How to Play

One puzzle is up for the calendar day. Reload the page and it is the same puzzle. Tomorrow it moves to the next one in the list. The date on your own computer picks it. No name is attached to that choice.

The daily board

Read the clue as a plain description. Then look at the pattern. A blank is an unknown letter. A shown letter is fixed in that spot, and the length of the pattern is the length of the word. The available letters are the word's own letters plus a couple of extras, mixed into alphabetical order so the order is not a gift.

Type one word and press Check Answer. Correct means it matches. Try Again means it does not. If you have not opened the hint yet, the line also says Hint Available. Capitals and extra spaces are ignored. The check happens in the browser. The word is not sent anywhere.

Hint and reveal

Show Hint prints only the hint sentence. Reveal Answer prints the word and a short reason it was the one we meant. Neither of those opens by itself. If a second word almost fits, the reason is there so you can see which sense of the clue was in play. Only one spelling counts.

The sprint

Under the board on the front page there are four smaller tasks: unscramble a word, fill a missing letter, name a synonym, and pick the word that does not belong. They are not the same word as today's puzzle, and they are not the words sitting on the rest of this week's strip. A 60-second clock is there if you want it. It does not keep a score.

The week strip

Monday through Sunday shows a puzzle number, a category, and a difficulty. Today is marked Today. Days already past can be opened. Days still ahead show the category and the difficulty only, not the clue and not the answer.

Older clues, with the answer still covered, are listed in the archive.