English novels
Catch the literary words that authors use once and never again.
Word HolderThe English word you looked up, still there tomorrow.
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What happens after you look up “besotted”
How Word Holder works with besotted:
- Look up besotted and see the definition: Strongly infatuated; passionately in love.
- Word Holder saves besotted automatically in your words list.
- A review card comes due later with the cue “infatuated; passionately in love”, so you can recall the word and rate how well you knew it. Press Again and missed words come back sooner.
1.58 million headwords in six languages · built by a learner who kept losing his paper word lists
Common English words to know
A sample from our curated English vocabulary — each word has a full definition page with examples.
- aloofdistant, unfriendly
- besottedinfatuated, smitten
- candidfrank, straightforward
- crypticobscure, puzzling
- dubiousdoubtful, questionable
- elusivehard to catch or pin down
- ephemeralshort-lived, fleeting
- ficklechangeable, inconstant
- garruloustalkative, long-winded
- gauntlean and hollow-cheeked
- haplessunlucky, ill-fated
- laconicterse, sparing with words
- quaintcharmingly old-fashioned
- serendipitya happy accident
- tenaciousholding on stubbornly
- ubiquitousfound everywhere
Browse all curated English words →English irregular verb conjugations →
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Looking up a word is easy. Remembering it later is the problem.
Dictionaries explain a word once, then it's gone. Browser translators don't build a vocabulary history. Manual flashcards interrupt your reading. Word Holder keeps the words you naturally encounter so they're still there a week later.
From reading to review, automatically
- Read an English book, article, or webpage.
- Look up an unfamiliar word on the website.
- The word is saved automatically with its meaning and an example sentence.
- Come back the next day to review only the words you actually met.
Reviews are scheduled by an SM-2-based scheduler — the same family that powered Anki — so each word comes back right before you forget it. Coming from Anki? See how Word Holder compares.
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- Vocabulary comes from real reading, not generic word lists.
- You only review words you actually needed in context.
- Unlimited reviews and quizzes — we don't ration your studying.
- Designed for people who already read English, not beginners.
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