How to play Contexto
One secret word a day. Unlimited guesses. The only feedback is how close you are in meaning.
1. Guess any word
Type any word at all. There's no letter grid and no starting clue — the first guess is just a probe.
2. Read the rank
Every guess comes back with a number: its position out of 70,000 words, ordered by how close it is in meaning to the secret word. Rank 1 is the answer, so lower is better.
3. Follow the meaning, not the letters
Rank is about meaning, not spelling. If "ocean" scores 44, then "sea", "beach" and "tide" are worth trying — "occasion" is not.
4. Narrow it down
Guesses sort automatically with the closest at the top. Watch which direction improves the rank and push that way.
What the rank actually measures
Every word in the vocabulary — all 70,000 of them — is scored against the secret word and sorted by how close it sits in meaning. The number you get back is simply where your guess landed in that list, and rank 1 is the answer itself.
The scale is not linear, which matters more than it sounds. Anything under 300 is inside the answer's own neighbourhood and the bar turns green. Between 300 and 1,500 you are in the right region but the wrong part of it. Past 1,500, a guess is mostly telling you where the answer is not — worth knowing, but not worth chasing.
Playing it well
The rules take a minute. Playing well takes longer, and most of it comes down to treating each guess as a probe rather than an attempt.
Open with a broad, ordinary noun. Measured over 300 puzzles, the strongest opening word here is “teacher”, which lands inside the top 1,000 about 19% of the time. Its job is not to be right — it is to tell you which half of the language you are in.
After that, follow the gradient: when a guess improves your rank, push further the same way before trying something new. When several come back cold in a row, leave the area entirely rather than hunting for a nearer synonym inside it. And ignore spelling completely — a word sharing five letters with the answer can rank in the tens of thousands.
Other ways to play
- Play today’s puzzle
- Today’s puzzle — one new word every day at midnight UTC.
- Archive
- Every past puzzle, still playable. Archive games do not affect your streak.
- Unlimited
- An endless run of practice words, with no daily limit.
- Play with friends
- Pick a word yourself and send someone a link to it.
Frequently asked
- How do you play Contexto?
- Guess the secret word. Each guess is ranked by how close it is in meaning to the answer, out of 70,000 words. Rank 1 is the word itself, so a lower number means you are closer.
- What do the numbers mean in Contexto?
- The number is the guess's similarity rank. A word ranked #10 is one of the ten closest words in the whole list. A word ranked #40,000 is unrelated.
- Is there a limit on guesses?
- No. You can guess as many times as you like until you find the word.
- How often is there a new puzzle?
- A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight UTC.