Wordy is a Windows program that helps users improve their vocabulary. It is primarily aimed at people who already know English and want to expand their vocabulary to include more esoteric words, but it can also be used by beginners in a non-English language who want to memorize a large quantity of words.
What sets it apart from other vocabulary-learning software?
- There are no predefined tests and quizzes that you can take. Instead, you can add any word you want to learn and Wordy will generate different types of questions for that word.
- At first, these tests are simple (e.g. choose the correct word), but later on they involve filling out multiple definitions, which is what makes Wordy more suited for advanced students.
- Besides definitions words can have images associated with them to help with the learning process.
- After a word has been learned it becomes available in the long-term memory tests. There it appears much less frequently but with a different set of question types.
- The Assisted Reading mode gives you quick access to word lookups and translations from any Windows application.
- Wordy also supports word of the day subscriptions, which are an easy way to discover new words.
- (You need to have .NET framework installed on your computer)
- Download the release
- Extract
- Run Wordy.exe
To add new words enter a list of words in the leftmost textbox. After the definitions have been found you can edit them - words usually have multiple definitions and some of them are probably not related to your inquiry or you are already familiar with them. You should delete any irrelevant definitions and also superfluous wording; keeping only a few definitions and no redundant details will make it much easier to answer tests in the future.
Note that some words are colored in blue - these are keywords, critical parts of the definitions. Some tests will require you to fill out a word's definition, but you will only have to memorize the keywords.
Wordy will automatically mark words as keywords, but you can change their status by selecting them, right-clicking and choosing the Toggle keyword option.
You can also surround parts of text with quotes or parentheses - in both cases the effect is the same: the text enclosed within the symbols will be ignored during testing. This is because definitions sometimes include examples of usage, which are usually not necessary to memorize. Also, word definitions will be followed with information about their source dictionary - you don't have to delete this line because it will be enclosed within parentheses and will be ignored.
Any found visuals will be displayed in a row of small thumbnails. Mouse over one of the thumbnails to view the visual in full size. Left-click on it to open its Flickr page; right-click on it to remove it. After you delete some of them you can search for more visuals.
Wordy also has a built-in tutorial that will inform you about the process of adding words in more detail.
NOTE: When adding non-English words, you can manually set their translation without having to search online. This can be useful when Microsoft Translator doesn't recognize a word, but you already know its translation. Use the following syntax: [word] -> [translation1]; [translation2]; ...
To learn a word you will have to solve six increasingly difficult tests about it:
- Select the correct word (from 6 random words)
- Select the correct word (from 6 similar-sounding words)
- Type out the word
- Fill out missing keywords in the word's definitions (one keyword per definition)
- Fill out approx. half the missing keywords per definition
- Fill out all of the keywords in the definitions
Note that in the last screenshot the user correctly filled out only one of the definitions. This means the test is partially completed: the user will still have to repeat that test, but only for the failed definition.
Although this may seem like overkill, the point of having so many tests (which become somewhat difficult near the end) is to help the user learn the word thoroughly. Many vocabulary services are much less demanding of their students, but their end result is also much less comprehensive and not as lasting. That is why Wordy is designed for either students that already have a good grasp of English, or native speakers that want to improve their vocabulary.
After a word has been tested, its next test will become available after 22 hours. Why 22 and not 24? To avoid "creep"; see this: /r/Dota2/Why is the daily hero challenge every 22 hours instead of 24?.
The release version of Wordy has several example words set in various stages of learning so you can see how these tests look. You can delete these words in the Options menu.
To ensure that the words you learn remain in your long-term memory you should keep testing them with the "Test Recall of Learned Words" option. Learned words will have different types of tests, and they will be picked randomly:
- Type out the word
- Fill in the blanks in the definitions
- Select only the correct definitions
- Complete the word based on its synonyms
- Enter the word that fits the example sentence
- Unscramble the letters of the word
- Recognize the word by its visuals
Note: In tests that ask you to choose or select the correct answer, you can press the numbers 1-6 to pick an answer. You can also use Q/W/A instead of 4/5/6 (because by default the buttons are divided into two lines).
If you fail a test then the word becomes "unlearned" again; answer correctly and the word will be available for testing again in a week. After each successful test the length of time before the next test increases by a week.
When testing learned words, some minor mistakes are ignored. If you forget to use a diacritic mark or a hyphen, your answer will still be correct. Synonyms of the requested word will also be accepted.
Visuals may also be used for testing purposes.
You can also use Wordy to learn words in another language. The process is the same as with English words: add them -> learn them by testing -> remember them by testing every now and then. However, since Wordnik can only be used to search for English words, Wordy uses Microsoft Translator as the lookup service for other languages. Therefore, a non-English word's "definition" will be its English translation, for example: "civetta" -> "owl". This feature is more useful for beginners in a foreign language, who only need to know the general meaning of a word.
Because Microsoft Translator is much more limited than Wordnik, the learning process consists of only four steps (the "LANG" denotes the foreign language the user is studying):
- Select the correct word (LANG -> ENG)
- Select the correct word (ENG -> LANG)
- Type out the word (LANG -> ENG)
- Type out the word (ENG -> LANG)
Testing of learned words uses the same four types of questions, with the addition of: Enter the word that fits the example sentence.
To switch Wordy to another language mode use the profile selection menu at the bottom of the main menu. The switch affects every menu and option in Wordy.
Microsoft Translator, and by extension Wordy, supports the following languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong Daw, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Klingon, Klingon (pIqaD), Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, and Welsh.
Wordy can help you read difficult texts by allowing you to quickly lookup a word or phrase. This is most useful for texts in foreign languages that you are learning, or for archaic and literary English texts with many abstruse words. You can copy and paste your text into Wordy, but you can also lookup words from any other Windows application (e.g. a PDF reader or an Internet browser). The advantage of pasting the text into Wordy is that you can see which words you've added or saved (by their color).
Color code:
- Words saved without definitions - purple.
- Words that couldn't be looked-up - red.
- Looked-up words - orange.
- Words already in your archive - yellow.
- Archived words that you've already learned - green.
To lookup a word simply double-click it. Depending on the status of the word (shown by its color) one or more of these buttons will be displayed:
Tip: To select a phrase double-click the first word in it and, without releasing the button, drag the mouse until you've selected everything. You can also just select the phrase without double-clicking and then press ALT+W to bring up the popup menu.
This feature allows you to review the words in Wordy's database, which can be useful if you want to study the words before actually testing yourself.
Besides definitions and visuals, you can also see other information, such as which words were hardest for you to learn or remember.
Wordy comes with several WotD subscriptions; you can enable or delete them in the Options menu, as well as add new ones. To add a new subscription you need a valid RSS address.
Once per day Wordy will check the subscriptions and if there are any updates a new button will appear in the main menu. Clicking on that button will open the Add Words window where the new WotDs will be shown for the user to edit the definitions and either reject or accept them.
In the Options menu you can view a list of all the words you've added, edit their definitions and synonyms, and delete them. You can also edit word of the day subscriptions, as well as modify other general options.
If you use a program called Launchy or use command prompt regulary, you might be interested in adding words to Wordy via a VB script. This way is potentially faster because you just have to activate Launchy and type: wordy ► [your word]. The "►" character stands for the Tab key.
To setup this script you need to perform the following:
- In Launchy, open its options window and select Runner under the Plugins tab. Add a new line and configure it as in the following picture:
Of course, you need to change the path to the "add words.vbs" script, which you can find in the Wordy directory.
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Edit "add words.vbs" and set strTxtFile to be equal to the path of an empty text file that will store the added words.
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Open Wordy's options menu and set the path to that same text file in this textbox:
- Word definitions & examples: Wordnik API
- Word visuals: Flickr API
- Flickr API accessed through the Flickr.Net library
- Word rhymes: RhymeBrain
- Translation service: Microsoft Translator
- UI icons by: Adam Whitcroft and Modern UI Icons
- Book icon by ~XTUX345 @ deviantART
- Checkmark graphics: psdGraphics
- Country flags from: CustomIconDesign
- Sound effects by: Bertrof