What's New in Word Holder: Reading Passages, Conjugations, and Richer Definitions

Word Holder keeps growing in the same slightly-out-of-control way as always. Every few weeks there is something new, and - thanks to the coding agents, the pace has not really slowed down.

None of the recent changes are huge, dramatic features. They are the kind of small improvements that add up — the things that make reading in another language feel a little smoother, a little less like work. Here is what is new.

You don't have to bring your own text anymore

The original idea behind Word Holder was simple: you are already reading something — an article, a chapter, a blog post — and you look up the words you don't know. That still works exactly as before. You paste a text, or paste a URL, and the app turns it into a clean reader.

But there was always an awkward first moment. A brand-new user opens the app and… has nothing to read. They have to go find an article first, which is a small chore, and small chores are where people quietly give up.

So now there is a third option: built-in reading passages. On the import screen there is a Sample passage tab with a small library of short texts, graded by reading level, in each supported language. Pick one, and you are reading — and looking up words, and building your list — within seconds. No hunting for an article first.

For new users this is now the default. You open the app, you pick something to read, and the whole loop starts immediately.

Reading in chapters

Some of the passages come as a series — a longer text split into parts you read across several sessions. The picker remembers where you are and offers to Continue, so a longer story doesn't have to be one intimidating wall of text.

It is a small thing, but it matches how people actually read: a bit at a time, coming back to it later.

Verb conjugations, right where you need them

When you look up a verb now, Word Holder shows its full conjugation table — not on a separate page you have to go hunting for, but right there on the word card. Tap a verb like parlare or hablar and you can see how it behaves across tenses without leaving what you were reading. There is a ton of verb conjugation tables on the internet on ton of wonderful sites - I don't intend to compete with them, only tryiing to make WOrd Holder one stop shop for your words learning, including verbs,

For a long time this was a "maybe someday" idea. In the last update I even mentioned it as one of those features that felt within reach thanks to the open Kaikki data but wasn't built yet. Well — now it is built. The inflection data that made it theoretically possible is now actually on screen.

There are a few extra touches for the verbs that need them most:

• Irregular verbs get a little badge, so you know when a form is one you can't guess.
• Spanish stem-changing verbs get their own marker on the card.
• English and Dutch show the simple past correctly, which is exactly the form learners trip on.

Grammar explanations

This is quite experimental but there's a lot of potential in it. On any imported text - uour own or from pur library, tap on a word - and see explanation of the word form - why this form, what is the base form etc. This is going to change a lot in the coming weeks.

More SRS card for each lemma sens

For each lemma, ther was one fixed sentence for the SRS cards, on a randonly chosen sense. Now there are several sentences for each meaning, rotating as you come back, so one day you may see

She peered through the fog, trying to see the lighthouse in the distance.

and the next day

Teenagers are often more influenced by their peers than by their teachers.

. Cool, isn't it.

Definitions that say a little more

The two-phase lookup I wrote about last time — a fast short answer first, a richer explanation when you want it — is still the core of how lookups work. But the richer side has quietly gotten richer.

Now, when you open the fuller view of a word, you may also see:

• Synonyms and antonyms, grouped by sense, so you get a feel for the word's neighbourhood rather than just its translation.
• Example sentences for each sense, so an abstract definition has something concrete attached.
• Register badges that quietly push archaic and rare meanings further down. A lot of dictionary entries lead with a 19th-century literary sense that you will almost never meet in real reading — this keeps the meaning you actually want at the top.

The goal is the same as always: enough to understand, not a miniature essay. But when you do want more, there's now more there.

A calmer place for your words

The page where your saved words live — your personal list — got a redesign that leans more toward a collection you browse than a spreadsheet you manage. The navigation also got simpler: reading and your library now live behind a single, state-aware tab that says Continue when you have something open and Library otherwise.

Fewer tabs, fewer decisions, more reading. That's the direction.

Plans

Word Holder now has paid plans. The free tier is still genuinely useful — 20 word lookups per day, 500 total, u nlimited reviews and quizzes, spaced repetition, lookups — and many people will never need more than that. The paid tiers mostly raise the caps for grammar explanations and words per day and total words. There's a 30-day money-back guarantee, and anonymous visitors still have meaningful caps without signing up.

The project is still a hobby. But hobbies have hosting bills and heavy users can incur essential API costs.

Still the same idea

Under all of this, the goal hasn't moved an inch: help you remember the words you actually meet while reading.

Reading passages mean you can start reading instantly. Conjugation tables mean verbs make sense in context. Richer definitions mean a single tap tells you more. And spaced repetition, still running quietly in the background, makes sure the words you looked up don't just evaporate a week later.

None of it is revolutionary. It's just a hobby project that keeps getting a little better because the cost of trying one more idea has fallen so far. I doubt this is the last of it.

If you want to try any of this, you can use the website directly — pick a sample passage and start reading — or install the browser extension and look up words on any page.

Install the browser extension