and business.
FINALLY, A DICTIONARY WITH A SOULOur dictionary was written for humans, by humans. Look up a word, and you’ll read a friendly explanation that you'll actually remember. It’s as if your favorite teacher were explaining it to you.
We include clever usage tips and thousands of real-world example sentences that'll show you how words live in the wild and will make you more confident about using them yourself.
See a word you’d like to know better? Tap "Learn this Word" and easily add it to your learning program.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING"Vocabulary.com is among the quickest, and most intelligent ways for students to improve their vocabulary. Regardless of education level or age, Vocabulary.com will help master the words that are essential to academic and business success." —National Education Association
“Educators who are familiar with Vocabulary.com are impressed by the technology. It is a sign, they say, that real progress is finally being made in computer-assisted education.” —The New York Times
“Vocabulary.com could actually make speaking well cool again.” —TIME
“Vocabulary.com boasts a Web-based dashboard bristling with points, levels, progress bars and achievement bonuses, among other attractions.” —USA Today
HONORS AND AWARDS
• TIME’s 50 Best Websites of the Year
• PC Magazine's Top 100 Websites of the Year
• Tech & Learning Award of Excellence
• Webby Awards: Official Honoree in Education
Category : Education
Reviews (24)
I want to like this app, I really do, but it is constantly freezing on me. It's worse than simply opening a browser and googling the words. The game is marginally useful to me. It seems a little out of touch and could probably use better editing. Some of the definitions seem inaccurate and the exercises involving this words fair poorly because of it. Mostly I'm rating it poorly because of the freezing though. I could over look some of the other stuff.
performs the basic function, yet there are so many bugs such as: the app freezes whenever I click on words I've mastered, vocabulary lists, more often than not when I click on a word for its definition, when I search up a word (they aren't always in the middle), words I've played and shows the top of the list but still freezes. Please fix this soon, I really enjoy using this app but it seems to only work with half of the functions is provides. I'll edit this review to 4 or 5 stars when I see fit
Worst dictionary app! this app is so very limiting. For example, the app doesn't allow you to increase or decrease the size of the screen. So reading the definition of the word is a challenge. Also the app claims to have all these lists for learning new words however it wouldn't work on my new phone. Further still, when you're looking up new words the definition is not centered on your screen. I normally love dictionary apps, however I would advise against this one. Thank you for your time.
I'm impressed with the format used to train you. The developer has gone to great lengths to form a variety of sentences for each word to understand the word in all of its uses. You may find the sentences difficult to understand but they force you to think about what the use of the word is. Great app. I wish the default list was focused on words currently used. Quite a few of them drop off from common use in the last century. I'd like to remove words instead of waiting till they are "mastered".
I purchased this app but it's unfortunate to see that it is not measuring up to my expectation. Sliding right and left have problem of layout and dimension stability. I cannot add list of my own. Somewhere, start learning word which usually appears at the bottom of the screen doesn't appear at all... for few words "start learning this word" option doesn't appear... so frustrating...
I absolutely LOVE your website and was excited when I came across your app. However, I am quite disappointed in the app's functionality. When I search for a list and click on it, the app freezes up completely. I have to shut it down, reopen, and log in again. Please provide an estimated timeframe for this issue to be fixed. Thank you.
Though the concept itself is great and is definitely benefitting me a lot, app itself needs an overhaul. I found these to be very limiting: When I lookup a word, I don't see an option to add it in my list. The progress circle gets split in two semicircle if progress is a two digit number. Option to add a word in the learning queue doesn't appear always.
This is a fantastic vocabulary app. It not only gives the meaning of words but different real life usages with link to the source. Infact, even for apparently simple words, there are so many different usages and the meaning slightly changes depending on the context. I have tried other vocabulary apps, but this one is way better than any one of them out there. Worth ever penny.
Back button closes the app There is no way to add words to a particular self made list on the app as opposed to website where we can do that. adding a random worked looked up to a list is not possible. "Start learning this word" prompt is difficult to get. I'm not able to find that prompt Everytime and it's really frustrating. Please fix these issues.
I can't believe this app was last updated in 2014!! Started using the app today and I can't say I'm not addicted to it. The leaderboard makes it competitive to learn more and the definitions are far more interesting than any other dictionaries out there. 10/10. One feature I would love to have is clicking on any word in the app to show up its definition.
I like the questions and the algorithm that decides the sequence of questions. The app is not well designed. I should be able to go from look up to play by going back instead of having to click the tab. Since there are only four options, they should be spaced further apart so users don't accidentally click the wrong one.
Overall, the app is good but it will outshine its peers just by enabling text selection within the text for cross referencing/checking with other media like google etc. Secondly, there is no exclusive option to enlist or add words of your choice to word-list, though a pop-up appears for some limited words but each random word can't be added to the learning list.
I really like the learning aspect of the app. But a few things are broken. Firstly it asks for your birthday but the entry fields dont scroll and dont allow you to change the month. Secondly I cannot add more than one word to my list for words to learn. Hopefully these things get fixed. Otherwise this is a clean and useful app.
The app overall is fine. The issue lies with the audio question. Firstly, the button do get the audio does not work. Second, one can not delete characters, which for practicing spelling is quite crucial. Honestly, its probably just easier to practice in your browser.
it has a lot of problems. It doesn't let you learn certain words. It frequently crashes. It doesn't let you finish typing a word before it shuts your keyboard down and tries to guess often times not getting the word you want on the list. For a paid app it doesn't meet expectations.
Wonderful app! You can find words and add them to lists or find already made lists ( very many lists including new SAT) and then if you go to play it will help you practice words on the selected list. Great app but there are some words that are not included. Easy to learn to use and great at teaching words by using simple definitions. Definitely recommend
The website itself is great, easy to learn new vocabulary. The app however, should be avoided at all costs. The app hasn't been updated since 2014, and if your phone is running anything newer than probably Android 7 then you will experience ubiquitous crashing and freezing. Not worth the money
It is very disappointing to have such a disgusting user experience on a paid app. Only the play option is working; the app freezes when I click on lists or any other option. I purchased this after my great experience on laptop and now it feels like the worst choice to have it as an app. Please fix this asap or refund my money. I really wish you fix this as it will help me prepare for my competitive exams coming up.
So disappointing. I love this app and recently it began freezing evertime I try to switch to another list. It doesn't always allow me to add new words to lists I am learning. Sometimes the button to learn the word is there other times it's not. Please fix and I will change my review.
good app; it's fun to learn while answering vocab questions. however, I constantly choose answers I don't intend to because the options are so small and close together. super frustrating to constantly get questions wrong because I use my finger and not a tiny stylus they seem to want you to use.
While the web site works perfectly fine for free, I travelled to uk for a download of the app only to a disappointment. It freezes when opened most of my lists. Without any further update with the app, it is an app to avoid and benefit from the web site free learning and listing.
Great app with great features. But chock full of bugs. Currently unable to view my saved words list. And a number of other features cause the app to freeze. When it works its great. But currently im not as satisfied as id like to be after purchasing something.
Absolutely horrible optimization. Like everyone else said already, app freezes a lot of the times for no reason. I'm not going to refund since the web version is great, and I would like to support the developers, but this piece of mobile software isn't worth a cent. Maybe consider fixing it, people would be grateful.
There are some inconsistencies, in terms of design, when i look up words' meaning. It's hard to explain, but when i want to scroll down and i accidentally move my finger horizontally, it will move the page to the side, so that some part of it cant be seen, which results in partially blank page. Its not a problem to readjust it so that i can see the whole page, but i believe devs can fix it. Edit: ah, updated in 2014. Nevermind:)