Review and Play: Spaced Repetition for the Words You Save

Saving a word is the easy half of learning it. The hard half is meeting it again, ideally just before you forget it. The Vault now has two tabs that handle that timing for you: Review, a flashcard session over the words you have saved, and Play, the same session run as a speed game. They share one schedule, so a word you practise in either tab counts in both.

A schedule that tracks forgetting

Behind both tabs is spaced repetition. Every saved word carries its own due date, and each time you answer, that date moves: get the word right and it retreats — a day, then several days, then weeks. Miss it and it comes back soon. Over time the easy words stop taking up your session, while the stubborn ones keep returning until they stick.

There is nothing to configure. Any word in your vocabulary lists is eligible, and the queue introduces up to twenty new words a day alongside whatever is due. If you have not saved any words yet, start in the Reader: tap a word, press Add to Vault, and it joins the pool — the Vocabulary Vault guide walks through lists in detail. You will need a free account, since the schedule belongs to you.

Review: the flashcard session

Open Review from the Vault and you will see today's numbers: cards due, new words available, and your streak of consecutive review days.

Press Start review and the cards begin.

1. A word appears, alone. Try to recall its meaning before touching anything.
2. Flip the card — tap it, or press the space bar. The back shows the definition, then a sentence from the library's classics with the word in bold, and the book it came from. If you have picked a translation language in Settings, a translation appears under the definition. A speaker button reads the word aloud; switch on auto-play and every card is pronounced as it appears.
3. Grade yourself. Again if you drew a blank, Hard if the meaning came slowly, Good if it came after a moment, Easy if it was instant. Your grade is what sets when the word returns.
4. The next card loads on its own. Keep going until the queue is empty.

The card backs draw on the same dictionary as Verbault's word pages, so what you study matches what you would find at, say, /word/solace — and when a word holds your interest beyond its card, its page adds a map of related words worth exploring.

Play: the same review, as a game

Play runs the identical queue, but instead of flipping cards and grading yourself, you answer four-choice questions. The tab opens on the same daily numbers, with one button to start the round:

Each question takes one of three shapes:

• Definition → word. A definition appears; pick the word it defines.
• Word → definition. The word appears; pick its meaning.
• Fill the blank. A sentence from a classic appears with one word missing; pick the word that belongs in the gap.

The wrong options are not random. They are words from the same neighbourhood of meaning — in the round above, every choice is an adverb that could plausibly end the sentence — close enough that you have to know the answer rather than eliminate the absurd.

Scoring is where Play stays honest. Your answer, and how quickly you gave it, convert into the same four grades Review uses: a fast correct answer counts as Easy, a steady one as Good, a slow one as Hard, a miss as Again. The combo counter, the points, and the timer bar exist for momentum and nothing else. If the bar runs out, the question simply waits — a timeout says nothing about whether you know a word, so the game never fails you on time alone.

Finish the queue and you get a summary: your accuracy, best combo, score, and streak.

Which tab to open

Since both feed one schedule, this is a question of mood rather than strategy. Review suits a quiet stretch when you want to read the example sentences properly and weigh your own recall. Play suits a spare two minutes, when a scoreboard is the difference between practising and postponing. The schedule does not mind which you pick, as long as the words come back.

Start by saving a handful of words in the Reader, then open Review tomorrow — there will be something waiting.