Hi, I'm Wizzie
The friendly face behind every lookup
I’m there every time you snap a word, translate a phrase, simplify a tricky definition, or save something new to learn. But where did I come from? Well, my story actually began long before I existed…
Our Story
It started with a dictionary. A very big one.
Back in the early 2000s, my founders, Shemal and Chathuri, came to the UK as ESL undergraduate students.
And wherever they went, a bulky English dictionary went with them. When they came across unfamiliar words in lecture notes or books, they would underline them, carry on reading, then look them up later and write down the meanings before studying them.
It was a lot of effort. And after all that? Most of those words still didn’t stick.
Years later, the same problem came back.
This time, it wasn’t Shemal or Chathuri struggling with unfamiliar words. It was their eldest.
He was preparing for his 11+ exam and had a long reading list to get through. But every time he came across a difficult word, he had to stop reading, look it up and write down the meaning.
He didn’t enjoy it. Reading started to feel like a chore, so difficult words were often simply skipped. Sound familiar?
Shemal and Chathuri thought there must be a better way. They searched for apps that could help, but kept finding the same problems. Looking up words still interrupted the flow of reading. There wasn’t an easy way to save what you discovered and study it properly later. And many apps were cluttered with ads or put their most useful features behind paywalls.
So they asked one simple question:
What if you didn’t have to interrupt your reading to understand a new word?
And that question is where I really began.
From an idea to Wizzie Words
The idea was simple. Take a quick snapshot of the page you’re reading. Tap an unfamiliar word. Understand it there and then. Save it. Come back and study it later.
All without breaking the flow of your reading. But bringing that idea to life needed a team.
Shemal and Chathuri brought together people who shared their vision. Their friend Eshan came on board to lead the technology. Tony joined to provide financial guidance. And Claire brought her expertise in special educational needs to help make sure Wizzie Words genuinely supported learners of all abilities.
Together, they started building. And, just as importantly, they started listening.
Real learners helped shape me.
Early versions of Wizzie Words were tested in college classrooms, where feedback helped shape features specifically for ESL learners and students with dyslexia and ADHD.
Then another problem appeared much closer to home. Shemal and Chathuri’s youngest was struggling with phrases and idioms.
Individual words were one thing, but English is full of expressions where knowing the meaning of every word doesn’t necessarily tell you what the whole phrase means.
So the team got to work again.
They added automatic phrase and idiom detection, helping me spot them in the text you’re reading so you can understand what they actually mean. Bit by bit, I was becoming much more than a dictionary.
Then came a very important partnership.
One of the biggest moments in my story was partnering with Oxford Languages.
That partnership brought trusted, world-class language data to the heart of Wizzie Words, giving learners access to the quality of language information they can rely on while they read and learn. It was a huge step towards becoming the Wizzie you know today.
But one thing was decided right from the beginning:
Everything you need to read, build your vocabulary and understand English should be free.
No ads getting in your way. No paywall standing between you and the tools you need to learn. Just a better way to understand what you’re reading.
And that brings us to today.
Today, I’m here for ESL learners, students, readers and anyone, anywhere in the world who wants reading in English to feel easier, more enjoyable and more rewarding.
Our mission is simple:
To make reading more accessible and help every language learner get the most out of every page.
Although this is the story of how I came to be, it’s really only the beginning.
Thank you for downloading Wizzie Words and letting me be part of your reading, too.
Wizzie
Our Team
On a mission to make reading great again.
Chathuri Samarasinghe
Shemal Rajapakse
Eshan Subasinghe
Lakshika Dissanayake
Tony Lowlar
Claire Jones
Wizzie
Wizzie is available on the App Store and the Play Store for free.
Gigas
