What is Semantle?
Semantle is a word-guessing game about meaning rather than spelling. The secret word could be anything, and the letters in your guess don't matter at all. Instead, each guess gets a score that shows how close its meaning is to the secret word, based on how a computer model links words that tend to appear in similar contexts. When you get very close, you also see a rank that tells you how near you are among the closest words. So you start by throwing out broad, unrelated words, watch which ones score highest, and then follow the trail of meaning until you land on the answer. It can take dozens of guesses, and that's part of the fun: the game rewards lateral thinking and patience more than vocabulary. Semantle was created by David Turner. It suits people who find Wordle too easy and enjoy a puzzle that feels like a game of hot and cold.
How to play
- Guess any word. You get a score for how close its meaning is.
- Follow your highest-scoring guesses towards the secret word.
- There's no guess limit. Keep going until you find it.
