Word Golem
ゴーレムI'll show you basic.
LookalikesSpeed up
Vocabulary at arcade speed.
A fast, loud word game for Spanish, German, Japanese and Mandarin.
Beat the clock. Beat the boss. Keep the words.
Free in your browser.
No download, no sign-up.
ためして Try it
20 seconds. Go.
See the word, tap what it means. Right answers add a second. Misses cost two.
Get 10 in a row for 5 more.
20 second challenge
Spanishnoun
el día
Pick the English
Ready?
Pick a language up top, then hit Start. No pressure.
Well, some pressure.
Keys: 1 2 3 4 to answer, Enter to start
たいせん Versus
Not another calm little lesson.
The usual lesson app
- A bit of grammar, a bit of listening, a few words
- Boring lessons at a slow pace
- A handful of new words a day
- Review comes when the lesson says so
- Only vocabulary, 15,000+ words of it
- A clock that never stops, so you think fast
- Dozens of words a minute when you're on fire
- Words you miss come back again and again until they stick
K-12 Teacher DesignedMade by a teacher and UX designer who kept a 1,200+ day streak on another language app and still wanted more.
モードセレクト Pick a mode
Two ways to play.
NEW!
アーケード
Arcade Mode
A guided run through every topic.
Clear the stages, earn up to 3 stars, then take on the boss.
- Levels for every topic, from beginner to advanced
- Read, Match, Recall and Gender rounds
- A boss fight at the end of every level
- Out of hearts? A coin buys a Continue
れんしゅう
Practice Mode
Build your own drill and play it at your own pace.
- Pick the language, level, part of speech and topic
- Play only new words, or only your trouble words
- Skip the words you already know
- Your word list tracks every hit and miss
ボス Boss rush
20 bosses. One for every topic.
Every level ends in a boss fight:
all of the level's words, 3 hearts, 7 seconds a word.
Tap a boss to land a hit.
Chef Chomp
シェフHope you are hungry for defeat!
RushLookalikes
Germ King
菌の王Achoo! Feeling weak?
BlackoutHeal
Coach Crunch
コーチDrop and give me twenty words!
Speed upRush
Dust Bunny
ダストバニーClean up your vocab!
ShuffleIntruder
Professor Pop Quiz
先生Pencils down. You fail!
LookalikesIntruder
Overtime Ogre
残業鬼I need you to work this weekend.
Speed upFlip
Cashzilla
キャッシュRaaawwwr!!
Pay up!
RushShuffle
Lost Luggage
迷子Looks like we've overbooked!
FlipEcho
Traffic Titan
渋滞No getting through this gridlock!
BlackoutSpeed up
Typhoon Tengu
台風Blown away yet?
ShuffleBlackout
Neko Shogun
猫将軍Meow or never.
EchoHeal
Clock Oni
時計鬼Tick tock.
Time is almost up.
Speed upRush
Auntie Gossip
おばちゃんYour cousin says you can't spell!
EchoIntruder
Mood Swing
気分屋Happy? Sad? Defeated!
FlipHeal
Sock Thief
靴下泥棒Lost something?
IntruderShuffle
Glitch Lord
バグ王404: skills not found.
BlackoutShuffle
The Bureaucrat
役人You'll need a permit for that.
LookalikesSpeed up
Couch Potato King
ゴロゴロJust one more episode...
HealEcho
Grab-Bag Goblin
ゴブリンBet you forgot me.
ShuffleFlip
Each boss has two twists.
In Rage they take turns: 15 seconds or 5 answers each, with a breather in between.
Here's what they throw at you.
Speed up
The word timer drops from 7 seconds to 5
Flip
Words show up mirrored or upside down: read them anyway
Echo
Hear the word, no text: pick the English
Shuffle
The answers swap places
Blackout
The lights dip and answers fade in late
Lookalikes
Every wrong answer looks like the right one
Intruder
Spot the word that came from another topic
Rush
15 seconds of double damage
Heal
5 in a row wins a heart back
Miss a word 3 times and it drags you down.
- Miss the same word 3 times in a row.
- Now it's just you and that word. New wrong answers every time, and the right one keeps moving.
- Get it right 5 times in a row to break free.
The clock waits while you're down there. Your score doesn't change.
The word just gets burned in.
コンボ Combo
Keep the streak alive.
10 in a row
+5 seconds on the clock.
20 in a row
Super streak.
You earn a streak freeze.
Streak freeze
Your next miss won't break the streak.
ワールドセレクト Pick a world
Four worlds. 15,000+ words.
¡Hola!
Spanish vocabulary game
Español
6,895 words
Hallo!
German vocabulary game
Deutsch
2,132 words
こんにちは
Japanese vocabulary game
日本語
3,195 words
你好
Mandarin vocabulary game
中文
3,519 words
el/laFocus on gendered articles in Spanish & German.
ふりがなPronunciation above Japanese & Chinese.
VoiceChoose one of several natural voices to say every word out loud.
アクセシビリティ Accessibility
Built for accessibility.
Save your progress
Sign in with Google to keep stars and words in sync on every device.
Optional.
Your words
Every word you've played, with your hits and misses.
Drill your trouble words in one tap.
All devices
Game optimized to play on phones, tablets and desktop, with keyboard-only controls.
Accessible motion
No flashing or shaking, more time to read titles and a slower Arcade clock.
It follows your device's Reduce motion setting.
Screen readers
Right answers, lost hearts and time warnings are read out loud.
Easy to read
Font specially selected for max readability.
かがく The science
Better learning,
Better learning,
backed by science.
For parents and teachers:
Every mechanic in WRDLRNR is built around methods with strong evidence behind them.
80% vs 36%
Recall beats rereading
In WRDLRNR: every question makes you pull the word out of memory.
Students who kept testing themselves on Swahili word pairs remembered about 80% a week later.
Those who stopped testing kept about 36%.
Karpicke & Roediger, 2008, Science. Read the study
+16.5%
Missed words come back sooner
In WRDLRNR: words you miss return within a few questions and lead your next round.
In an 8th-grade Spanish class, personalized review software boosted retention 16.5% over cramming.
Lindsey et al., 2014, Psychological Science. Read the study
254 studies
Spaced, not crammed
In WRDLRNR: short rounds you come back to, with your “Trouble words” first.
Across 254 studies, spreading practice out beat cramming it together: 47% recalled versus 37%.
Cepeda et al., 2006, Psychological Bulletin. Read the review
+494%
Instant correction
In WRDLRNR: miss a word and the right answer flashes up right away.
Showing the right answer after a wrong one raised one-week recall of foreign words by 494% compared with no feedback.
Pashler et al., 2005, J. Exp. Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. Read the study
Drill it until it sticks
In WRDLRNR: “Purgatory” makes you get a stubborn word right several times in a row.
Recalling items correctly several times, then relearning them in later sessions, gave lasting memory at little extra cost.
Rawson & Dunlosky, 2011, J. Exp. Psychology: General. Read the study
Hard in a good way
In WRDLRNR: “Rage” twists flip words, swap answers and throw “Lookalikes” at you.
Practice that feels harder, through variety and effortful recall, can slow you down today and strengthen memory long term, as long as you can still win.
Bjork & Bjork, 2020, J. Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Read the paper
Speed builds recognition
In WRDLRNR: a clock on every round, and a word timer in “Boss Fights”.
Timed word-recall training in second-language classrooms made the practiced words faster and more accurate to retrieve.
Snellings et al., 2002, Language Learning. Read the study
0.33 effect size
Games help people learn
In WRDLRNR: stars, coins, streaks and “Boss Fights” wrapped around every drill.
A meta-analysis of K-16 studies found digital games improved learning over non-game teaching, and well designed games added more.
A review of 26 studies found large effects for vocabulary games in particular.
Clark et al., 2016, Review of Educational Research. Read the study. Tsai & Tsai, 2018, Computers & Education. Read the review
These studies tested the methods themselves, not WRDLRNR.
We built the game around what they found.
Future user research results coming soon.
ホーム Install
Put it on your Home Screen.
WRDLRNR runs in your browser.
Add it to your Home Screen and it opens full screen, like an app.
iPhone and iPad
- Open wrdlrnr.com/play in Safari.
- Tap Share
- Tap Add to Home Screen.
Android
- Open wrdlrnr.com/play in Chrome.
- Tap the menu
- Tap Install app or Add to Home screen.
Computer
- Open wrdlrnr.com/play and play.
- In Chrome or Edge, click the install button in the address bar to keep it in your dock.
つづく To be continued
Coming soon.
New features in development.
SOON
RPG grammar battles
Turn-based fights powered by grammar.
SOON
Classroom mode
Class codes, assignments and progress for teachers.
Got an idea?
Feature voting opens soon.
しつもん FAQ
Questions?
What is WRDLRNR?
WRDLRNR is a free, arcade-style vocabulary game for Spanish, German, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. It runs in your web browser: you beat the clock, clear stages and fight bosses while you learn words, and the words you miss come back sooner.
How do you say WRDLRNR?
“Word learner.” It is the phrase word learner with the vowels knocked out, arcade style. In Japanese it is ワードラーナー.
Is WRDLRNR free?
Yes. It is free to play in any web browser on a phone, tablet or computer. There is nothing to download and no account needed. Signing in with Google is optional and only syncs your progress between devices.
Which languages and levels can I learn?
Is WRDLRNR a full language course?
No. It does one thing: vocabulary, at arcade speed. Timed rounds, streaks and boss fights train you to recognize and recall words fast. It works best next to a class, a textbook or a course app that teaches grammar.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes. It runs in Safari, Chrome and other browsers, and you can add it to your Home Screen so it opens full screen like an app. There is no app store version yet.