How it works
Pick a word. Make your image. See how the world sees it.
Lexis has three places: LEXIS to discover, MINE for your own collection, and MAKERS for the people behind the images.
Your first image
- Press +. Take a photo or pick one from your library. First the image, then the word.
- Frame it square. Everyone frames in the same square. The same constraint turns it into one whole.
- Pick the word. Type and choose from the words in your language. Only words that exist in PanLex, so no free text.
- See how many languages it speaks. "Wind" has its own word in over three thousand languages. Your image now belongs to all of them.
You have one image per word. Make a new one for a word you already have, and you choose which one stays.
Discover
The feed shows images by others. The word is large in the maker's language, with your translation next to it: ÉTÉ – summer. Tap the word to see it in every language, the language for everything about it, and the maker for all their images.
The plus after a word says: I want to picture this word. It goes on your list and waits for your image.
What do you see?
You see someone else's image, without a word. Which word comes to mind first? There's no right or wrong. Then you see what the maker saw. Tap the plus after your word and it becomes your next image. That's how you drift from image to word to image.
Learning
Switch on learning mode and every word appears large in the language you want to learn, with your own language next to it. Words in another script show, in small type, roughly how to say them: クラゲ kurage, звезда zvezda.
Languages
Every language has its own page: what its speakers call it, where it's spoken, how many people speak it, its family, and whether it's endangered. With a small map and the images in that language.
Sharing, or not
Your images live on your phone. To share them with the world, switch it on in the menu. You sign in with your email address and a six-digit code, no password. A copy goes to our server; the original stays with you. Switch sharing off and the copy disappears.
Download all your images gives you everything in one zip file. If you delete the app without sharing or downloading, your images are gone.