Don’t have a mnemonic, but, for me, the kanji themselves indicate the meaning.
Something that is unique is completely different from anything else. It’s a lone 独, special 特 thing. Uniqueness also doesn’t apply exclusively to characteristics, so no 徴.
Meanwhile, a characteristic is something that makes you seem (徴) special (特). Many other people may also be special in that way, but you’re not the only one with it.
These aren’t technically leeches for me yet as I’m just now doing the lessons, but I remember them being leeches for me last time, before I reset back to level 01, so I’m going to go ahead and ask for some help now rather than later.
総合 - overall
and
総体的 - as a whole
I struggle with these meanings. I don’t really see a major difference between the meanings ‘overall’ and ‘as a whole’ so when they pop up, I tend to get them mixed up. I don’t feel comfortable adding synonyms because I feel like there is important nuance here between the two.
Anyone have any advice?
The ordering of the meanings given in WK are probably a bit misleading, from my dictionary I think comprehensive is better for 総合 (example words there are comprehensive medical care, integrated studies, comprehensive income taxation, general cash account, total (overall) balance).
総体的 just redirects to 全体的 (on the whole, generally), maybe you should just mentally link those two.
Ah, I think that will help! Thank you so much for taking the time to explain that to me, I really appreciate it!
Just tried the Leech detector and discovered that my biggest leech is not what I thought it was, and that most of my leeches occur on the reading instead of the meaning. Any tips or tricks on how to remember crrect readings? for example, 何月is my #1 leech and 25 times I’ve spelled the reading wrong - (the whole ‘getsu’ vs ‘gatsu’ thing for ‘month’).
is there a rule for these?
Yeah, it’s always げつ, except for the numbered month names and the What-Month. You can think of 何 as taking the place of a number. 
throws table I wish someone had told me that six げつ ago! Thanks for the help.
沈没 - sinking, going down, submersion
没落 - ruin, fall, collapse
陥落 - cave in, collapse, sinking, depression
陥没 - fall, sinking, surrender
沈没 and 陥没 both have a directional down (sinking, cave in) kanji and then the death kanji so you can think “sinking”
陥落 both have a falling kanji so just hone in on 陥 with cave in
没落 I always get wrong so I cant help.
Most of these I get wrong anyways though and its a crapshoot of just typing “fall”, “sinking”, or if it’s 陥 in the front “cave in” haha.
I can’t even explain why, how, but I’m currently unable to guru 大いに. It doesn’t even get easier than that, so why? It’s a na-adjective turned into an adverb. What’s so difficult about it? How many adverbs for “big” could one create?
I think I keep getting it mixed with 大きく, even though 大きく is safe in my Burned pile…
I hate learning an adverb before the “original” word…
Ok, I think I can make it now.
I always associate “fall” with “the fall of Rome”. Essentially picturing any items with that definition in a old Roman city being pillaged. “Collapse” I associate with a track field in which bunches of coal are doing lapses across the trace field. The ぼつ reading I associated with robots and らく I think of either a rack or a woman’s rack (crude I know, but it sticks better that way).
Essentially, I picture a robot with a woman’s rack (ぼつらく) leading to the fall of Rome by tricking the Roman king to doing foolish actions. Something along those lines.
I never tried to make my own synonyms for vocabulary, but if I did I would add “bigly” for 大きく. And if there is an entry for “to make bigger” I will want to add “embiggen”
Combine that with the image of Helen of Troy (Greek I know) and that makes a great mnemonic!
Thanks!
Those would be some pretty cromulent synonyms!
冷酷 - cruel
残酷 - cruelty/harshness
残虐 - cruelty/brutality
暴虐 - tyranny
虐待 - abuse
酷 - severe
過酷 - severity
cmon i JUST finished guruing all the frickin 没 words
Most words that has 酷 in it either is has the definition cruel, or some combination of severe plus it’s other meaning.
冷酷 - cruel
酷 - severe
酷暑 - intense heat (kind of like severe heat)
酷使 - exploitation/ overuse/ abuse (severe use)
残 I just have cruel as another meaning. Pretty much every similar vocab with this kanji has cruel as a meaning.
暴虐 I just think of how tyrannical leaders and governments have to use “violent oppression” to subdue its people. It’s a common term to hear when talking about tyrants in general.
Hopefully that helps.
it helps a bit but on kaniwani is another matter entirely (；´Д｀)
Funnily enough I’m not finding these as challenging as the earlier level ones, but ask me again in a level or two.
I always mix these up and couldn’t understand why sometimes “see thing” is splendid, and sometimes seightseeing. Finally I realized the kanjis are different!
見物 (けんぶつ) = Sightseeing
見事 (みごと) = Splendid
I can’t for the life of me keep 当たる and 当てる straight. 当たる means to guess something right whereas 当てる just means to guess something. And both mean to hit. Somehow I always get them wrong though because I try not to take the easy way out and use “to hit”