Keystone.

Loading

—

0

0 words ▾

How to play

Eight letters, and each one can only be used once. Build as many words as you can out of them. A letter dims on the ring as you spend it, so a word runs from four letters up to all eight and no further.

The word that uses all eight is the keystone. There is one every day, it is worth an extra 8, and it is the best move on the board — take the keystone out of an arch and the rest of it falls down.
Words are four letters or longer.
A four-letter word scores 1. Anything longer scores one point per letter.
No proper nouns and no hyphens.

The list, and everything else

The count at the bottom — "12 of 34" — is the day's list, and it is what the ranks are measured against. Those words show in green and score in full.

Plenty of other real words work too. They are always accepted, they are shown in grey with a + under "Also found", and they score half. Never nothing — but the list is the thing worth chasing.

Under the count, "To find" breaks the rest of the list down by length: how many four-letter words are still out there, how many fives, and so on. It counts the list only, so a word found off it does not move any of those numbers.

Difficulty

The level decides how much of the dictionary the list asks for. The letters are the same at every level — the same ones everybody else has today — so only the length of the climb changes.

Nothing is ever refused for being too obscure for your level: every word the game knows is accepted on all three, and the keystone is on the list on all three. Change level whenever you like — the words you have already found stay found.

Today, and practice

There is one puzzle a day, the same one for everybody — that is the one with a number, the one that keeps your streak, and the only one you can share.

Press Practice at the top for as many more as you like. Practice puzzles don't count towards your streak and can't be shared, on purpose: a score means something to a friend because they can play the same puzzle. Press Today to come back — your day is exactly where you left it.

The ranks

The ladder is a share of the day's points, so it means the same thing on an easy day and a hard one.