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BOOKENDS, the daily word guessing game
A hidden word sits somewhere between two bookends. Type any real word. If it comes earlier in the dictionary than the hidden word, the left bookend moves up to it. If it comes later, the right bookend moves down. The gap shrinks and a counter shows how many everyday words are still inside it.
You always know how many letters the word has. Everyone gets the same word each day. A round takes about two or three minutes with a phone or a keyboard, and Unlimited mode gives you as many extra rounds as you want without touching your streak.
Yesterday's BOOKENDS and the last 7 days
How to play
- Type a real word and press Enter, or tap Place. Any word of 3 to 12 letters counts, not only words with the right length.
- If your word sorts before the hidden word in the dictionary, the left bookend moves to it. If it sorts after, the right bookend moves to it. The hidden word is always strictly between the two bookends.
- A word that is already outside the bookends is not counted as a guess. You get a nudge and can try again.
- The counter shows how many everyday words of the right length are still between the bookends. Aim for a word near the middle of the gap: a centred guess is called sharp (green square), because whichever side the hidden word is on, it leaves the fewest words to search. When the bookends start with the same letters, those letters are locked in above the shelf.
- When ten or fewer words are left the room goes red and the heartbeat starts. Think about what fits between the two bookends and name it.
- Name the hidden word to win. Stars depend on how many guesses you took. A hint counts as two guesses: pick a Clue (what the word means, with the word blanked out), a Letter (reveals one letter) or the Middle word (a good guess). Show the word ends the round with no stars.
Tips
- Think of the alphabet as a line and your gap as a stretch of it. If the bookends are CAMP and SHIP, a word starting with M or N is close to the middle, not a word starting with F.
- Common starting letters take up more room than rare ones. S, C and P cover a big share of the dictionary, X, Y and Z almost none.
- Once the bookends share a first letter, play the second letter the same way. FLAME and FLASK mean the word starts FLA and ends somewhere between M and S.
- The counter is your score as you go. A guess that cuts the count by more than half is a good one. A guess that barely moves it was too close to a bookend.
- Short words work as probes. A three-letter word at the middle of the alphabet is easy to think of and still cuts the gap in half.
A worked example: the first four guesses
Say the hidden word has five letters and the shelf holds 600 words. You type MONEY. It sorts before the hidden word, so the left bookend moves to MONEY and about half the words disappear.
Next you try SUGAR. It sorts after, so the right bookend moves to SUGAR. Now the word is between MONEY and SUGAR, maybe 150 words. A word like PLANT sits near the middle of that stretch, and so on down to one word.
A common mistake
Guessing the first word that comes to mind, like APPLE or ZEBRA. They sit at the very start and very end of the alphabet and barely move a bookend. Start near the middle, around M.
How BOOKENDS differs
In most word guessing games each guess is scored letter by letter. In BOOKENDS the answer to every guess is a position in the dictionary, so any word you can think of is a useful guess and no guess is wasted. The puzzle is about a feel for the alphabet and for which words are common, not about spotting letter patterns.
Questions
How do I play BOOKENDS?
Type real words. Each one moves a bookend closer to the hidden word, depending on whether it comes before or after it in the dictionary. Name the hidden word to win.
Is it the same word for everyone?
Yes. Everyone gets the same hidden word on the same New York calendar day, and a new one starts at midnight in New York. Every puzzle is made ahead of time.
Does my guess have to be the right length?
No. Any real word of 3 to 12 letters is a fair guess. You are told how long the hidden word is, but a short word in the middle of the alphabet is often the best way to cut the gap.
What counts as a real word?
A list of about 150,000 English words. The hidden word always comes from a shorter list of everyday words with rude, grim and gambling words left out, so you will not find a word you have never heard of.
How are the stars worked out?
Par is the number of guesses a perfect player needs to cut the shelf down to one word. Three stars is par plus two guesses or fewer, two stars is up to par plus six, otherwise one. A hint counts as two guesses and Show the word gives no stars.
Is there an unlimited mode?
Yes. Unlimited gives you a fresh word each round, in Easy, Everyday and Hard shelves. It does not change your daily streak.
Why is Sunday harder than Monday?
The shelf of possible words grows through the week. Monday uses the 250 most common words of its length and Sunday uses all of them, about a thousand per length, so the words are rarer and there are more of them to cut through.
Do I need an account?
No. Your streak, stars and saved rounds stay in your browser. You get one free streak freeze each week.
Can I play old puzzles?
Yes. The archive has every past daily puzzle. They do not count toward your streak.
Can I use a keyboard?
Yes. Type, press Enter to place the word, and press Backspace to fix a typo. On a phone the keyboard opens when you tap the word box.
BOOKENDS unlimited 路 More word games 路 FIVE, the five-letter word game 路 SCRAMBLE, the daily anagram