The word game that tells you how close you are: which one was it?

The short answer

You’re thinking of a guess-by-meaning word game, sometimes called a semantic word game. You type any word, the game compares its meaning with a hidden secret word, and it tells you how near you landed. Spelling doesn’t count. A word can share no letters with the answer and still be very close.

Three daily games work this way, and between them they cover what most people remember:

• Semantle gives every guess a similarity score. The higher the score, the closer you are.
• Contexto gives every guess a position. The secret word is number 1, so the lower the number, the closer you are.
• Warmer Warmer gives every guess a temperature, from freezing to scorching, like the children’s game of hot and cold.

If the game colored the tiles of a five-letter word and gave you six chances, that was Wordle from The New York Times. Wordle works on letters, not meaning.

Which one did you see? Match the clue to the game

Think back to what the screen said after a guess. One of these will ring a bell.

A number with decimals, and later something out of 1,000. That’s Semantle. Each guess gets a similarity score. A line at the top tells you the similarity of the nearest word, the tenth-nearest and the thousandth-nearest, so you know what “close” looks like that day. Once a guess lands among the thousand nearest words, it also gets a proximity out of 1,000. Further out, Semantle labels it tepid, cold or far.

A whole number that kept shrinking. That’s Contexto. Its words are sorted by how similar they are to the secret word, and after each guess you see that word’s position. The secret word is number 1, so a 12 is far better than a 2,000. You have unlimited guesses.

Words like warmer, hot and freezing. That’s Warmer Warmer. Each guess gets a temperature and a name: freezing, cold, cool, lukewarm, warm, hot or scorching. When you hit the word, it says “Found it!”

Colored tiles and six tries. That’s Wordle. You guess a five-letter word, and the tiles change color to show how close your guess was.

No screen at all. If someone thought of a word and said “colder… warmer… you’re burning!” while you guessed out loud, you played the old game of hot and cold with words. There’s more about that in the hot and cold word game.

How a game can tell you how close you are

It feels a little like magic the first time. You type weather, and the game knows you’re getting somewhere, even though weather looks nothing like the answer.

The trick is that each of these games carries a sense of which words belong together. Contexto, for instance, explains that its algorithm analyzed thousands of texts and looks at the context in which words are used. So the game doesn’t check letters. It checks neighborhoods.

Here’s how a short game reads when the secret word is umbrella, shown the Warmer Warmer way:

1. cheese36 °FFreezing: not even close
2. weather126 °FWarm: we’re outside now
3. cloud142 °FWarm: up in the sky
4. rain174 °FHot: what it’s for
5. raincoat190 °FScorching: its closest cousin
6. umbrellaFound it!

Not one of those guesses is spelled like umbrella. Weather finds the area, rain finds the purpose, and raincoat stands right next door. In Semantle the same path would show rising scores, and in Contexto falling positions. The thinking is the same in all three.

Try it now: what’s your first guess?

Guess

Your word goes straight into today’s game.

Why “hot and cold” is the easiest way to picture it

Plenty of people search for a “word guessing game hot and cold,” and it’s a fair description of the whole family. Semantle borrows the language itself: its far-off guesses get labels like cold and tepid. Warmer Warmer takes the idea all the way. Every guess is a temperature, the way it was when someone hid the cookies and you crept around the kitchen hearing “warmer, warmer.”

A temperature is a feeling rather than a calculation. Going from cool to lukewarm doesn’t ask you to work anything out. You simply know you’re closer. That’s why many players find it a gentle place to start, and why it suits grandparents and grandkids alike.

Questions people ask

Is there a game like Wordle, but by meaning? Yes, all three above. Wordle checks your letters. Semantle, Contexto and Warmer Warmer check what your word means.

Can I play the days I missed? Semantle has an archive of past games. Contexto lets you play previous games or a random one. Warmer Warmer has an archive too: a guest can try one past word of the day, a free account opens one a day, and Premium opens them all.

Do they come in other languages? Contexto plays in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Warmer Warmer plays in more than 30 languages, each with its own secret words.

What if I get stuck? Each game has a way out. Semantle and Contexto both have a Hint option and a Give up option. In Warmer Warmer, the “I need a hint” button shows who can help: the players’ Facebook group, where people help each other every day, or family or friends you can send the game to. For Semantle in particular, here’s how to get a Semantle hint without spoilers.

If it was Warmer Warmer

Warmer Warmer is free and plays in your browser, on a phone or a computer, with no app and no sign-up. There’s one new secret word every day at your midnight, the same for everyone in your language, so family or friends can compare who found it in fewer guesses.

Found today’s word and want more? A free account opens the Hot Word, one harder word for the whole week, and the Trail, four secret words in a row where each one leads to the next.

To get better at any of these games, read the Contexto strategy guide, which works for meaning games in general. For a closer look at the family, see games like Semantle or games like Contexto. Or simply open today’s word.