Remember the Words You Read: Vocabulary Comes to MyBibliotheca
You look up a word halfway through a chapter. It makes sense, you carry on, and a week later you meet it again. Somehow the definition has gone missing.
MyBibliotheca now has a place for those words. Vocabulary turns the single-word highlights you save from your reading into a personal review list. You can try to remember a meaning, reveal the definition, and decide when you need to see the word again.
If you've used Anki, the routine will feel familiar. MyBib uses a simple spaced-recall schedule of its own, rather than Anki's scheduling algorithm. The words come from the books you're already reading.
Your highlights build the list
Adding a word starts with something you choose to save. There are three ways to get it into MyBib:
- Manual highlights: save a single word as a highlight on a book in your MyBibliotheca library.
- Readwise: highlight a single word in a reading tool connected to Readwise, then let your configured Readwise integration bring it into MyBib.
- KOReader: highlight a single word on your reader and send it to MyBib through the KOReader highlights plugin. Depending on your setup, uploads can happen automatically or when you send them yourself.
Once those highlights are in your account, opening Vocabulary collects the eligible words. You can also tap Refresh highlights to collect newly arrived highlights. That button checks what's already in MyBib; the Readwise sync or KOReader upload has to happen first.
Existing single-word highlights count, too. You may have the beginnings of a vocabulary list waiting for you already. If you've brought in a very large collection, another refresh may be needed to collect the rest.
Say you come across reticent in a novel. Highlight just reticent, sync or save that highlight, and open Vocabulary. The word joins your list with its source book and highlight date, giving you a way to remember where you found it.
The selection matters. Highlighting a reticent stranger saves a useful passage, but it won't create a vocabulary entry. Notes and the separate note fields in Readwise and KOReader are also excluded. To add a word, save it as a single-word highlight.
Extra spaces or line breaks around the word are fine. Letters with an internal apostrophe or hyphen are supported; numbers and punctuation around the word are excluded. Words are stored in lowercase, and repeated highlights of the same word become one vocabulary entry. Your original highlights stay as you saved them.
A few minutes of practice
Open Practice to see the words that are due. Read the word and take a moment to recall its meaning before tapping Reveal definition.
English definitions come from WordNet, with examples and synonyms where available. Synonyms sit beside the meaning they belong to, which helps when a word has several senses. Some names, newer slang, and specialized terms won't have a dictionary entry.
After revealing the definition, choose how well you remembered it:
- Again brings it back in ten minutes.
- Hard schedules it at least a day away, with smaller increases on later reviews.
- Good schedules it at least three days away, with longer gaps as you keep remembering it.
Choose what fits. If you recognized the word but couldn't explain it, Again is a perfectly useful answer. The next review date follows your choice, and your progress is saved to your account.
Keep the words you want to learn
All words lets you browse and search your collection. When a word no longer needs your attention, archive it. Highlighting it again won't put it back into practice; you can restore it yourself from Archived whenever you want.
Your vocabulary list is private to your account. Definitions are looked up through MyBib's own dictionary service, and vocabulary progress is included in your account data export.
Try it with the next unfamiliar word you meet. Save the highlight, bring it into MyBib, and give yourself a chance to remember it after the chapter is over.
Open Vocabulary — sign in with your MyBibliotheca account to get started.
Feature image: Jean Honoré Fragonard, Young Girl Reading, c. 1769. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Gift of Mrs. Mellon Bruce in memory of her father, Andrew W. Mellon. Public domain.