WaniKani Content Additions and Movements: Wednesday, October 29, 2025 - Wednesday, November 19, 2025

WaniKani Content Updates
1

Hello everyone! :waving_hand:

From October 29 to November 19 we’ll be doing another round of additions and movements to WaniKani content. As always, these changes are designed to improve your studying experience. When planning the updates we’ve considered factors like how common a word is, how hard it is to learn, and how easily it can be confused with similar items.

This round’s updates include:

  • New kanji and vocab additions

  • Level movements to improve scaffolding and make learning easier

  • Primary reading changes to a couple kanji, to allow us to teach simpler and more useful vocab earlier

There will be no downtime, and you don’t need to do anything special to see the updates. Anything you’ve already started learning will stay in your queue as usual, so you won’t lose any progress.

You’ll find all the changes listed below. We’ve spread them out across four batches in order to reduce overload and interference, since a number of items share kanji or readings. The reasoning behind the updates is also given under each batch.

Thank you for continuing to study with WaniKani, and happy reviewing! :crocodile: :crab:

:date: 1. Wednesday, October 29, 2025 (9 items) – Published

:sparkles: New Items

  • 緑茶 (vocab) - adding to level 15

  • 捻 (kanji) - adding to level 26

  • 挫 (kanji) - adding to level 26

  • 捻出 (vocab) - adding to level 26

  • 捻挫 (vocab) - adding to level 26

:shuffle_tracks_button: Level Changes

  • Level 6: 不明 (vocab) - moving up to level 16

  • Level 36: 明/Bright (radical) - moving down to level 3

  • Level 6: 明 (kanji) - moving down to level 3

  • Level 9: 明かり (vocab) - moving down to level 3

:speaking_head: Reading Update

  • 明 (kanji) - changing the primary reading from めい to あ

Reasoning

  • 緑茶 (vocab) - WaniKani was missing vocab that teaches the りょく on’yomi for kanji 緑, so this (and 新緑 in a later batch) will fill that gap.

  • 捻- and 挫-related items - Though they’re somewhat advanced, these are two common-use kanji that were missing from WaniKani, so we’ve added them along with supporting vocab.

  • 明-related items - The primary reading we were teaching (めい) appears in words that are somewhat advanced for this kanji’s early level. We’re now focusing on the あ reading at the early levels. We’re also moving 明かり down to better support that reading.

:date: 2. Wednesday, November 5, 2025 (10 items) - Published

:sparkles: New Items

  • 明ける (vocab) - adding to level 7

  • 自ら (vocab) - adding to level 23

  • 〜の様に (vocab) - adding to level 25

  • 様子 (vocab) - adding to level 26

  • 捻る (vocab) - adding to level 28

  • 貯める (vocab) - adding to level 31

:shuffle_tracks_button: Level Changes

  • Level 30: 研修生 (vocab) - moving down to level 29

  • Level 32: 夜/Night (radical) - moving down to level 5

  • Level 6: 夜 (kanji) - moving down to level 5

  • Level 6: 夜 (vocab) - moving down to level 5

:speaking_head: Reading Update

  • 夜 (kanji) - changing the primary reading from や to よる

Reasoning

  • 明ける (vocab) - This is a common word that will further reinforce the あ reading for kanji 明.

  • 自ら (vocab) - This is a somewhat advanced but very common word, and it introduces a new reading for kanji 自.

  • 〜の様に and 様子 (vocab) - These are common words that provide needed support for the よう reading for kanji 様.

  • 捻る (vocab) - This is a common word that will introduce a kun’yomi reading for the new 捻 kanji (added in the previous batch).

  • 貯める (vocab) - This introduces a new た reading for the 貯 kanji, and can come before the less common 貯える which we already teach in level 50.

  • 研修生 (vocab) - This movement brings 研修生 closer to 研修 (28) for better scaffolding.

  • 夜-related items - We’re putting the radical before the kanji and changing the primary kanji reading to よる, then supporting it with the vocab 夜. They’ll be in level 5 so we can teach them earlier and separately from more advanced 夜 readings (よ and や).

:date: 3. Wednesday, November 12, 2025 (10 items) - Published

:sparkles: New Items

  • 夜明け (vocab) - adding to level 8

  • 新緑 (vocab) - adding to level 16

  • 夜中 (vocab) - adding to level 26

  • 更ける (vocab) - adding to level 27

  • 貯まる (vocab) - adding to level 33

:shuffle_tracks_button: Level Changes

  • Level 8: 究明 (vocab) - moving up to level 32

  • Level 10: 研究室 (vocab) - moving down to level 9

  • Level 6: 明るい (vocab) - moving down to level 4

  • Level 8: 明日 (vocab) - moving down to level 7

  • Level 14: 明後日 (vocab) - moving down to level 10

Reasoning

  • 夜明け and 夜中 (vocab) - These will teach the よ reading for kanji 夜, which previously hadn’t appeared in WaniKani. 夜明け will also help reinforce the new vocab 明ける (added in the previous batch).

  • 新緑 (vocab) - This is a common word and will be the second vocab to support the りょく reading for kanji 緑.

  • 更ける (vocab) - This will introduce the ふ reading for kanji 更.

  • 貯まる (vocab) - This will be the second vocab to support the た reading for kanji 貯, complementing 貯める in the previous batch.

  • 究明 (vocab) - This is fairly advanced, so we’re moving it up to a more appropriate level.

  • 研究室 (vocab) - This is moving down for better scaffolding and will now come between 研究 (8) and 研究所 (10).

  • 明るい, 明日, and 明後日 (vocab) - These will be moved for better scaffolding related to the primary reading change for kanji 明.

:date: 4. Wednesday, November 19, 2025 (10 items)

:sparkles: New Items

  • 舐 (kanji) - adding to level 15

  • 舐める (vocab) - adding to level 15

  • 夜更け (vocab) - adding to level 28

  • 夜更かし (vocab) - adding to level 29

  • 賑 (kanji) - adding to level 42

  • 賑やか (vocab) - adding to level 42

  • 賑わう (vocab) - adding to level 42

:shuffle_tracks_button: Level Changes

  • Level 6: 今夜 (vocab) - moving up to level 11

  • Level 18: 証明書 (vocab) - moving down to level 17

  • Level 19: 説明書 (vocab) - moving down to level 18

Reasoning

  • 舐 (kanji) and 舐める (vocab) - These introduce new and common kanji and vocab.

  • 夜更け and 夜更かし (vocab) - These are relatively common words, and also reinforce the よ and ふ readings for kanji 夜 and 更, respectively.

  • 賑 (kanji), 賑やか and 賑わう (vocab) - These introduce new and common kanji and vocab.

  • 今夜 (vocab) - This will move up to better scaffold 夜-related readings and vocab.

  • 証明書 and 説明書 (vocab) - These will each move down a level for better scaffolding.

20 Likes
2

Ohh, we level 60 are getting a good batch of new words again :slightly_smiling_face:. Mostly good additions. Most of them already popped up in my reading. 捻出 I think not..

6 Likes
3

New items to cover different readings are nice. But I’m sad I wont be able to get 100% burn if you keep adding items hahahaha.

1 Like
4

新しい漢字なの？ビックリした！:weary_cat:

3 Likes
5

I’m a bit confused by this choice, sure 捻る is somewhat common, and I did encounter 捻挫 somewhere already, but aren’t there hundreds of more useful kanji not yet on WK? Just casually glancing at my anki deck I find words like 眩しい、尖る、呑む、牢、所詮、餌、混沌、這う、賑やか which all contain non-WK kanji and seem vastly more useful than those?

7 Likes
6

we’re about to get a bunch of people wondering why a radical they’ve “already burned” has come back :rofl:
don’t usually see many people wondering about vocab suddenly appearing at lower levels, but maybe i just don’t pay attention

personally, i don’t agree with teaching kunyomi with kanji, but maybe that’s just me
i want to be able to figure out a vocab’s reading based on how i learned the kanji, not by trying to remember other vocab it’s in

7 Likes
7

Awesome, I’m glad to see a couple new Kanji :saluting_face: much appreciated

1 Like
8

Bad example. This one will be added :smiley: . I also have a long list of Kanji I think would work well for Wanikani. But I think if everybody comes with their list, Wanikani would have to add another 5 more levels. I think it is okay that we have to learn some of that stuff on our own.

As long as the added vocabulary is not totally obscure, I’m okay with it.

5 Likes
9

Oh nice.

I agree. More generally I think that WK would benefit from more flexibility past level 30 or so, letting user chose the kanji they want to study and effectively build their own levels.

2 Likes
10

same, is it you who proposed a lvl 70 to get accross all the Joyo? I would be down lol, as I am a completionist too..

4 Likes
11

A good while back now I entertained the idea to see if there was appeal / proper logistics in that kind of expansion since I like the WK interface so much and figured it wouldn’t hurt to make this resource more encompassing. Seemed the user consensus in the replies skewed neutral-negative but I think there would still be appeal in filling in some of those gaps to meet Joyo and JLPT standards a bit better. I’d be curious to see something like it (though maybe after they iron out some of the crinkles with the UI, first) but little additions like this in the meantime are a nice positive

5 Likes
12

I agree! I will miss using it and use Anki to fill out the Joyo, but I still have a while before it happens :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
13

@nick_lee was this vocab 〜務省 removed and replaced with 〜省?

14

Also I’ve been noticing new persons reading the vocab has it always been this way? I just started level 10 :sweat_smile:

15

I’d like to make a suggestion for the vocabulary Western Europe.

Currently, the primary reading is にしよーろっぱ, and the other accepted reading is にしヨーロッパ. Looking at the latter feels weird because it mixes hiragana and katakana. It would be nice if the latter is all katakana for consistency like this ニシヨーロッパ.

16

Ooh, nice, with the combination of the new dashboard and all these recent additions/movements, it looks like Wanikani’s development has really kicked back into gear. Love to see it!

17

Hi there,

Thanks for the Message: I was already wondering why I see some new “locked” items in levels already passed :D!

In case of big addition maybe it would be nice to have a kind of banner (of the sort you get when you level up?) or some sort of notification like a red dot somewhere in the dashboard :wink: With a link to the changed items (or did I overseen it?)

Thank you in any case for your work and for reviewing the vocabulary list from time to time

3 Likes
18

にしヨーロッパ looks perfectly fine to me. にし is the kun’yomi reading of 西, which are usually written in hiragana, and ヨーロッパ is a loanword, which are usually written in katakana.

9 Likes
19

Thanks for this list! Almost all of these are on our list of future additions, but some we’ve now bumped up the priority for. With this batch we wanted to get some 常用 kanji like 捻 and 挫 out of the way.

1 Like
20

Yes, well spotted :eyes: We documented this change here.

2 Likes