§Reference · puzzle terminology
Puzzle Glossary
73 puzzle terms with crisp definitions and origin context — from Wordle jargon (opener, share string, hard mode) to crossword craft (themer, revealer, crosswordese) to number theory (prime, palindrome, digit sum).
Wordle family
- DordleA Wordle variant with two simultaneous boards and seven guesses.
- Gray tileA gray-coloured tile indicating the guessed letter is not in the target word.
- Green tileIn Wordle-family puzzles, a green-coloured tile indicating the guessed letter is in the ta…
- Hard modeA Wordle setting that requires every subsequent guess to use any green and yellow letters …
- OctordleA Wordle variant with eight simultaneous boards and thirteen total guesses.
- OpenerThe first guess a player makes in a daily puzzle, chosen to maximise information about the…
- QuordleA Wordle variant in which the player solves four hidden words simultaneously across four b…
- Starting wordSynonym for opener — the first guess in a daily word puzzle.
- Vowel-heavyA five-letter word with four or more vowels (e.g. AUDIO, ADIEU, OUIJA), favored as a Wordl…
- Wordle botA solver that uses information theory to recommend optimal Wordle guesses, popularised by …
- Wordle dictionaryThe list of approximately 2,315 hand-curated answer words plus ~10,000 accepted guess word…
- Yellow tileA yellow-coloured tile indicating the guessed letter is in the target word but in the wron…
Daily-puzzle category
- 2048A single-player score-attack game in which the player merges matching numbered tiles on a …
- BongoA Puzzmo daily word-tile-placement puzzle in which the player drops letter tiles onto a bo…
- ConnectionsA daily NYT puzzle in which the player groups 16 words into four categories of four relate…
- CrosswordleA puzzle mixing crossword and Wordle mechanics — the player must derive a target word work…
- Daily puzzleA puzzle game format in which the same puzzle is served to every player on the same day, w…
- Daily resetThe moment a daily puzzle game serves a new puzzle, typically 00:00 UTC.
- HexMergeA 2048-mechanic puzzle on a hex-styled grid with a cool-to-neon color gradient and persist…
- LexSweepA daily 5×5 symmetric word-square puzzle. The player has eight guesses to find five hidden…
- NumGridA daily 5-digit number-guessing puzzle with Wordle-style per-digit feedback and two free a…
- SpelltowerA word-puzzle mechanic in which players trace adjacent letters on a grid to form words; cl…
- StreakThe number of consecutive days a player has solved a daily puzzle, tracked per-game and pe…
- Streak freezeA daily-puzzle feature that protects a player's streak from a single missed day.
- Symmetric word squareA word square in which the i-th row reads the same as the i-th column, used as the basis f…
- ThreesA merge puzzle in which the player slides numbered tiles to combine matching pairs and mul…
- TypeshiftA word puzzle in which the player slides letter columns up or down to align valid words ac…
- Word squareA square grid of letters in which each row and each column spells the same set of words, i…
- WordleA daily web-based word puzzle in which the player has six guesses to identify a five-lette…
Crossword terminology
- Across clueA clue in a crossword puzzle whose answer is entered horizontally.
- ConstructorA person who creates crossword puzzles. In the NYT crossword world, constructors are credi…
- CrosswordA puzzle in which the player fills a grid of squares with letters that read as words both …
- CrosswordeseWords rarely used in everyday speech but common in crosswords (ETUI, ORLE, EPEE) due to th…
- Cryptic crosswordA crossword variant in which each clue is a piece of wordplay yielding the answer (e.g. "F…
- Down clueA clue in a crossword puzzle whose answer is entered vertically.
- EditorThe person responsible for vetting and revising crossword puzzles before publication. Will…
- FillThe non-themed answers in a crossword puzzle; the "glue" that holds the themers together.
- IndicatorIn a cryptic crossword clue, a word signaling a specific wordplay device (anagram, hidden …
- Mini CrosswordA small 5×5 daily crossword puzzle, typically solved in under three minutes.
- NYT CrosswordThe New York Times' flagship daily 15×15 crossword (21×21 on Sundays), the most-cited cros…
- NYT Mini CrosswordThe New York Times' daily 5×5 mini crossword, free to play in the browser.
- RevealerA crossword answer that names or explains the puzzle's theme, usually placed at the bottom…
- StumperAn especially difficult Saturday-edition US newspaper crossword. The Newsday Saturday Stum…
- ThemeA unifying concept or wordplay device that ties together a crossword puzzle's longest answ…
- ThemerA themed answer in a crossword, typically one of the longer entries.
Word-puzzle mechanics
- AnagramA word formed by rearranging the letters of another word (e.g. LISTEN ↔ SILENT).
- PalindromeA word, number, or sequence that reads the same forward and backward (e.g. RADAR, 12321).
- PangramA piece of text that uses every letter of the alphabet at least once. Common in Spelling B…
- SpangramIn NYT Strands, the central themed word that runs from one edge of the grid to the opposit…
- Spelling BeeA New York Times daily word puzzle in which players form words using seven letters arrange…
- StrandsA New York Times daily word search in which the player finds themed words on a grid with t…
Logic-puzzle terms
- FlipartA daily logic puzzle in which the player rotates tiles to reconnect a path or pattern, wit…
- Killer SudokuA Sudoku variant in which cells are grouped into colored regions, each with a target sum t…
- NonogramA logic puzzle in which the player fills in cells of a grid based on numeric run-length cl…
- PicrossSynonym for nonogram, popularised by Nintendo's Picross game series.
- SudokuA logic puzzle in which the player fills a 9×9 grid with digits 1-9 so that each row, each…
Number-theory terms
- Composite numberA positive integer greater than 1 that has at least one positive divisor other than 1 and …
- Digit sumThe sum of the individual digits of a number. Used as a hint in NumGrid and as a classic d…
- Fibonacci numberA number in the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ... where each term is the sum of the two p…
- ParityWhether a number is even or odd. Used as a hint in NumGrid and a classical proof-by-contra…
- Perfect squareA positive integer that is the square of an integer (1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, ...).
- Prime factorizationThe expression of a positive integer as a product of prime numbers, unique by the Fundamen…
- Prime numberA positive integer greater than 1 with no positive divisors other than 1 and itself.
- Triangular numberA number of the form n(n+1)/2: 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, ... — the count of dots in a trian…