The method

How WordLab makes new words second nature

People who have tried several vocabulary apps tend to end up saying the same thing: the only real way to learn vocabulary is to read. They have a point. Most apps teach you to recognize a word when you see it. That is not the same as having the word come to mind while you think, speak, or write.

WordLab is built for the second goal. It combines five learning techniques. Each one is well known on its own. What matters is having all five at once, because leaving out any one of them costs far more than you would expect.

The five ingredients

1. Active recall: you produce the word, you don't pick it

If an app shows you the word, or four options to choose from, you learn to recognize it. You still may not be able to bring it to mind from its meaning, which is what speaking and writing ask of you. If you can't do that, you don't really own the word.

In WordLab you are given a sentence with the word missing and a short meaning, and you type the word (or say it) into a crossword. There are no multiple-choice options to lean on. Crossing letters help if you're stuck, and the scheduler counts that help (see below).

2. Spaced repetition: nothing slips away

Without reviews, anything you learn fades. WordLab tracks every word you've learned and brings it back just as you're about to forget it. Each review you pass pushes the next one further out. That is how the number of words you know can keep growing for years without your daily practice time growing with it. Each crossword is built from the words that are due.

3. A scheduler that listens to how fast you remember

This is the ingredient other vocabulary apps leave out, and the one that makes a word feel like your own.

A word that takes you ten seconds to remember can't be used in a conversation. It doesn't feel natural, and because it never comes to mind when you need it, you never get extra practice with it in daily life. It stays a quiz answer instead of becoming part of your working vocabulary.

WordLab times every recall. It measures the moment you start typing the answer, not the total time on the clue. It subtracts the time you need to read the clue, and it ignores typos you fix along the way, and false starts on similar words. A quick answer earns a long interval. A slow correct answer earns a shorter one, so the word comes back until you recall it quickly. Help from revealed letters or the word card keeps the interval from growing. The scheduler is FSRS, adjusted by these speed and help measurements, so the aim is fast recall, not just eventual recall. No other vocabulary app we've found schedules by recall speed.

4. Varied clues, so the word fits real situations

If you always recall a word from the same prompt, usually its definition, you learn to answer that prompt. Real life never shows you the definition. It shows you a situation that calls for the word.

Most WordLab words come with three differently worded clue sentences. Each review uses a different one, and every crossword puts the word among new neighbours. You learn to connect the word to the kind of situation it describes, so it comes to mind in situations you haven't seen before.

5. Contrastive learning: telling close words apart

Close synonyms blur together unless you practice telling them apart: amiable vs genial, dale vs glen vs dell, prudent vs judicious, frugal vs stingy. A subtle word is only worth knowing if you can tell when it's the right one. From reading alone, those distinctions can take years to settle.

WordLab groups confusable words and trains each word's specific differences from the others in its group with illustrated drills. Each word's contrasts have their own review schedule, so you keep the distinctions as well as the words. Practiced contrasts become constellations in your word sky. Contrastive drills are part of Premium.

Why leaving one out costs so much

Each technique fixes a failure the other four can't:

• No active recall: you recognize words but can't produce them.
• No spaced repetition: what you learn fades within weeks.
• No speed-aware scheduling: you can produce words, but slowly, so they never come up in conversation and never get practiced outside the app.
• No varied clues: words come back to one prompt, not to real situations.
• No contrastive learning: close words blur together, and you reach for the wrong one.

This is why an app can show you hundreds of words and leave your speaking and writing unchanged.

What helps the five work

• A picture for every word. Each word has an illustration of its meaning, shown when you meet the word and again after each time you recall it. Images are easier to remember than text, and they give you a second path back to the word.
• Common words first. New words arrive roughly from most common to rarest, so early words are the ones you'll actually read and that people will understand when you use them.
• A large word bank. About 20,000 English words give you years of room to grow.
• Crosswords instead of flashcards. Reviews come as small, playable puzzles generated for you. Streaks, achievements, leaderboards, multiplayer, and a sky where every learned word is a star help the habit stick. There are no ads.

Results so far

WordLab's creator has learned over 1,600 words with it. The point was never to see more words. The point was for words learned in the app to come to mind in conversation and writing, which is the test vocabulary apps usually fail.

Get WordLab free on iPhone & iPad

Written by WordLab's creator. It describes how the app is designed; it isn't a controlled study. The research on retrieval practice is summarised in Karpicke & Roediger, 2008. Related reading: why you recognize a word but can't find it · frugal vs. stingy · WordLab vs. Vocabulary.