Semantle: Guess by Meaning — How to Play & Read the Scores

What is Semantle?

Semantle is a daily word game in which you find a secret word using semantic similarity. Submit a word and the game measures how related it is to the answer. You get unlimited guesses, and the feedback gives no green or yellow letter tiles. The official FAQ says the game uses word2vec to calculate the relationship between words. David Turner created Semantle; The Word Finder now runs it.

The change from Wordle is more than a different scoring system. You search through meanings instead of narrowing down a spelling pattern. A guess that shares letters with the answer may tell you very little, while a word on the right topic can move you closer.

How to play

1. Enter one word. Each guess must be a single word.
2. Read its similarity. Compare it with your earlier guesses to find a promising direction.
3. Watch for proximity. Once a guess enters the closest 1,000 words, the game gives a numerical proximity too.
4. Keep narrowing the meaning. You win by submitting the secret word itself.

If you get stuck, the official Hint button offers a word slightly closer than your best guess, according to the FAQ. Give Up ends the puzzle and reveals its answer. There is one new daily word; for another puzzle, use the official Archive.

Similarity and proximity: two different clues

Similarity is the model’s score for the relationship between your guess and the secret word. Higher scores mean a closer relationship. It is not a percentage chance of solving the puzzle: a score of 40 does not mean you are 40% likely to have guessed correctly.

Proximity tells you where your guess sits within the answer’s closest 1,000 words. The current game displays it as a number out of 1,000, with a larger number meaning closer. It only becomes numerical once you enter that group. Missing numerical proximity does not mean the guess has no useful similarity score.

Above the input, Semantle shows the similarity of the nearest, tenth-nearest and thousandth-nearest words. Those are benchmarks for that puzzle. Compare your score with them to judge how far you have moved; a fixed score does not have the same significance every day.

A way to find a direction

Start by testing different areas of meaning: an object, a person, a place, an action and a feeling, for example. Compare the scores before committing to one topic. This is a way to explore the puzzle, rather than a guaranteed opening sequence.

When a topic improves your best score, try nearby ideas as well as direct synonyms. If a workplace word looks promising, you might test jobs, tasks, equipment or the places where that work happens. If those guesses stop improving, return to another branch. Keep your best guesses as reference points, and use the proximity numbers to compare words once they appear.

Archive, Junior and Teams

• Archive — the official archive offers previous Semantle and Semantle Junior puzzles.
• Junior — Semantle Junior keeps the same basic rules, with target words that are typically nouns or very common terms.
• Teams — the FAQ links an official team option for playing with friends.

If you want to save your games and statistics across devices, the official FAQ directs you to create a Semantle account.

Where to play Semantle

Play the daily game free in your browser at semantle.com. The official site carries ads and links its own FAQ, Archive, Junior and Teams pages. Open its FAQ when a score or accepted word is confusing; it also explains spelling differences and the word model.

Games like Semantle

Contexto is the closest match here: it also asks you to find a word through meaning. For a different kind of deduction, try Absurdle’s shifting answer, the count-only letter clues in Word500, or the repeated-letter patterns in Polygonle.