There should be more acceptable synonyms for this. Same with “famous” and “popular” for 人気 . Why is “famous” wrong? ;(
If I get something wrong and I think that the vocab should have another synonym, I go immediately to denshi jisho and look up the Japanese word. If my word is on the list, I use “ignore answer” so that I can do that review again. I also add my word to the synonyms list.
I don’t expect WaniKani to have every synonym possible because a long synonym list can be even more confusing. Take あたり前 as an example. It has many meanings.
3 Likes
Our understanding may be a bit different, but for me independent and free are not really synonyms. Free has wider implications than independent, which basically means not depending (on outside influence).
Same for famous and popular. With famous you have fame or you are famed, but it doesn’t mean that the general population likes you. A Nobel laureate is famous, but not necessarily popular. Probably the modern usage where anybody with a youtube channel is “famous” is a problem here.
In any case, you can add other accepted answers yourself in WK.
4 Likes
There are hundreds of examples on WK where the synonyms are insufficient.
You have chosen two examples where your desired synonyms are inappropriate.
4 Likes
Thank you for the feedback guys 
Another thing to note is that is not just synonyms, one word can mean several different things simultaneously.
If you look up 人気:
- にんき: popularity, popular feeling, business conditions
There are other readings with meanings as I found just now:
- ひとけ: sign of life, human presence, humanity, humaneness
- じんき: prevailing mood of a locality, emotional climate of a district
You could argue that everything should be correct, but it is not as it was learned. Maybe the WK reviews should be viewed as reproducing the intended answers by the letter, and not necessary in their spirit 
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.