The Curated Lexicon
Where words belong.
VocaX essays on serious vocabulary learning, contextual memory, native iOS craft, and the quiet work of turning words into personal assets.
Archive
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What is VocaX? An iPhone Vocabulary App That Keeps New Words, Reviews and Three Practice Skills Separate
VocaX is an English vocabulary app for iPhone, iPad and Mac that keeps new words, scheduled review, and three separate practice skills apart. This page explains what problem it solves, what it does, where its limits are, and how far the free version goes.
Why a Word Feels Familiar Until You Close the Book: Recognition vs. Active Recall, and Which One VocaX Trains
Feeling that an option looks familiar is recognition; producing the answer with the answer hidden is active recall. Recognition is easy and your accuracy looks great, but it only tells you that you have seen the word, not that you can retrieve it. VocaX's three practices — translation (Chinese to English), dictation (spell what you hear) and speaking (say it out loud) — are all active recall. It costs more effort and looks slower, and it does not guarantee you will remember.
What Is Spaced Repetition? Seeing a Word Again Just Before You Forget It, Not Reviewing on a Fixed Timetable
Spaced repetition does not run words past you on a fixed timetable — it brings each one back just as you are about to forget it: later if you recalled it, sooner if you did not. This piece covers what that actually means, the three things worth doing each day, what VocaX handles for you, and where it stops: it does not guarantee you will remember, and it does not predict exam scores.
Should One Word Be Practised Through Translation, Dictation, and Speaking? Each Format Solves a Different Problem
You do not need all three formats every time, but recognising a word on the page does not mean you can hear it, spell it, or say it. Translation checks meaning, dictation turns sound into spelling, and speaking brings the word to your voice; distribute them around your goal instead of trying to finish all three at once.
Context and Memory Cues: Why a Word in a Sentence Is Easier to Retrieve, and What Scenarios Cannot Fix
Context-dependent memory: the more the cues available now overlap what was present at learning, the easier retrieval becomes. So a word placed in a sentence, a scenario and a voice is easier to reach than the same word alone on a list — not better stored, just reachable by more routes. VocaX carries seven cues for a word: examples, a bilingual story, synonym and antonym notes, pronunciation, a Word Music melody, an illustration, and the Scenario Library's 20 sections and 72 categories of audio explanation. None of it reduces what you have to review.
What Is the Forgetting Curve? Leave What You Learned Unreviewed and It Fades Fast at First, Then Slowly
The forgetting curve says this: leave something unpractised after studying it and the part you can still recall drops fast at first, then more slowly — which is why "learn it and walk away" is close to wasted effort. This piece covers how it was measured, what it means for vocabulary, three things worth doing, and its limits: it describes a population trend, not a prediction about you, and there is no single correct moment to review.
VocaX Reminded Me to Practise — What Should I Do First? Turn the Reminder into One Finishable Consolidation Session
When the reminder appears, tap “Quick Start” and begin the small consolidation set in front of you. It is not pressure to maintain a streak; it is a clear entry into what you can do now. With little time, do one round; after a gap, rebuild rhythm first; leave misses for Flags or a later consolidation session.
What Do Skins and Illustrations Add Beyond Looks? Give Repeated Words an Environment You Want to Return To
A skin cannot remember words for you and should not be advertised as a memory-rate tool. It changes the environment you return to: colour, typography, and illustrations give repeated words a visual setting and help form a learning ritual you want to keep. VocaX has several themes; Impressionism is free and the others belong to subscription access.
How Does VocaX Decide When to Ask Me a Word Again? Every Word Keeps Its Own Pace — Right Answers Push It Further Out, Wrong Answers Bring It Back Sooner
Every word keeps its own pace: answer correctly and the next meeting moves further out; answer wrong and it comes back sooner. VocaX keeps that schedule for you — you never maintain a review list by hand. There are only three things for you to do: finish the day's review on time, leave mistakes to flags, and do not manually re-drill. It does not predict your exam score, and it does not claim its scheduling is optimal.
What Should You Do After Getting a Word Wrong? Use Flags as the Entry to Your Next Practice
After a wrong answer, you do not need to repeat the same question until it is right, and a growing list does not mean failure. VocaX leaves a Flag for the word, so you can return to a small group when you have time; Flags, Consolidation, and regular review handle different next steps.
VocaX or Anki for Learning Vocabulary? Pick VocaX to Start Today, Anki to Build Your Own Cards
Choose VocaX if you want to start tonight instead of building cards: 74,334 entries and a dozen or so word lists come ready with definitions, examples and audio. Choose Anki if you want full control over cards and intervals: free and open source on desktop, far more customisable. Compared on setup effort, card making, audio and context, devices and pricing.
How Far Does the VocaX Free Tier Go: The Learning Loop Is Free; Only AI Features Are Metered
The VocaX free tier is not a trial: learning new words, reviewing on schedule, all three practice formats, lookup and flagged words are all free, unmetered and with no end date. Only AI uses are counted — 20 translations a day, 50 lookups a day, five sessions a week for scenario audio, Word Music and Consolidation. Try it for 7 days before subscribing.
Where Do My Learning Records Live? In Your Own iCloud
VocaX keeps your learning records in iCloud under your own Apple Account — sign in with the same Apple Account on another device and your progress continues. You can study without signing in at all; signing in only decides whether your records follow you. AI features send the text you ask them to process to a model service; our logs do not write plain-text IP addresses.
When to Use Word Music, Radio, and Active Practice: Let Sound Accompany Learning, Not Answer for You
Word Music is for spending time with one specific word; Radio is for letting vocabulary accompany a commute, walk, or household task; active practice checks whether you can recall, spell, or say it. Listening lowers the friction of returning; answering checks whether you can retrieve it yourself.
How Is the Scenario Library Different from a Word List? Listen First, Then Bring Words Back to Practice
Wordbooks organise words by exam, course, or region; the Scenario Library gives you a place where words may appear. Choose a theme, listen or read, look up a few words, and bring them back to Translation, Dictation, or Speaking. Scenarios give words places to appear; active practice checks whether you can find them again.
Is There an Android or Web Version of VocaX? No — It's a Native iPhone, iPad and Mac App, and Here's What That Gives You
VocaX is a native iPhone, iPad and Mac app: study history in your own iCloud, word lookup from system search, one tap to search from Control Center, camera word capture, system voice and on-device recognition. The trade-off: Apple devices only, and no public API. What native gives you, and where it stops.
VocaX vs Duolingo: One Teaches a Language, One Tracks 74,334 Due Dates
Duolingo is a language course: its own site says its courses teach reading, writing, listening and speaking. VocaX is a word-list trainer: 74,334 entries and a dozen or so word lists, served to you by each card's own due date. Here is what each one is for, how far each one goes, and when you should not replace Duolingo.
How Much Does VocaX Cost? ¥298 a Year, a Seven-Day Trial, Monthly or Annual Only — No Lifetime Option
VocaX offers two plans, monthly and annual, with annual at ¥298 and no lifetime option. New subscribers get a seven-day free trial, and cancelling during the trial costs nothing. The free tier keeps working; paying unlocks the paid entitlements — AI translation quota, a weekly Memory Insights report, and subscriber themes. How to choose a plan, how to cancel, and what paying does not change.
IELTS Vocabulary: There Is No Official Word Count, Academic Reading Contains 2,150–2,750 Words of Text
IELTS publishes no vocabulary list, so there is no official answer to how many words you need. The one verifiable figure is the Academic Reading paper: 3 passages, 40 questions, 60 minutes, 2,150–2,750 words. Here is what that number is good for, how to practise, and where word learning stops.
TOEFL and GRE Vocabulary: No Official Word Count, and Product List Size Is Not One
Neither TOEFL nor GRE publishes a vocabulary threshold. The figures you can verify are the word lists themselves: VocaX's catalogues have their own entry counts, and these change between builds. How the two exams' vocabulary differs, whether the lists can be studied together, and where word learning stops.
Choosing a Word List: Start From Your Nearest Real Goal, One List at a Time
VocaX ships a dozen or so word lists. Which one to pick is not about which is largest, but about your nearest real goal: the exam you are sitting, the stage your course has reached, or the everyday situations where you run out of words. You use one list at a time and can switch whenever you like, keeping the review rhythm you have built.
What's Inside a Word Entry: Its Fields, Their Coverage, and No Word Roots
A VocaX word entry carries a defined set of field types: definitions split by part of speech, inflections, register, derivatives, synonyms and antonyms with usage notes, collocations and example sentences with translations, a bilingual context story, British and American phonetics, pronunciation, artwork, and the distractors used in translation practice. Word roots and affixes are not among them.
How Many Words Should You Learn a Day? VocaX Defaults to 50, and You Can Set Anywhere from 10 to 1000
VocaX's daily goal defaults to 50 new words and can be set from 10 to 1000 in steps of 10, from the daily progress ring on the card screen. To choose one, start from the minutes you can actually sit down for: ten minutes means 10–20, twenty or thirty means the default 50, exam season can go above 100. Reviews are arranged by VocaX and do not spend your new-word quota. The goal sets a pace, not a guarantee of memory, and missing it costs nothing.
Can I Practise Just One Format? The Earliest of Three Due Dates Wins, and the Ones You Skip Never Move
You can practise dictation only, and VocaX will not stop you. But a word carries three independent due lines and the next review takes the earliest: push the dictation clock and translation and speaking stay put, so the word keeps being dragged back by them. This article covers how the three clocks hold each other back, why there is no switch for scheduling on one format only, and why tapping "secure" in consolidation moves nothing.
What Is Memory Resilience? The Scheduling State VocaX Keeps for Each Word — Not a Score, Not a Ranking
Memory resilience is a state VocaX keeps for every word: the steadier you are, the later the next review; miss it and the word returns sooner. It is not a score, not a ranking, and it does not decay because you skipped a few days. Use it to see which words are still fragile and which have settled — but it is only a display of scheduling state, not a judgement on your ability.
Should I Redo a Word Right After Getting It Wrong? It Won't Come Straight Back, and Getting It Right Then Doesn't Count
You can redo a word right away — VocaX will not stop you. Missed words go into the Flags list automatically and you can run that whole list as a practice source. But the system will not bring a word straight back because you missed it: there is always a gap before it returns, and repeated misses buy nothing shorter. And getting it right right after seeing the answer is recognition, not retrieval — that "right" carries almost no information.
Should I Aim to Remember Every Word? No — Aim to Recognise It on Sight and Recall It When You Need It
Do not aim at never forgetting again: it is a lever that pushes your review load up, and what grows is repetitions, not results, until the rhythm collapses. Set the target a notch lower — recognise it on sight, recall it when you need it — a target you can check today. Keep the daily rhythm unbroken, hand missed words to flags instead of drilling them on the spot, and do not re-run a whole list at once. VocaX promises no retention rate.
When I Open VocaX Today, Should I Review or Learn New Words First? You Do Not Need Two Lists
You do not need to choose between new and old words first: begin with the current practice entry, then continue with the daily goal if time allows. With little time, do one round; after a gap, rebuild rhythm first. Flags, Consolidation, the daily goal, and the weekly report each provide a different next step.
Should I Learn Every Sense of a Word at Once? Translation Tests One Short Definition at a Time, and the Others Are Never Asked
Learn one sense first. A translation question's eligibility rests on whether the word has a short definition; that line is the prompt, plus up to three preset distractors, and it carries a part-of-speech prefix — one definition, one part of speech. So "learn every sense at once" is neither testable nor verifiable here: a correct answer advances the word in that one practice format, not an individual sense, and VocaX keeps no separate account per sense. Flags records the word, not the meaning.
Does Forgetting a Word the Next Day Mean the Method Isn't Working? Forgetting Is Normal — a New Word Needs to Come Back Just as You're About to Lose It
No. What makes a new word stick is not the familiarity you feel the moment you learn it, but seeing it again at the instant you are about to lose it. VocaX schedules the first reunion a whole night later so that meeting happens when you are on the edge of forgetting — so forgetting the next day is not a broken method, it is the road working as designed.
Why a Word You Recognise on the Page Goes Blank When You Hear It: Three Routes Share Only the Spelling
Recognising a word, catching it when you hear it, and saying it correctly are three different abilities: translation trains spelling → meaning, dictation trains sound → spelling, speaking trains spelling → sound. The three paths overlap at the spelling alone, so training one does not carry the others along. Train whichever you are missing: dictation on the commute to work on your ear, translation when you sit down, and flag the words you miss as your next entry point. VocaX does not teach grammar as a system and does not provide conversation with a real person.
How to Spend Your 20 Daily AI Translations: 3 Uses Worth It, 2 That Aren't
VocaX's free tier gives you 20 AI translations a day. This article makes no promise that 20 is enough — it explains when to use them: save them for whole-sentence judgements, not for word-by-word glossing or as a dictionary. It also separates system Spotlight lookup, which uses no AI and no quota, from the in-app search page's AI lookup, which draws on the separate 50-a-day allowance.
Is Learning Words on Their Own Actually Useless? It Stops at the Vocabulary Layer — Entries Give You Collocations, Examples and Context, But Not Sentence Building
It is useful, and it stops at the vocabulary layer. An entry carries definitions, inflections, register, derivatives, synonym and antonym notes, collocations and examples with translations, a bilingual context story, phonetics, pronunciation and an illustration. What is absent is three things: a grammar system, sentence-structure training, and writing or conversation. We will not adjudicate the popular claim that learning words alone is useless — only say where VocaX stops.
What Speaking Practice Judges: Whether You Said the Word, Not a Pronunciation Score
Speaking practice judges whether what you said is the word or the sentence in front of you, not how you sounded: get it right and you move on, and if it was unclear you can simply say it again. No accent judgement, no score, no ranking. It does not correct pronunciation or teach phonetics, and it is not an oral exam score.
Who Is VocaX For? From Your First Word List to Exam Prep — but It Is Not a Conversation Partner
VocaX does not sort you into a level: what it shows you next, and when a word comes back, follows the list you picked and what you actually answered. If you are starting out, it moves a list forward; further along, it patches the gaps you cannot spell, cannot catch by ear or cannot produce; with an exam ahead, you pick the list and push with a daily goal. It is not a live conversation partner, not a grammar course, and not a substitute for reading and listening.
How to Read the Weekly Memory Insights Report: See What Happened, Then Decide What to Do Next Week
Treat the weekly Memory Insights report as a plan for next week, not just a scorecard. See the overall picture, strengths, and weak points, then choose one or two suggestions. The forward plan is part of the report; subscription changes report access and history, not a single locked section.
Why Some Word Cards Have Images and Others Don't: Illustrations Are Part of the Theme Skin
Not every card carries an illustration, and that has nothing to do with how important the word is. VocaX artwork is part of the theme skin: switch skins and the same set of words looks completely different. Image or no image says nothing about a word's importance. Artwork only sets the visual mood; definitions follow the dictionary content.
I Have Many Flags — What Should I Handle First? Do Not Chase an Empty List; Turn Misses into the Next Action
When Flags grow, do not begin by trying to clear everything. Choose a small group by available time, practice format, and goal: Translation for mixed meanings, Dictation for sound-to-spelling, Speaking for hesitation aloud. Flags are not a chore list that must be empty; they are return entries for small batches.
Can Searching an Inflected Form Find the Root Word? Sometimes, Under Specific Conditions
Most of the time, yes. VocaX search folds inflected forms back to their base: common changes such as plurals, tenses and comparatives usually reach the root entry; irregular or rare forms may not. When it does not, drop the -s / -ed / -ing and try again, or look up the base form. It folds word forms; it does not understand sentences.
How CEFR Levels Work in VocaX: Tagged per Word, Not per Book
The CEFR level is attached to each individual word, not to a whole wordbook, so the same wordbook can contain both A2 and C1 words. Open any word detail page to see its level. Use it to judge whether a word is worth learning now, to pick today's practice by level, or to check yourself against a target level while preparing for an exam. It is a reference label, not an official exam verdict.
What Are VocaX's Four Translation Styles? General, Formal, Casual, and Poetic
The four styles are four different ways of translating the same sentence between the same language pair: General aims for balanced clarity, Formal leans toward academic register, Casual mimics native-speaker speech, and Poetic carries literary flair. They are not four language pairs; they are four 'how to translate' orientations. Switching styles does not change the source or target language.
How Long Does It Take to Finish a Wordbook? It Depends on Book Size and Your Daily New-Word Goal
Time for a first pass ≈ book size ÷ daily new-word goal. The daily goal defaults to 50, adjusts from 10 to 1000 in steps of 10, and lives in the progress ring on the card screen. At 50, a 676-word primary-school book takes about two weeks; a 7,419-word CET-6 book about five months. That is only every word seen once — after that each word follows its own review rhythm, scheduled by VocaX and not counted against your new-word quota.
How to Look Up English You Don't Understand: Point the Camera, Tap the Word
You don't have to type out English you don't recognise. Open Camera Word Capture in VocaX, point the camera at the text, and tap any word on screen to see its definition and example sentences. Recognition happens on your iPhone and the image never leaves the device; save the word and it comes back in your reviews.
What Should You Test During the 7-Day Trial? Test Your Daily Rhythm Before Deciding Whether to Subscribe
The 7-day trial is not for cramming the largest number of new words; it is for testing whether VocaX can fit your life: daily load, returning after a gap, and whether you will use Translation, scene audio, Word Music, Consolidation, and weekly insights. Find a path you will repeat before deciding whether to subscribe.
Why Speaking Practice Sometimes Asks for One Word and Sometimes a Whole Sentence: What Each One Trains
Word mode trains whether you can produce the word when you see the Chinese; sentence mode trains how the word comes out inside a sentence. They are two different exercises and both turn up in your practice: short on time, do word mode; want the flow to feel natural, do sentence mode. Sentence mode is not a grammar lesson and does not explain structure.