# How to Use Spaced Repetition for Vocabulary **Download:** [Download Miji](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/miji-dictionary-flashcards/id6807164823) **Availability:** iPhone · iOS 26 or later · English. Free to download, with optional Pro **Web page:** https://getmiji.app/spaced-repetition-for-vocabulary.html By [Miji](https://getmiji.app/about.html) · Published September 17, 2026 To learn vocabulary with spaced repetition, quiz yourself just before you forget a word. Save the words you meet, turn each one into two questions, and answer when they come back. Five steps below, and an app can carry most of them. This article is published by Miji’s maker. ## Step 1: Save the words you meet Start with words from your own day. You read one in an article. You hear one in a show. You look one up and move on. Those words beat any list you download. You already know where the word came from. That is a hook, and hooks make recall easier. A word you had to look up is the best kind to save. You needed it once. You will need it again. Do not save everything, though. Ten or twenty new words a week is plenty. A short list you finish beats a long list you drop. ## Step 2: Turn each word into two questions A flashcard is a question with one answer. It is not a note and not a summary. For vocabulary, two questions do the job: - Show the word, ask for the meaning. That direction helps you read and listen. - Show the meaning, ask for the word. That direction helps you speak and write. Keep one meaning per flashcard. A word with three meanings can wait. Start with the meaning you actually met. Add the sentence you found it in. It fixes which meaning you want, and it makes the answer easier to reach. ## Step 3: Answer from memory, not from the page Rereading a definition feels like work. It teaches you very little. Say the answer out loud, or think it, before you check. The small struggle is the part that builds memory. Wrong answers are not failures. Miss a word, and it returns sooner than the rest. Miji for iPhone Keep the words you find. Look up a word, save its meaning, and come back to a flashcard already made for you. Free to download, with optional Pro iOS 26 or later · English ## Step 4: Let the gaps grow Each word you remember should wait longer before it returns. Each word you forget should arrive again soon. That growing gap is the whole method. Every review flattens your [forgetting curve](https://getmiji.app/forgetting-curve.html) a little. You can run this by hand. Paper flashcards and a few boxes are enough, and [spaced repetition began that way](https://getmiji.app/what-is-spaced-repetition.html). Counting by hand gets old fast. An app reads your answers and picks the next day for every word. ## Step 5: Keep each session short Ten minutes a day beats one long Sunday. Vocabulary grows on frequency, not on big days. Show up most days and you are fine. Perfect streaks are not the point. A day off costs you little. Your due words wait, and tomorrow is a slightly bigger pile. If the pile scares you, add fewer new words for a week. It shrinks on its own. ## Apps that do some of this for you Anki, Mochi, Miji and LookUp all pick the next day for you, so step four stops being your job. They differ in where the flashcards come from. - **Anki** is an open-source flashcard program, and its iPhone app is a companion to the computer version. - **Memrise** is a language learning app, with courses built on videos of native speakers. - **Miji** is an English dictionary for iPhone, and the words you look up become the flashcards. - **Mochi** is for notes and flashcards written in markdown, then studied with spaced repetition. - **LookUp** is an English dictionary with a word of the day and spaced repetition quizzes. Choose Memrise instead if you want a course to hand you the words; its lessons are built around a goal you pick. Miji starts from the words you looked up yourself. Coming from Anki on a computer? See [the best Anki alternatives for iPhone](https://getmiji.app/anki-alternatives-iphone.html). Here is what each one costs and how it is rated. From each app's App Store page, checked October 17, 2026. | App | Price to download | Rating | Last update | Needs | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [AnkiMobile Flashcards](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ankimobile-flashcards/id373493387) | $24.99 | 4.0 from 2,300+ ratings | September 8, 2025 | iOS 15.2 or later | | [Miji: Dictionary & Flashcards](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/miji-dictionary-flashcards/id6807164823) | Free | No ratings yet | October 14, 2026 | iOS 26.0 or later | | [Memrise: Language Learning App](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/memrise-language-learning-app/id635966718) | Free | 4.8 from 210,000+ ratings | September 7, 2026 | iOS 15.0 or later | | [Mochi - Flashcards and notes](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mochi-flashcards-and-notes/id1507775056) | Free | 4.6 from 170+ ratings | September 16, 2026 | iOS 15.6 or later | | [LookUp: English Dictionary App](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lookup-english-dictionary-app/id872564448) | Free | 4.7 from 3,100+ ratings | October 8, 2026 | iOS 26.0 or later | ## Miji: save a word in two taps Looked a word up and lost it by lunch? That is the word Miji is built for. Miji is an English dictionary first. Search a word, read its meanings, and tap Remember on the one you want. Start typing, and the word you want appears. **2 taps.** Tap the word. Tap Remember. Now it is a flashcard. That covers step two. Miji writes both flashcards for you, one for each direction. There is nothing to type. Step four then runs without you. When a word is due, its flashcard arrives as a notification. Answer Knew or Forgot from the lock screen. Step three stays your job. The question comes to you, but the answer still comes from you. The flashcard asks for a meaning. You answer Knew or Forgot. Notifications depend on your iPhone's permissions and settings. Step five is short by default. Each answer takes a few seconds, and your due words also sit in the app whenever you want them. After a short practice, Miji shows what you earned and when each word returns. Miji uses FSRS to pick those days. Anki's iPhone app offers the same FSRS scheduling that Anki on a computer uses. Miji has no shared decks and no sync. It is English only, and it runs on iPhone with iOS 26 or later. You do not write your own sentence here: both flashcards come from the meaning you tapped. The dictionary works offline, and learning needs no account. Miji is free to download. The free version starts with room for 10 words. Pro lifts the limit on saved words. **The pick.** Miji is the pick for words you look up: it carries four of the five steps, and saving a word costs two taps because the lookup is the flashcard. Step three, answering from memory, stays yours. Search once, remember forever. iPhone, iOS 26 or later. English words. Free offline dictionary, deck organization and export. Private iCloud backup; not continuous sync. ## Questions ### How do you use spaced repetition to learn vocabulary? Save the words you meet, and make each one a question you answer from memory. Let every right answer push that word further into the future. ### How many new words should I add each day? Two or three is plenty. Adding twenty feels great on day one and painful by week three. ### How long before spaced repetition works on new words? You will feel words sticking within a couple of weeks. The real win comes months later, when a word you saved once is still there. ### Does spaced repetition work for English vocabulary? Yes. A word and its meaning are a pair, and pairs are what this method handles best. Spelling and pronunciation can each get a flashcard too.