Looking up a word
Choose any word in a story to see what it means in that sentence. A small box opens with the meaning, the word’s pronunciation, and a button to save it to your Word Bank.
Look up a word in a story
- Make sure Layout is on Guided or Assisted. Words can’t be looked up in Solo.
- Choose a word in the story, or in the title.
- The box opens. Read the meaning, then choose another word, or close the box with its × (Close).
On a keyboard, the words are buttons: use the arrow keys to move between them, and press Enter to look one up. Escape closes the box.
Example
Sarah reads a Croatian A1 story and chooses “pijem”. The box shows “I drink” as the meaning in this sentence, marks it as a verb, and links to its dictionary form, “piti”.
What’s in the word box?
From top to bottom:
- The kind of word (such as verb or noun), with short grammar notes.
- Your tutor’s note, on a tutor’s link where the tutor wrote one for this word.
- The meaning in this sentence, in large type. This is the main answer.
- The word itself, with a speaker button to hear it, and often its IPA.
- dictionary form: a link to the word’s dictionary form, when the word is in another form. Choose it to look that form up; Back returns to the word you chose.
- A longer explanation, when there’s more to say than the meaning.
- In this sentence: the translation of the whole sentence. This shows in Assisted only, since Guided already shows it under the line.
Under it all is a short note: “AI-generated entry. It may contain mistakes.”
Save a word to your Word Bank
- In the word box, choose the tag icon at the top right (Save to Word Bank).
- The icon turns into Saved, and a message says “Saved to Word Bank”. To take the word out again, choose Saved.
- When the word isn’t in its dictionary form, you can also choose Save dictionary form to save that form instead.
Saving needs a free account. Free keeps up to 200 words; Learner Plus and Educator Studio have no limit. See Word Bank.
What are the underlined words?
- A solid underline marks a key word: a word your tutor wants you to practice. It shows on a tutor’s link when the tutor turned on Highlight key words.
- A dotted underline shows in Assisted on words you haven’t looked up yet. It goes away once you look the word up.
How many words can I look up?
| Word lookups in stories | |
|---|---|
| Signed out | 30 new words a day |
| Free | 300 a day |
| Learner Plus and Educator Studio | No daily count |
A word someone has already looked up in the same story doesn’t count. On a tutor’s link, your tutor’s plan covers your lookups first. Daily limits reset at 00:00 UTC. See Plans and limits.
When you reach the limit, the box says so. Signed out, it offers Create free account; on Free, Upgrade to Learner Plus. Words already looked up still open.
How do I look up a word that isn’t in a story?
Use the Word Bank’s search box (Search or look up a word). Those dictionary searches have their own daily limit. See Word Bank.
It says new word lookups are paused for this story.
A tutor’s story that was edited by hand has its own daily allowance for new words. Words already looked up still work. The message says when new lookups come back.
It says “Lookups aren’t available for this story.”
Lookups work only for stories Stichos wrote. A story that couldn’t be checked as one of ours, such as a very old saved story, can still be read, but its words can’t be looked up.
Related: Layout · Word Bank · Pronunciation · Audio · Plans and limits
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