Where will you start?Try water, animal, music, or home. Explore different topics, then follow your closest guesses.
THE GAME
What is CloseWord?
A word game about meaning, rather than spelling or letter placement. Guess the hidden English word by exploring its meaning: each guess gets a rank, and a smaller number means you are closer.
Play CloseWord online for free, with no sign-in or download. Start with a broad idea, follow a promising connection, and keep building toward #1. There is no guess limit: every attempt gives you another clue about the hidden word.
Words can be connected through a shared topic, setting, or use. Coffee might lead you to cup, cafe, or breakfast; these are related concepts, even though they are not synonyms. A word that looks similar on the page can still be far away in meaning.
Choose Daily for the shared puzzle or Practice to explore at your own pace. Your guesses and hints stay in this browser when you refresh, so you can leave a difficult round and return to it later.
Each guess is a new direction. Follow the ranks to get closer. #1 is the answer; ranks under 100 are very close, 100–1,000 are warmer, and higher ranks are farther away.
01
Start anywhere
Enter an English word with at least two letters and submit it with Enter or Guess. Start with a common word such as water, music, or home. Capitals are converted to lowercase, and spaces around your word are ignored.
02
Follow the rank
Compare the new rank with your best result. If a guess moves you from #8,000 to #400, you have found a more useful direction. Try synonyms, objects, places, and activities connected to that idea.
03
Find number one
Only the exact hidden word wins at #1. Even a very close synonym is another clue, rather than the answer. Keep exploring, or use one of your three hints when your guesses stop improving.
water #12→sea #2→ocean #1 ✓
Illustration only — these ranks are not today's puzzle.
What the ranks and colors mean
The rank is a position among 55,000 supported vocabulary entries, not a percentage or the number of letters you got right. A rank of #20 means nineteen entries are ranked ahead of that guess. The distance between two ranks does not represent a fixed difference in meaning.
#1 · Found it
The exact target word. The round is complete.
#2–100 · Green
A strong connection. Explore nearby meanings and related concepts.
#101–1,000 · Yellow
A useful lead, but there is room to get closer. Try a more specific word.
#1,001+ · Gray
A weaker connection. Test another topic before investing more guesses.
Stuck in CloseWord? What to try next
Every guess is far away. Switch categories before trying more words from the same topic. Test a person, place, object, action, or natural thing, then compare their ranks to find a more promising direction.
You improved, but now you are stuck. Branch from your best word: who uses it, where would you find it, what is it used for, and what actions go with it? Test one connection at a time and compare it with your best rank.
You are already very close. Explore specific meanings, near-synonyms, and different word forms. Compare the contexts of your closest guesses; similar spelling alone does not mean a closer connection.
You do not recognize a hint word. Look up its meaning and usual context, then connect it with your earlier guesses. A hint can share a topic or setting with the answer without being a synonym.
Each round has three hints, shared across the hint difficulties. A hint reveals a word and its rank in your list, updates your best rank if it is closer, and does not increase your guess count.
Easy: aims for half your best rank. From #800, it looks for an unused word around #400. This is useful when you want a clearer direction.
Medium: aims for one position closer. From #80, it looks around #79. It can add another clue in the same neighborhood without making a large jump.
Random: reveals an unused word at a random rank. It may be farther away than your best guess, so treat it as a chance to explore rather than a guaranteed improvement.
Hints do not reveal the target directly. If the intended hint has already appeared, the game selects the nearest available alternative. Words near the target can include unfamiliar terms: use their topic as a lead, rather than assuming every hint is an everyday synonym.
Read the walkthrough
Try water to explore a topic. If the result is close, try sea or another related word. A rank of #1 wins. If a guess is far away, explore a different topic. Use a hint when you need a new direction.
A LITTLE EVERY DAY
Why play CloseWord?
A daily connection
Everyone gets the same target for the current UTC date. Daily resets at midnight UTC; your saved progress belongs to that day. You can compare how many guesses and hints it took without needing an account.
Unlimited practice
Practice chooses a random target from this version’s 30-word target pool. Use Play again whenever you want another round. Starting over clears that practice round’s guesses and restores its three hints; a random target may repeat.
A nudge when you need it
Choose how much guidance you want: a larger move closer, a nearby clue, or a random new direction. All three difficulties draw from the same allowance of three hints per round.
Your progress stays here
Daily and practice progress are stored separately in this browser. Refreshing brings back your word list and remaining hints. Clearing browser data or switching devices does not transfer your progress.
A clear trail of guesses
See every accepted guess with its rank and color. Sort the list to keep your best lead visible or review your thought process. When you solve the word, Copy result shares your guess and hint counts without naming the answer.
Open and play
Play free in your browser with no sign-in and no app to install. Type a word and press Enter on desktop, or use your phone’s keyboard and the Guess button. The same ranking rules apply on both.
GOOD TO KNOW
Frequently asked questions
How do I play CloseWord?
Enter an English word and check its rank. Lower means closer. Keep guessing related words until you reach #1.
Is the rank a similarity percentage?
No. Rank #100 does not mean 100% similarity. It means the word is in position 100 when the vocabulary is ordered by similarity to the target. Only #1 is the exact answer; a smaller rank is a stronger lead.
When does the daily puzzle reset?
At midnight UTC, which is 08:00 in Beijing. The displayed daily date uses UTC, so it can differ from your local calendar date. Daily targets are selected from a 30-word pool and repeat as that pool cycles.
Can I play more than once a day?
Yes. Daily has one shared target per UTC day. Practice lets you start as many random rounds as you like. Your daily progress is retained when you switch between the two modes.
How do hints work?
Easy aims to halve your best rank, medium aims for one position closer, and random reveals an unused word at a random rank. Each game has three hints total. Hints appear in your list but do not count as guesses or reveal #1 directly.
Why was my word rejected?
Use a single word containing only English letters, with at least two letters. The word must be in this version’s 55,000-entry vocabulary. Punctuation, hyphens, phrases, and unknown words are rejected. Rejected submissions do not increase your guess count; a word already guessed or shown as a hint cannot be submitted again.
Do I need an account?
No. You can play online for free without signing in. Progress is saved locally in your browser, rather than in an account. Private browsing, clearing site data, or using another browser may leave you with a fresh game.
How is semantic similarity calculated?
Each word has a 384-dimensional vector from MiniLM. Cosine similarity compares your word with the target, and the vocabulary is sorted from closest to farthest. The target is always #1. This model differs from the original game’s FastText.
Why can an unexpected word rank very close?
Embeddings capture patterns of language use, not a dictionary’s definition of a perfect synonym. A related place, name, word form, or unfamiliar term can appear close because of those patterns. Treat the ranking as a clue about context, rather than a definitive judgment of meaning.
Does spelling, word length, or part of speech matter?
There is no fixed answer length and no letter-position feedback. Nouns, verbs, and adjectives can all be accepted if they are in the vocabulary. Meaning drives the ranking; spelling alone does not tell you whether a guess is close.
Can I send a custom puzzle or race a friend?
This Chainle version currently includes Daily and Practice. Custom challenge links and multiplayer are not available here. When you solve a round, you can copy a short result showing your guess and hint counts.
Are these the same puzzles and ranks as closeword.org?
No. This is a separate implementation on Chainle with its own targets and MiniLM similarity rankings. The original CloseWord uses a different model, so the same guess can receive a different rank and today’s answer will not necessarily match.
