how to play

How to play.

One person hides a word. Everyone else has unlimited guesses. Each guess returns a rank from 1 to 40,000. Rank 1 is the answer.

If you are hiding the word

1. Type your secret word on the front page. One common English word — no names, no phrases.
2. Sign it with your name if you want. This is optional.
3. You get two links. Send the first to your friends. Keep the second one yourself.
4. The second link is your board. It shows every guess the moment it lands, who made it, and how close they are.

Do not send anyone your board link. It shows the answer. Anyone holding that link can read the secret word.

Playing on stream

The board hides the secret word by default, so you can share your screen without giving the game away. The word is replaced with blocks, not blurred — a blur is still readable once a video is compressed and someone pauses it. Press Reveal the word when you want to see it, and press it again to hide it. That setting is remembered.

Picking a good secret

The best secrets are ordinary, concrete nouns. Lighthouse, kettle, harbour, bicycle. They have a clear neighbourhood of related words, so guessers get useful feedback early and can feel themselves getting warmer.

Weak secrets share one flaw — they have no neighbourhood:

• Abstract words like aspect or various sit near nothing in particular. Guessers wander for an hour.
• Very common function words like from or which are near everything, which is the same problem wearing a different hat.
• Words with two meanings like bat produce a confusing board, because the rankings blend the animal and the sports equipment together.

If you are guessing

Type any word. You get a rank back. Lower is closer.

Reading the numbers

• Over 10,000 — you are in open country. This tells you almost nothing except that the answer is not in this area.
• 1,000 to 10,000 — the right continent, maybe. Keep pushing in this direction and see if the number falls.
• 100 to 1,000 — you are circling it. The answer is related to what you just typed.
• Under 100 — very close. Now think about what sits beside your best guess rather than what sits under it.
• Under 10 — the answer is one of a handful of words. Say your best guess out loud and list what it makes you think of.

Strategy that works

Open wide, then narrow. Start with words from completely different areas — ocean, kitchen, music, money, animal. You are not trying to be right. You are trying to find which direction is warm.

Follow the gradient. Once one guess ranks better than the rest, guess its neighbours. If boat comes back 300, try harbour, sail, anchor, dock. Watch which way the number moves.

Change the part of speech. If swim is warm, try swimmer and swimming. They rank separately and one is often much closer than the others.

Do not chase spelling. This is the mistake everyone makes once. Letters carry no information in this game.

Use the hint. The hint button gives you the next word you have not tried yet, working down from the top of the list. It is not cheating — it is the game handing you a rung on the ladder.

Rules and limits

• Guesses are unlimited and free.
• Everyone guessing shares one board, so you can work together or race.
• A word already guessed by anyone will not count twice.
• The word list holds 40,000 entries. If your guess is not among them, the game says so and the guess does not count against you.
• Offensive words are not in the list and cannot be guessed.
• Puzzles do not expire. The link keeps working.