Kindle Word Wise languages:
English, and not much else.

What Word Wise is, and what it is not

Amazon describes Word Wise as simple definitions and synonyms shown inline above the harder words while you read. That is all it does. It is not a translation tool and it does not turn a sentence into another language. The hint is a short English synonym sitting above an English word.

You can turn it off from inside a book: tap the top of the screen, open the Aa menu, choose More, scroll to Word Wise and switch it off. Amazon lists it for Fire tablets (3rd generation and newer), Kindle e-readers (6th generation and newer) and Kindle for Android. All of this is from Amazon's own help page, which was read on 3 November 2026.

Which languages it covers

The same Amazon page says Word Wise "is only available in books in English and isn't enabled on all Kindle books." To check a particular title, look on its store page for "Word Wise: Enabled" or "Word Wise: Not Enabled". That is the official answer for Spanish, German, French and everything else: the book has to be in English.

Amazon.co.jp launched it on 3 December 2014 as an English-learning feature for Japanese readers. The press release says it shows simpler synonyms for difficult English words, with a difficulty setting that changes how many hints appear, and at launch it covered English-language books on the Voyage, the basic Kindle and the new Paperwhite. So the Japanese launch was Japanese readers learning English, not Japanese books getting hints.

Some third-party articles say Word Wise also exists for Chinese. That does not appear on Amazon's current help page. WordDumb's documentation does mention English and Chinese Word Wise definitions as files downloaded from Amazon, which fits, but Chinese should be treated as unconfirmed by Amazon and check your own device's Word Wise language setting.

Why it does not show on a book you do have

Start with the obvious one: the book is not in English, or it is English and not enabled. Amazon says outright that not every Kindle book has it.

If the book is English and bought from the store, check the Word Wise switch inside the book (the Aa menu path above). For books you added yourself, no Amazon statement either way was found, and no Kindle was available to test on. The plugin's own notes say that WordDumb adds a random ASIN to books that lack one and, if you convert to KFX, tells you to pick "Create book (EBOK) instead of personal document (PDOC)". That suggests the file type and its metadata matter, but it is a reading of the plugin's notes, not an Amazon explanation. If you want the cause for your book, ask in the WordDumb thread on MobileRead.

WordDumb for other languages

WordDumb is a calibre plugin that, in its own words, creates and sends Kindle Word Wise and X-Ray files, and can add Word Wise annotations to EPUB books. It accepts KFX, AZW3, AZW, MOBI and EPUB. Its documentation has a table of 30 book languages, among them Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Ελληνικά, 日本語 and 한국어. Be careful reading it: that table marks X-Ray support (yes for 24 of the 30). The list of Word Wise definition languages is shown inside the plugin's customisation window, and it could not be seen from outside, so the languages it offers are not listed here.

The setup is a real afternoon, not a toggle. You need calibre 7.1 or newer and Python 3.11 or newer; on a Mac the docs say not to use Rosetta 2. You send books with the plugin's own button, because calibre's normal Send to device will not carry the generated files. Two notes from its usage page: a non-English book has its language metadata changed to English in the copy used to create the Word Wise file, and files from the plugin are not supported on Kindles signed in with an amazon.cn account.

It is also third-party and free, with its own issue tracker. If something misbehaves, that is where the author answers.

If you are learning from a Spanish, German or French book on a Mac

Word Wise was never really built for this. Even with WordDumb, you get a hint above a word, chosen by the file, not an explanation of what the word means in the sentence you are reading. For a learner that second thing is usually what stops you.

LeafyApp does that on the Mac. Press ⌥A in any app, drag a box over the sentence, and macOS text recognition reads that patch of screen. An AI then explains the word as it is used in that sentence, in any language LeafyApp supports, which includes all the major European languages, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese and more. The word is saved automatically with its sentence, source and date. That is the part Word Wise does not give you: a list that still makes sense a month later.

It is a lookup tool, not a reader and not a Kindle. It works on whatever text is on your Mac screen, such as a PDF, a scan or a reader window. It does not read books off your Kindle, and it does not import a Kindle vocab.db. If you already have a Kindle list, the free converter turns vocab.db into CSV or an Anki file in your browser. The picture is read on your Mac and thrown away. Only the word and its sentence go out so the AI can explain it, with nothing attached that says who you are. See the privacy page.

Questions people ask

What languages does Kindle Word Wise support?
Amazon's help page says Word Wise is only available in books in English, and not on every English book. Check the store page for "Word Wise: Enabled". Some articles mention Chinese, which could not be confirmed on Amazon's current page.

Is there Kindle Word Wise for Spanish, German or French books?
Not from Amazon. The third-party calibre plugin WordDumb can generate Word Wise files for other book languages, but check its customisation window for the exact definition languages, because its documentation table lists X-Ray support, not Word Wise.

Why is Kindle Word Wise not showing?
The usual reasons are that the book is not in English, or Amazon has not enabled it for that title. Check the book's store page, then the Word Wise switch under Aa, then More, inside the book. For books you added yourself, no official statement was found, so test with a store-bought English book first.

Is Word Wise a translation?
No. It shows short simple definitions or synonyms above harder words, in the same language as the book. For translation see the page on Kindle translation languages.

Hints above the word are not the same as the meaning in the sentence.

Free while LeafyApp is in beta. One download, macOS 14 and up.

Download for Mac

Also worth a look: Kindle translation languages, exporting the Kindle Vocabulary Builder, sentence mining on a Mac, or looking up a word on a Mac.