A few days ago, perhaps leading to the inspiration, I decided to start expanding my vocabulary with Anki. I’ve used Anki in the past to learn Spanish words that I came across in self-study. This time, all the words would be in English At least, until I decide to take up Spanish again. and I would try using it for remembering facts and stuff as well.

There’s so many words I’ve seen and used before that I struggle to come up with a definition for. Why is this? I’ve seen the word deterrent for at least 9 years—why do I struggle to define it? Is this a native speaker thing, and/or is defining words a skill that I am having to rediscover?