English is my second language. From my experience, I learnt that developing your vocabulary is a long and arduous process. Traditionally, learners used flashcards (or their digital incarnations). I wanted to build something more engaging and more effective in building your vocabulary.
DictionaryGames is aimed mostly at ESL (English as a Second Language) students, but I am hoping it might be fun for any English language lovers.
The project is in BETA, it is free, and no registration is required.
I am looking for feedback to improve it. If you comment, please indicate if you are a native English speaker. I am in particular interested in the feedback from ESL learners.
by jamesdhutton on 5/21/25, 3:12 AM
I think your game has potential but, at present, the questions are too hard and the answers are sometimes simply wrong. Example:
Q: Find the noun matching the following definition: "A burden or responsibility."
A: Saddle
This is not correct. Saddle as a verb can mean "to burden", but as a noun it does not mean a burden.
by gumboshoes on 5/21/25, 8:46 PM
As someone who works in the linguistics space and has worked with numerous teams on games and has a wealth of knowledge on how people actually learn vocabulary and what they actually find fun when doing so, I feel like this game would benefit from a pause, a rethink, and a redo. I am in the middle of a Covid bout right now or I would say something more substantive but perhaps most important: you already have valuable feedback here you seem to be rejecting. Why? For example, what if you did allow multiple answers in the blank and scored accordingly?
by satisfice on 5/21/25, 12:35 PM
By its nature, this game should accept synonyms of the synonyms it is looking for. I offered “bountiful” when the game wanted “abundant.” My answer was not wrong. When it was rejected I instantly lost interest (i.e. motivation, will, desire) to play the game.
by AlexErrant on 5/21/25, 1:18 AM
> Guess the missing word to complete the following sentence:
> Everyone respects him, he's the _ _ _ _ _ in this business.
Apparently the answer is "daddy"... this is not a good question or answer. Good luck with the launch, but you might want a native speaker to audit your question bank.
by we_needit on 5/18/25, 12:53 AM
Why do you make people pay yet you claim to be helpful...you know helping is not always about getting a reward in return right?
by replwoacause on 5/21/25, 2:18 AM
Hmm, weird questions
"Question: Find the word matching the following definition:
Extremely or very much."
My Attempt: "sufficient"
Actual answer: "jolly"
huh??