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📖 Anki Glossary

Every Anki term in plain language, alphabetized. If you hit a word in the guide (or in Anki's own screens) that you don't recognize, look it up here. Definitions are short on purpose — where a term gets a full treatment, we note which Part of the guide covers it.

How to use this page

Terms are grouped by first letter. Use your browser's find (Ctrl/Cmd + F) to jump straight to a word. Cross-references like (see Note type) point you to the related entry. For a printable summary of shortcuts, search syntax and key settings, see the Cheat Sheet.

Jump to: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · I · L · M · N · O · P · R · S · T

A

Active recall
The act of retrieving an answer from memory rather than re-reading it. Struggling to remember something (and then checking) strengthens the memory far more than passive review. It's the core reason flashcards work. (Part 1)
Add-on
An optional plug-in that extends the Anki desktop app — new card types, statistics, editor tools, and more. Add-ons run with full access to your collection, so install only trusted ones. Add-ons are a desktop-only feature. (Part 11)
Again / Hard / Good / Easy
The four answer buttons you press after revealing a card, rating how well you recalled it. Again (1) = failed, see it again soon; Hard (2) = recalled with difficulty; Good (3) = recalled correctly; Easy (4) = trivially easy, push it far out. Your rating drives the next interval. (Part 7)
AnkiDroid
The free, community-built Anki app for Android phones and tablets. It syncs with the same AnkiWeb account as desktop and AnkiMobile. (Part 2)
AnkiMobile
The official paid Anki app for iPhone and iPad. The one-time purchase supports development of the whole (otherwise free) project. (Part 2)
AnkiWeb
The free online service that syncs your collection between devices and lets you browse and download shared decks. You can also review in a browser, though it's meant as a companion to the apps. (Part 2)
.apkg
Anki's deck-package file format. An .apkg holds one or more decks with their notes, cards and media — this is what you share, download, or export when you want to move a deck (not your whole collection). (Part 10)

B

Backup
An automatic snapshot of your collection that Anki saves periodically (and on close). If something goes wrong, you can restore an earlier backup. Backups are separate from syncing — they protect against mistakes, not just device loss. (Part 13)
Browse (Browser)
The window (shortcut B) that lists all your notes and cards. Use it to search, edit, tag, move, suspend, or delete cards in bulk. It's Anki's control room for everything you've made. (Part 9)
Bury
To hide a card from review until the next day — temporary, unlike suspend. Anki can bury siblings automatically so you don't see two cards from the same note in one session. (Part 9)

C

Card
A single question-and-answer unit you actually review. Cards are generated from notes by a card template — one note can produce several cards. (Part 3)
Card template
The layout that turns a note's fields into a card's front and back, written in HTML with {{Field}} placeholders. A note type can have multiple templates (e.g. one for each direction of a card). (Part 3)
Cloze deletion
A card style that blanks out part of a sentence for you to recall, e.g. "The capital of France is [...]." You write clozes with {{c1::answer}} syntax. Great for facts in context. (Part 5)
Collection
Everything in one Anki profile — all decks, notes, cards, note types, media and scheduling data. Your collection is the single database that syncs to AnkiWeb. (Part 3)
.colpkg
Anki's collection-package file format. A .colpkg is a full export of your entire collection (all decks + media + scheduling), ideal as a manual, portable backup. (Part 10)
Custom Study
A one-off study session outside your normal schedule — extra new cards, extra reviews, cards you failed, or a specific tag. It builds a temporary filtered deck behind the scenes and doesn't break your scheduling. (Part 9)

D

Deck
A named group of cards you study together, like "Spanish" or "Biology." Decks can hold subdecks (e.g. "Spanish::Verbs") to organize a large collection. (Part 9)
Deck options / preset
The settings that control how a deck schedules cards — new cards per day, review limits, learning steps, FSRS retention, and more. Options are stored as a preset that many decks can share, so one change updates them all. (Part 8)
Desired retention
An FSRS setting: the fraction of cards you want to remember when they come due (default 0.90, i.e. 90%). Higher retention means more frequent reviews and more daily work; lower means less work but more forgetting. (Part 8)
Difficulty (FSRS)
One of FSRS's per-card values: how inherently hard a card is for you. Higher difficulty makes intervals grow more slowly. It's estimated and adjusted automatically from your ratings. (Part 8)
Due
A card's status when its scheduled interval has elapsed and it's ready to be reviewed today. Your daily study is essentially "clear the due cards." (Part 7)

E

Ease factor (SM-2)
In the older SM-2 scheduler, a per-card multiplier (starting around 250%) that determines how much each interval grows. Pressing "Hard"/"Again" lowers it, causing the classic "ease hell" problem. FSRS replaces this with difficulty/stability. (Part 7, Part 8)
Ebbinghaus forgetting curve
The classic finding that memory of new information decays rapidly at first, then more slowly. Each successful review flattens the curve so the same fact is forgotten more slowly next time — the basis for spacing reviews. (Part 1)

F

Field
A labeled slot on a note that holds one piece of information, e.g. "Front", "Back", "Word", "Definition". Card templates pull from fields to build cards. (Part 3)
Filtered deck
A temporary deck built automatically from a search (e.g. all cards tagged "exam"), used to cram or focus on a subset. Cards return to their home deck when you empty it. (Part 9)
Flag
A colored marker (red, orange, green, blue, and more) you attach to a card to single it out — for example, cards to fix later. You can search by flag in the Browser. (Part 9)
FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler)
Anki's modern, recommended scheduling algorithm. It models each card's memory with stability and difficulty, and schedules reviews to hit your chosen desired retention. It generally beats SM-2 and can be optimized to your own review history. (Part 8)

G

Graduating interval
The gap before a card's first real review after it finishes its learning steps and "graduates" from Learning to Review (traditionally 1 day). Under FSRS this is handled by the algorithm rather than a fixed setting. (Part 7)

I

Image Occlusion
A card type that hides parts of an image (labels on a diagram, regions of a map) for you to recall. Now built into Anki, it's ideal for anatomy, geography and any visual material. (Part 5)
Interval
The time until a card is next due — a few minutes when Learning, then days, weeks, months or years as you keep recalling it. Growing intervals are how a small daily session keeps huge amounts of knowledge fresh. (Part 7)

L

Lapse
What happens when you press "Again" on a card in the Review state — you forgot it. The card drops into relearning and its interval shrinks. Frequent lapses often mean the card needs rewriting. (Part 7)
Leech
A card you keep failing (Anki tags it as a leech after a set number of lapses). Leeches are a signal to rewrite, split, or suspend the card rather than keep grinding it. (Part 13)
Learning (state)
A new card's initial state, where it moves through short learning steps (minutes to days) before graduating to Review. (Part 7)
Learning steps
The sequence of short intervals a new card passes through before graduating, written like 1m 10m (one minute, then ten minutes). Pressing "Again" restarts the steps. (Part 8)

M

MathJax / LaTeX
Ways to render mathematical and scientific notation on cards. MathJax (typed between \(...\) or \[...\]) renders instantly and needs no extra setup; LaTeX is a heavier, more powerful alternative. (Part 5)
Media (collection.media)
The folder that stores images, audio and video used on your cards. Media syncs alongside your collection so your pictures and sounds follow you across devices. (Part 3, Part 10)
Minimum information principle
The card-writing rule that each card should test the smallest useful piece of knowledge. Small, atomic cards are easier to recall, faster to review, and less likely to become leeches. (Part 6)

N

New card
A card you've made but not yet studied. New cards enter the schedule at a limited rate each day (default 20 per deck) so you don't get buried in reviews later. (Part 7)
Note
The piece of information you enter, made of fields (e.g. a word and its meaning). Anki generates one or more cards from each note — the note is the source, the cards are what you review. (Part 3)
Note type (model)
The blueprint for a note: which fields it has and which card templates it produces. "Basic", "Basic (and reversed)" and "Cloze" are built-in note types; sometimes called a model. (Part 3)

O

Optimize (FSRS)
The step where FSRS analyzes your own review history and fine-tunes its parameters to your memory. Run it occasionally (e.g. monthly, once you have a few hundred reviews) for the most accurate scheduling. (Part 8)

P

Preset
A saved bundle of deck options that multiple decks can share. Edit the preset once and every deck using it updates. (see Deck options; Part 8)
Profile
A separate user account within the Anki desktop app, each with its own collection and AnkiWeb login. Most people need only one; profiles are for sharing a computer or keeping wholly separate collections. (Part 2)

R

Relearning
The state a card enters after you lapse (press "Again" in Review). It goes through short relearning steps before returning to the Review state with a reduced interval. (Part 7)
Retrievability (FSRS)
An FSRS value: the current probability you'd recall a card right now. It falls over time; FSRS schedules a card for review when its retrievability drops to your desired retention. (Part 8)
Review (state)
The state of a graduated card that's now on a growing, days-to-years interval. Most of a mature collection lives here. (Part 7)
Reversed card
A second card generated from a note that swaps front and back (e.g. word → meaning and meaning → word). The "Basic (and reversed)" note type makes both automatically. (Part 4)

S

Scheduler
The engine that decides when each card is next due based on your ratings. Anki's modern scheduler uses FSRS; older versions used SM-2. (Part 7, Part 8)
SM-2
The classic SuperMemo-2 algorithm Anki used for years, based on ease factors and fixed multipliers. Still available, but FSRS is now recommended for most users. (Part 7, Part 8)
Spaced repetition
Reviewing information at increasing intervals — just before you'd forget it — so each review does the most work. It's the principle Anki automates. (Part 1)
Stability (FSRS)
An FSRS value: how long a memory will last before retrievability drops to your target. Each successful review increases stability, which is why intervals keep growing. (Part 8)
Suspend
To remove a card from scheduling indefinitely, so it never appears in reviews until you unsuspend it. Unlike bury (one day), suspend is long-term — good for cards you're not ready to study or want to park. (Part 9)
Sync
Uploading and downloading your collection through AnkiWeb so every device stays identical. Sync after each session and always sync before switching devices to avoid conflicts. (Part 2)

T

Tag
A freeform label you attach to notes (e.g. "chapter-3", "irregular-verb"). A note can have many tags, and you can search or build filtered decks by them — a flexible alternative to decks for organizing. (Part 9)
Type-in-the-answer
A card feature (via the {{type:Field}} template) that gives you a text box to type your answer, which Anki then compares to the correct one and highlights differences. Useful for spelling, terms and short phrases. (Part 4)

See also