Export Kindle Vocabulary Builder to Anki Flashcards
Every word you look up on your Kindle, turned into a beautifully formatted Anki card — definition, context sentence, and examples included. No vocab.db digging, no scripts.
- She gave a laconic answer that ended the conversation.
- His laconic style made every sentence feel deliberate.
Your Kindle vocabulary is trapped
Kindle's Vocabulary Builder quietly collects every word you look up while reading — along with the exact sentence you found it in. It's a goldmine for language learners. And Amazon gives you no way to export it.
The manual route is grim: connect the Kindle over USB, unhide the system folder, dig out system/vocabulary/vocab.db, open the SQLite database, run a script you found in a five-year-old forum thread, and then spend an evening fixing the formatting so Anki will accept the import. Most of the tools people recommend for this are abandoned GitHub projects that broke two Kindle firmware updates ago.
Even when the export works, you end up with bare word lists — cards with no definition, no pronunciation, no example sentences. The words made it out of the Kindle, but they're not worth reviewing yet.
From Kindle words to Anki cards, in three steps
Follow the same three words all the way through — from a bare Kindle list to a card worth reviewing.
Collect your words from the Kindle
Open Vocabulary Builder on your Kindle and note the words you want to keep — or grab the full list from vocab.db over USB (the FAQ below shows exactly where it lives).
Vocabulary Builder
perfunctory
"She gave the report a perfunctory glance before signing it."
The Glass Harbor · loc. 1840
laconic
"His reply was laconic as ever: a single word, then silence."
The Glass Harbor · loc. 2103
equivocate
"He continued to equivocate, never quite answering the question."
A Season of Small Storms · loc. 2467
Batch-import the list into Wordwise
Paste your word list into Wordwise and it looks up every word for you — smart definitions, part of speech, pronunciation, and example sentences, in 20+ languages.
Batch import
3 words
- perfunctoryCard ready
- laconicCard ready
- equivocateLooking up…
Export to Anki in one click
With Anki and AnkiConnect running, cards land directly in the deck you choose — formatted, consistent, and ready to review. No Anki on this machine? Download a .txt file and import it later.
- He offered a perfunctory apology and moved on.
- The inspection was perfunctory at best.
Coming soon: upload vocab.db directly
We're building native Kindle import. Drop your vocab.db file into Wordwise and it captures every word, the sentence you found it in, and the book it came from — automatically. No copying words out, no cleanup. Sign up now and you'll be among the first to get it.
Kindle → Anki questions, answered
Can I export Kindle highlights to Anki?
Wordwise is built around vocabulary words rather than passage highlights. If the words you want to learn are sitting in your highlights, batch-import them as a word list and Wordwise will build a full card for each one. Direct import of Kindle highlights isn't supported today.
Where is the Kindle vocab.db file?
Connect your Kindle to a computer with a USB cable, then look for system/vocabulary/vocab.db. The system folder is hidden, so enable hidden files in your file manager first.
It's an SQLite database holding every word you looked up, the sentence you found it in, and the book it came from. Once direct vocab.db upload ships in Wordwise, you'll simply upload this file and all three are captured automatically.
Does this work without Anki installed?
Yes. If Anki is running with AnkiConnect, cards appear in your deck instantly. Without it, you can download your cards as a .txt file and import them into Anki whenever you like — or simply review your lookup history inside Wordwise.
Is there a free trial?
Yes — every new account starts with a 7-day free trial, and English-to-English lookups stay free forever. See pricing for details.
Your Kindle vocabulary,
finally in Anki
Stop hoarding words in Vocabulary Builder. Turn them into cards you'll actually review.