How to Import Words into Anki: CSV Setup, Field Mapping, Cloze Cards and Fixes

To import words into Anki, save your word list as a UTF-8 CSV file with one word per row and one field per column (for example word, definition, example sentence), then open Anki desktop, choose File → Import, select the file, pick the note type and deck, and map each column to a field. Anki creates one note per row. The rest of this guide covers each step in detail, including how to prepare the columns, how to make cloze cards, and how to fix the problems people hit most often.

What you need before you start

• Anki desktop (Windows, macOS or Linux). Importing text files is easiest on desktop; afterwards you sync to your phone.
• A word list as a CSV or tab-separated file. This can come from a spreadsheet, a notes app, a vocabulary notebook or an extension export.
• A note type with the fields you want. The built-in "Basic" type (Front, Back) works for simple lists; for richer vocabulary cards you will create a custom one below.

Menu names in this guide follow recent Anki desktop versions. Older versions use a slightly different import window, but the same concepts apply: separator, note type, deck and field mapping.

Step 1: Export your words

From Wordie

1. Open the Wordie Dashboard from the extension.
2. Use the export option and choose CSV.
3. Save the file (it is called wordie_data.csv). It has a header row and five comma-separated columns: Word, Definition, Synonyms, Mastery, Saved Date. For Anki you usually map Word and Definition, optionally Synonyms, and set Mastery and Saved Date to "(Nothing)".

Your Wordie vault lives in your browser's local storage, so the export is also a good backup.

From a spreadsheet or any other word list

In Google Sheets use File → Download → Comma-separated values (.csv). In Excel use File → Save As and choose CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited), not plain "CSV", which may use a different encoding. In Numbers, use File → Export To → CSV and make sure the text encoding is Unicode (UTF-8).

If your list is just words, or words and definitions in an inconsistent format (pasted from a document, separated by dashes or colons), the flashcard CSV converter can reshape it into clean, importable rows.

Step 2: Prepare your columns

The structure of your file decides how good your cards will be. A good vocabulary layout:

Rules that save trouble later:

• Put the word in the first column. Anki uses the first field to detect duplicates.
• One row per note. Remove blank rows and merge any line breaks inside cells (or keep them inside quotes, which proper CSV export does automatically).
• Delete columns you will not use, or simply leave them unmapped in Step 4.
• Decide about the header row. Either delete it or replace it with an Anki header line (see below).

Optional: Anki header lines

Recent Anki versions read special lines at the top of a text file. They make the import repeatable and remove guesswork:

You can also add #notetype: and #deck: lines. If you are unsure, leave headers out and set everything in the import window instead.

Step 3: Create a vocabulary note type (recommended)

"Basic" has only two fields, which forces you to cram the sentence and notes into Back. A dedicated note type keeps things clean:

1. In Anki, go to Tools → Manage Note Types → Add, choose Add: Basic, and name it "Vocabulary".
2. Click Fields and create: Word, Definition, Sentence, Extra.
3. Click Cards to edit the template. A good front: the word plus the sentence ({{Word}}<br>{{Sentence}}). A good back: {{FrontSide}}<hr id=answer>{{Definition}}<br>{{Extra}}.
4. Optional: add a second card type for production (front: definition; back: word) if you want to learn to use the words, not only recognize them.

Showing the sentence on the front gives you context while still making you recall the meaning, a good balance for active recall.

Step 4: Import the file into Anki

1. Choose File → Import (Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows and Linux, Cmd+Shift+I on macOS) and select your CSV.
2. Field separator: choose Comma for CSV, Tab for TSV. Check the preview: if each row appears as one long field, the separator is wrong.
3. Allow HTML in fields: turn it on only if your file contains HTML such as <b> or <br>.
4. Notetype: pick "Vocabulary" (or Basic).
5. Deck: pick or create the destination deck.
6. Existing notes: choose whether a row whose first field matches an existing note should update it, be skipped (preserve) or be added as a duplicate. "Update" is useful when you re-import an improved export.
7. Field mapping: for each Anki field, select the matching column. Map Tags to your tag column, and set unused columns to "(Nothing)".
8. Click Import. Anki reports how many notes were added, updated or skipped.

Then open the Browse window, select the deck and spot-check a few cards before you start reviewing.

Making cloze cards instead

Cloze cards hide the target word inside its sentence, which tests whether you can produce it in context. This is especially good for collocations and phrasal verbs. See cloze deletion for background.

1. Prepare a column where the target word is wrapped in cloze markers: The new levees should {{c1::mitigate}} flood risk. A hint can go after two colons: {{c1::mitigate::reduce}}.
2. Put the definition and extras in a second column.
3. Import with the note type Cloze, mapping the sentence column to Text and the second column to Back Extra.

Creating cloze markers by hand for hundreds of rows is tedious. In a spreadsheet, a formula like =SUBSTITUTE(C2, A2, "{{c1::"&A2&"}}") wraps the word from column A inside the sentence in column C (it matches the exact form only, so mitigates will not be caught by mitigate). Our cloze deletion generator does the same for pasted text.

Troubleshooting common import problems

After the import: keep it manageable

• Limit new cards per day. In the deck options, keep new cards to a number you can sustain, often 10–20. Importing 500 words does not mean learning 500 words this week.
• Suspend words you already know rather than reviewing them for months.
• Re-import with Update when you improve definitions in your source list, so you do not lose review history.

Anki's scheduler handles the timing from here. If you want to understand what it is doing, read our spaced repetition guide and the glossary entries on SM-2 and FSRS. If Anki feels like too much, see the best Anki alternatives.

Why combine a capture tool with Anki

Anki is excellent at scheduling reviews but does nothing to help you find words. A capture tool does the opposite. A practical workflow is to collect words while you read (in a notebook, spreadsheet or an extension like Wordie, whose own Recall mode offers simple self-rated flashcards rather than a full scheduler), then export once a week and import into Anki with "Update" for existing notes. You get context-rich captures and a mature scheduling algorithm. For how to collect better source material, see the sentence mining guide.

Conclusion

Importing words into Anki comes down to a clean file and a correct mapping: one note per row, the word in the first column, UTF-8 encoding, the right separator and each column assigned to a field. Spend five minutes setting up a vocabulary note type and testing with a few rows, and every future import, whether from Wordie, a spreadsheet or any other list, will take less than a minute.