A reader that knows your words
Every word is colour-coded by how well you know it. Click one to translate it, hear it, look it up in a dictionary or save it – without losing your place.
New
Version 1.1.2 is out
Learn languages by reading what you love.
Word Hunter is a free reader and vocabulary trainer. Open a book, an article or subtitles, click the words you don’t know, and it keeps each one with its sentence – then brings it back for review right before you would forget it.
- 12learning languages, plus your own
- 4platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android
- 0accounts, ads or trackers
- 100%free and open source
How it works
From the page to long-term memory
Collecting words is easy. Word Hunter builds the way back to them, so the words you meet while reading become words you actually know.
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Read something you enjoy
A novel, a news article, an EPUB, a scanned PDF, film subtitles or a free public-domain classic. Every word is marked as new, learning or known.
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Click the words that matter
Save a translation, article, note or picture. The sentence you found it in is kept with it, so every word comes with its own context.
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Recall before you reveal
Flashcards and in-text prompts ask for the meaning first. You check yourself against the original sentence and rate how well you knew it.
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Come back at the right time
Spaced repetition (FSRS or SM-2) schedules each word. Hard words return soon, familiar ones wait longer – no wasted reviews.
Features
Everything a reading learner needs, in one app
No subscription and no cloud lock-in. Your books and words live on your device.
Import almost anything
Paste text or open EPUB, PDF, TXT and Markdown files, SRT, VTT and ASS subtitles, web articles and YouTube captions. Browse Project Gutenberg, Wikipedia and Wikinews in the app.
Scanned PDFs with local OCR
Desktop packages bundle the OCR engine and models. Read the original page with selectable words laid over it, or switch to a clean text view. Nothing is uploaded.
Flashcards with spaced repetition
Review due words with FSRS or SM-2, keyboard shortcuts, pronunciation, reverse cards and shuffling. On reverse cards the answer is masked inside the example sentence.
Your personal word base
Search, filter, edit and clean up every saved word with its status, translation, examples and source. Export to Anki, or back everything up in one ZIP file.
Progress you can see
A review heatmap, a 30-day due forecast and vocabulary growth mapped to CEFR levels show how far you’ve come and what’s coming up.
Word Hunter Pocket for Android
Import on your computer, then read and review on the go. A transfer package carries books, page images, words, settings and progress between devices.
Comfortable reading
Light and dark themes, adjustable fonts and sizes, the dyslexia-friendly Atkinson Hyperlegible and OpenDyslexic fonts, and read-aloud that keeps the spoken word in view.
Optional AI explanations
Ask a local model (llama.cpp, LM Studio, Ollama) or any OpenAI-compatible service you choose to explain a word in its sentence. Off until you turn it on.
Tour
See it in action
The same library, words and progress on your computer and in Word Hunter Pocket.
Reader and word panel
Underlines show what’s new, what you’re learning and what you already know. Click a word to see its translation, your note and the sentences you saved it from.
Library and import
Your books, articles, subtitles and scanned PDFs in one place, each with its own progress. Built-in stories and A1–B2 course books get you started in every language.
Flashcards
Review what’s due with the original sentence as a hint. Reveal, rate and move on – with the keyboard on desktop or a tap on your phone.
Word base
Every word you save, with its status, translation and example. Filter by book or status, fix a typo without losing progress, and export whenever you like.
Progress
See your review activity, what’s due over the next 30 days and how your vocabulary grows towards the next CEFR level.
Why it works
Built on well-studied learning habits
These studies look at learning methods, not at Word Hunter itself. They show why context, recall, repetition and spacing are worth combining.
“Reading the words in either the retrieval or inference context increased retention.”
“Taking a memory test not only assesses what one knows, but also enhances later retention.”
“The optimal gap increased as test delay increased.”
“Results showed that there was a medium effect (r = .34) of repetition on incidental vocabulary learning.”
No method works on autopilot: pick texts you can mostly understand, save the words that matter to you, and try to recall before you check.
Languages
Twelve languages, and room for yours
Each language gets its own library, word base, review queue and progress, with original stories and A1–B2 course books built in. The Other profile works with any language you set up.
The app itself is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Japanese and Chinese.
English
German
Spanish
French
Italian
Polish
Ukrainian
Russian
Japanese
Chinese
Latin
Ancient Greek
Other – any language
What’s new
Recent releases
Word Hunter 1.1.2
- Imports that work. Wikipedia and Wikinews articles from Discover open again, PDFs saved from a browser keep their words whole, and EPUBs with many pictures or an embedded font are accepted. More YouTube videos have subtitles.
- One entry per word. French and Italian words after an elision (d’, qu’, dell’), Ukrainian words written with ʼ and Ancient Greek words with a grave accent are saved as the word itself. Words you saved before are merged when you update.
- Safer backups and transfers. Restoring the backup the clear buttons make brings back what was cleared. Transfer packages no longer carry your DeepL or AI keys, and importing one no longer deletes words on this device just because they were deleted on the other.
- Flashcards. The review calendar keeps every day you reviewed, deleting a word you have worked on asks first, and reloading right after an edit no longer loses it.
Word Hunter 1.1.0
- World of Warcraft vocabulary. Import the words you collect in quests with the WordHunterWoW addon, with your meanings, notes and the quest sentence.
- Edit saved words. Correct a word without losing its progress, notes or examples.
- Reading comfort. Dyslexia-friendly fonts, read-aloud that follows the spoken word, and a shuffle button for today’s flashcards.
- Faster start. Large libraries open in about half the time.
Download
Get Word Hunter 1.1.2
Free on every platform. All downloads come straight from the official GitHub release.
Windows
Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit
Or use a package manager:
winget install Ironship.WordHunterscoop bucket add wordhunter https://github.com/Ironship/scoop-wordhunterscoop install wordhunter/wordhuntermacOS
Apple Silicon (M1 or newer)
Opening it the first time
The app is not notarised by Apple. Drag it to Applications and try to open it once, then choose Open Anyway in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
Intel Macs are not supported.
Linux
x86_64 with WebKitGTK 4.1
Or use the Homebrew tap:
brew install --cask Ironship/wordhunter/wordhunterUbuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 38 or newer. Local OCR is included.
Android
Word Hunter Pocket, Android 8 or newer
Your phone may ask you to allow installs from your browser. An F‑Droid listing has been requested and is waiting for review.
Older versions are on the releases page. Package recipes for Chocolatey, Snap, AUR and Nixpkgs are in the repository but not published in those stores yet.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Something else? Ask on GitHub.
Is Word Hunter really free?
Yes. It is open-source software under the GNU AGPL-3.0, with no subscription, no in-app purchases and no ads.
Do I need an account or an internet connection?
No account at all. Reading, saving words, flashcards and desktop OCR work offline. The internet is used only for online features you choose, such as the book catalog, online translation, dictionaries or online speech.
Where is my data stored?
On your device. Your books, words, settings and progress never go to a Word Hunter server – there isn’t one. You can export a full backup as a ZIP file at any time. See the privacy policy.
How do I move my words between my computer and my phone?
Open Export, save a transfer package and import it on the other device. It carries books, page images, words, settings and reading progress, and merges with what is already there.
Can I keep using Anki?
Yes. Export your words to Anki as a TSV file, or import an Anki TSV file into Word Hunter.
Is there an iPhone or iPad version?
Not at the moment. Word Hunter runs on Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon), Linux and Android.