Look Up While Reading: Click Any Word to See Definitions, Examples, and Pronunciation
When reading an English text, the most frustrating thing is often encountering a word you don't know. You stop, switch to another dictionary app or webpage, type, search, look at the results—and by the time you return to the text, you've already forgotten where you were or what the sentence was about. Doing this back and forth a few times in an article completely disrupts your reading rhythm.
Over time, many people simply stop looking things up. "Just guessing the meaning" becomes a habit, vocabulary words are let go one by one, and comprehension becomes hazy. What really gets in the way of reading is often that the cost of looking up a word is too high, which has little to do with how difficult the word actually is.
Looking Up Words Must Be Effortless for You to Do It Willingly
The key mindset is simple: Looking up words needs to be so fast that it doesn't disrupt reading for you to do it frequently. When looking up a word takes only one action and you can return to the original sentence immediately after reading it, looking up words changes from a "chore" into something "effortless." If you look up words frequently, your vocabulary accumulates quickly, and you will see the results over time.
This is also why Loopy built the dictionary directly into the lessons—instant lookup without leaving the text. Your eyes and your progress remain right on the original sentence.
How to Practice on Loopy: Tap to Look Up Words
Every English word in Loopy's lessons can be clicked. Clicking a word will bring up a small pop-up card next to it, giving you the key points of the word all at once.
The three steps to operate:
- Click any word: When you encounter a new word while reading, simply tap or click on it. A small card will pop up on the screen; the text won't disappear or scroll away, and you will remain on the exact same sentence.
- See definitions, examples, and pronunciation: The card displays the word's Chinese definition, an example sentence to show you how it is used, and pronunciation audio you can listen to. Once you understand the meaning and hear it once, the word becomes much easier to remember.
- Close and keep reading: Tap or click anywhere outside the card to close it, and your eyes can immediately return to the sentence you were reading. The entire process takes just a few seconds, with no switching apps or typing required.
There's also a thoughtful feature: Loopy automatically converts inflected words to their base forms. If the text says went, you can still tap it, and the card will look up go for you; the same goes for variations like studies and running. You don't have to "restore" the word to its dictionary form in your head first—just click whatever you see.
Make Looking Up Words Second Nature
When it comes to looking up words in a dictionary, the hard part has always been whether you are willing to do it. When every new word takes just a simple tap and a few seconds to review before returning to the text, you will find yourself looking up words much more frequently—and doing so frequently is precisely how your vocabulary grows over time.
The next time you encounter an unfamiliar word while reading, don't rush to guess or skip over it—just give it a tap.