The Newest (and Most Difficult) Word Guessing Game

Summary

The article introduces Semantle, a challenging new word guessing game that uses semantic clues, and compares it to other popular word puzzle games like Wordle and its variations.

Abstract

The author discusses the recent popularity of word guessing games, particularly Wordle, and the subsequent rise of various spin-off games. Among these, Semantle stands out as a unique and difficult game where players have unlimited attempts to guess a word based on semantic similarity using the word2vec algorithm. Unlike Wordle, Semantle does not limit the guess to five letters and provides a similarity score to guide the player. The game, created by David Turner, is available in multiple languages and has a dedicated subreddit for hints and discussions. The author admits to completing Semantle only once with the help of the community and invites readers to share their experiences with Semantle and other word puzzle games.

Opinions

The author is captivated by Wordle and acknowledges its widespread popularity.
The author finds Semantle to be particularly challenging and addictive, having completed it only once with community assistance.
The author appreciates the variety of Wordle-inspired games available, mentioning Quordle, Octordle

If you are a Wordle champ I challenge you to complete this puzzle

I, like many others, have become enamoured by Wordle. A word guessing game that has taken the online realm by storm.

Screenshot by author from Wordle

Wordle, for those who are not familiar, is a daily word game created by Josh Wardle for his partner (who loves puzzles). It is a game where the player attempts to guess one five letter word with only six guesses. Each time a guess is made Wordle will give colour-coded prompts. It let you know which letters are in the right spaces, which are letters in the word but the wrong order, and which letters do not appear at all. From these clues, the player attempts to decipher the word in six guesses or less.

The breakout success of Wordle (which was since sold to the NYT by creator and developer Josh Wardle for a reportedly undisclosed seven-figure amount) has spawned a whole universe of Wordle adjacent games.

There’s Quordle, where you attempt to solve four Wordle puzzles simultaneously. Octordle, where you attempt to solve eight at once. Taylordle — Wordle for only the biggest Swiftie fans. Canuckle, Wordle for strictly Canadian-themed five-letter words, and my personal favourite, Worldle, where the player is presented with an outline of a country and you have six guesses to name that place (with directional kilometre clues as to how close or far you are from said country with your inputs).

However, no Wordle-based spin-off has been quite as vexing or as difficult as my newest obsession — Semantle.

Semantle is a once-a-day word game created by David Turner where you have unlimited tries to guess the secret word (not necessarily five letters) but you are given clues based on how similar your word is to the answer semantically speaking using an algorithm called word2vec. Word2vec is an algorithm utilized by Google to create a network of words based on similarities to one another.

You are given clues on how similar the word is out of a score of 100. You will be given a score for each word based on how similar it is to the secret word you are trying to guess. When you start to get close it will tell you how many away you are out of top 1000 words in similarity to the secret word.

Photo by author from Semantle

This is a game I have only been able to complete once (but not without a lot of help from “hints” on the Semantle subreddit thread).

From a Q&A present on the website the game was inspired by Wordle and Worldle (plus others), and thus follows similar patterns of allowing one game per 24-hour period.

Semantle is set to recognize the Americanized spelling of words, additionally creator David Turner says that at the time of writing this Semantle is currently available in seven other languages: Swedish, Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Turkish.

So, have you tried Semantle? Are you a lover of Octordle? Are you a daily Worldle player? I’d love to hear your streak scores and what your thoughts on Semantle are if you’ve tried it.