Every source that could be opened says Vocabulary Builder is a feature of Kindle e-readers, and none says the iPhone, iPad or Android app has it. Amazon's own help pages would not load, so check your app once, and use the table below.
Probably not. Nerdschalk (updated April 2024) states that Vocabulary Builder "is a built-in tool for Kindle e-reader devices only", and Pocket-lint (updated September 2024) says the same: it is limited to e-readers, and the list can't be exported directly.
Both are third-party sites. Amazon's help pages returned an error when tried, so there is no Amazon statement in this article. If you want to be sure for your own copy of the app, the check takes a minute and is in the table.
| Where you read | Vocabulary Builder? | What the sources say, and what to check |
|---|---|---|
| Kindle e-reader (Paperwhite and similar) | Yes | MakeUseOf (November 2022) and Pocket-lint (updated September 2024) both describe it on e-readers. Open a book, tap the top of the screen, then the three dots, and look for Vocabulary Builder. |
| Fire tablet | Listed as yes by one guide | A July 2026 guide (updated October 2026) lists e-readers and Fire tablets. No Amazon page confirms it, so look for it in the same menu. |
| Kindle app on iPhone | Not found in any source | Nerdschalk (April 2024) and Pocket-lint (September 2024) say e-readers only. The App Store listing for the Kindle app (version 7.70.2 when read) mentions dictionary lookup, X-Ray and translation, and no word list. Check: open a book, open its menus, and look for Vocabulary Builder. |
| Kindle app on iPad | Not found in any source | Same sources and same check as the iPhone. |
| Kindle app on Android | Not found in any source | Same sources. A July 2026 guide says only that app support "has varied". Check the book menus in your version. |
| Kindle for Mac | No source either way | Nothing found says it has Vocabulary Builder, and nothing says it does not. Open a book and look in its menus. |
All cells are as of November 2026 and come from the sources named. Nothing here was tested on a Kindle.
In the app you can still look a word up. The App Store listing says to "tap and hold a word to see its definition", with links to Google and Wikipedia. What the listing does not describe is a saved list of those words, and the sources above say there isn't one.
The old Flashcards screen was removed from the apps in 2024, which is the other thing people expect to find. The dates are on the Kindle flashcards page.
The honest options are outside Amazon's apps. One is to read on an e-reader, where the list exists and can be pulled out of vocab.db with the free converter. The other is a separate vocabulary app. LexiForge, for example, says in its App Store listing that you can "instantly import all your highlighted words and lookups from your Kindle device". The listing does not say which Kindles it supports or how, and it has not been tried, so read its page before you rely on it.
You can also keep a plain list by hand, in Notes or a spreadsheet, with the sentence next to the word. It sounds primitive, and it is the part of the Kindle feature that was most useful anyway.
This is where LeafyApp fits. With a book open in Kindle for Mac, press ⌥A and drag a box over the word. macOS text recognition reads that patch of screen, an AI explanation of the word as that sentence uses it appears under it, and the word is saved with its sentence, the source and the date. You end up with the thing Vocabulary Builder gives an e-reader, for a book on your Mac screen.
One caution: it has not been tested on a Kindle for Mac window. If the box comes back empty on a book, try a different book or window first, because nothing here promises it works in every Kindle window.
The limits are plain. LeafyApp is Mac only, macOS 14 and up. There is nothing for iPhone, iPad or Android readers, and it does not import vocab.db. Only the word and its sentence leave your Mac so the AI can explain it, and the privacy page has the details. From the saved words you can export to Anki, CSV, Excel, JSON or PDF.
Does the Kindle app on iPhone have Vocabulary Builder?
No source that could be opened says it does. Nerdschalk (April 2024) and Pocket-lint (September 2024) both say Vocabulary Builder is for Kindle e-readers only. Amazon's help pages would not load, so open a book in your app and look in its menus to be sure.
Does Kindle Vocabulary Builder work on iPad or Android?
The same sources say e-readers only. A July 2026 guide describes app support as having "varied", which is not a yes. Check the in-book menus in your version of the app.
Is there a Kindle vocabulary builder app?
There are third-party apps. LexiForge's App Store listing says it imports highlighted words and lookups from a Kindle device, but it does not say how, and it was not tested here.
Can I use Vocabulary Builder with Kindle for Mac?
No source says either way, so check a book's menus. To save words with their sentences from a book on your Mac screen, LeafyApp lets you box the word with ⌥A. It is Mac only.
Free while LeafyApp is in beta. One download, macOS 14 and up.
Also worth a look: getting your Kindle vocabulary out, the Kindle vocab.db converter, or sentence mining on a Mac.
Kindle, Fire and Amazon are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. LexiForge, Pocket-lint, Nerdschalk and MakeUseOf belong to their respective owners. LeafyApp is an independent app, not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them, and the names are used here only to describe compatibility and for comparison.