HOW TO PLAY
Two games, one new puzzle of each per day, one leaderboard rivalry. Mostly sophisticated — with the occasional wink.
WORDLE
Guess the hidden five-letter word in six tries.
THE BASICS
Type any real five-letter word and press Enter. After each guess, the tiles change color to show how close you were:
Green: P is in the word and in the right spot.
Yellow: I is in the word but in a different spot.
Gray: U is not in the word at all.
Use what you learn from each guess to narrow it down. The on-screen keyboard keeps track of the colors for you.
DAILY
The main event. Every day there is one shared word — the same for everybody — and you get one game per day. A new word arrives at midnight (Pacific time). You need to be signed in so your result lands on the leaderboard.
Solving it fast earns more points: 6 points for getting it in one guess, 5 in two, down to 1 point in six. Miss it and you get 0 — and it snaps your streak.
PRACTICE
Warm-up mode: unlimited games with random words, any time. Practice games don't count for points or streaks — they're just for fun (or for plotting your daily opener).
LEADERBOARD
See who has finished today's puzzle and how everyone stacks up all time: total points, games played, win rate, average guesses, and current streak. Solve the daily three days in a row and you earn the 🔥.
CONNECTIONS
Sixteen words hide four groups of four. Find them all.
THE BASICS
Tap four words that share something in common, then hit Submit. Guess right and the group locks in with its category revealed; guess wrong and you burn one of your four mistakes. Three right out of four gets you a “One away!” — agonizingly close. Four mistakes and the puzzle ends.
The groups are color-coded by difficulty:
Beware the red herrings: a fifth word will always look like it belongs to another group. That's the game being mean on purpose.
SCORING
A perfect solve (no mistakes) earns 5 points, then 4, 3, and 2 as mistakes pile up. Fail the puzzle and it's 0 — plus a broken streak and public shame on the leaderboard.
SEMANTLE
Guess the secret word by meaning, not spelling.
THE BASICS
Type any word. Instead of colored tiles you get a similarity score: how close your word's meaning is to the secret word's. Guess DINNER when the answer is BREAKFAST and you might score 40; guess ASPHALT and you'll get a 2. You have unlimited guesses — expect to use a lot of them. Solving in under 50 is genuinely good.
Rough guide: below 10 is ice cold, around 25 is warm, and once you're among the 1,000 closest words in the dictionary a progress bar appears showing exactly how close you are. The endgame is a hot-and-cold sprint.
Strategy tip: think in categories, not spellings. If TEACHER scores high but SCHOOL scores low, the answer is about the person, not the place. And when all hope is lost, the give up button reveals the word — for zero points, but your dignity survives.
SCORING
Solve in 30 guesses or fewer for 5 points, in 75 or fewer for 4, in 150 or fewer for 3, and any solve at all earns 2. Giving up scores 0 — but at least you get to sleep.
THE ORACLE 🔮
Stuck? Every game offers help — at a price.
While a game is in progress, tap the purple 🔮 Oracle button for a hint: up to two per game per day, each costing 1 pointoff that game's score. Wordle reveals letters, Connections names a category or confirms a pair, Semantle hands you a word halfway to the answer. And yes — every consultation is announced in the Lounge. The Oracle helps; the Oracle also gossips.
In the Lounge, tag anyone with @name(type @ and pick from the list) — their Lounge badge turns purple until they've seen it. You can also summon @The House or @The Oracle there; they answer in person, on the record, free of charge. Whether the answer helps is another matter.
GETTING STARTED
No password needed: enter your name and email on the sign-in page, then click the link we email you. Your name is what shows up on the leaderboard, so choose wisely — your friends will be looking at it.
Regret your name? Tap it in the top-right corner of any page (it's a button, promise) to change what the leaderboard calls you. Your points and streaks follow you through any number of reinventions.