Word Chain

Every word starts with the last letter of the one before it. Keep the chain going as long as you can — on your own, against the clock, or against an opponent that answers back.

Loading the word list…

How to play

A starting word appears. Type a word that begins with its last letter and press Enter. Then do it again with the last letter of yours.

A word must be at least 4 letters long, be in the game's word list, and not already have been used in this chain. Apostrophes and accents are ignored — DON'T ends in T, CAFÉ ends in E.

The game tells you as you type if your word starts with the wrong letter or is too short. It does not tell you whether the word is in the list until you play it — otherwise you could simply type your way to an answer.

About the word list

It holds about 28,000 common English words, and it is shared with Word Scramble, Word Ladder, Letter Grid Hunt and Letter Hive. Plenty of real words are not in it, and no proper nouns are. If a word of yours is refused, that is the limit of the list rather than a judgement about the word.

Running out of words is not losing. Only four words in the list begin with X — while sixty end in one, including six, box, tax and fox. Once those four have been played, any word ending in X ends the chain. When that happens the game says the dictionary ran out; it is not counted against you.

Modes

Relaxed: No clock and no limit on wrong guesses. Build the longest chain you can and stop when you like — this is the only mode you cannot lose.
60-second Sprint: One minute. A wrong word costs you nothing but the seconds you spent on it, so the game is about not stopping to think rather than about thinking well.
Bot Duel: Take turns with an opponent that answers back. Three refused words in a row and the round is over — so the pressure is on finding a word at all, not on finding a good one.
Daily Seed: The same starting word for everybody, chosen by today's UTC date. No best is kept — a chain from a lucky seed cannot be compared with one from an awkward seed — but the result and the streak are.

The opponent

Bot Duel takes turns. What changes between levels is mostly how much of the word list the opponent may use, and how long it takes to reply — not how cunning it is. It obeys the same rules you do and keeps a separate best for each level, because a long chain against the gentlest and a long chain against the sharpest are not the same achievement.

Gentle: Plays common words and takes whatever comes to hand. It will not try to corner you, and it thinks for about a second.
Even: Knows a few thousand words and weighs a couple of options before answering, so it drifts towards awkward letters without hunting for them.
Sharp: Reaches further into the dictionary and looks at several replies before picking the one that leaves you least. It answers quickly. It is meant to be hard, not impossible.

Tips

Words ending in a vowel are usually safest — far more words begin with A, E and O than with the awkward consonants.
Watch what you hand over. A word ending in X, Z or Y gives the next player far fewer options than one ending in S or T.
In the Sprint, a short word you are sure of beats a long word you are still thinking about.

Privacy and local play

Everything runs in your browser. Your bests, your daily streak and the starting words you have already had are kept in this browser's local storage and are never sent anywhere — there is no account, no server and no leaderboard. Your words are not sent anywhere either; the whole list is downloaded once and checked on your own device. Clearing this game's data from the panel above removes all of it and touches nothing else on Zerdly.

Frequently asked questions

My word is real and it was refused. Is the game broken?: Almost certainly not. The word list is about 28,000 common English words — the same one Word Scramble, Word Ladder and Letter Hive use — and plenty of perfectly real words are not in it. Proper nouns are not in it at all. We would rather tell you the list is finite than pretend it is complete, and when a chain ends the game shows you words you could have played, which is usually a long list.
The chain ended and said there was nothing left. Did I lose?: No, and the game does not record it as a loss. Four words in the list begin with X — and sixty end in one, including six, box and fox — so once those four have been used, any word ending in X finishes the chain. That is the dictionary running out, not you playing badly, and the summary says so.
How does the apostrophe work?: It is ignored rather than treated as the end of the word, so DON'T counts as ending in T. Splitting on it would quietly change the last letter, and the last letter is the whole game. Accents are folded the same way, so CAFÉ ends in E.
What actually changes between the bot levels?: Mostly how many words the opponent is allowed to know, and how quickly it answers. A harder bot reaches further into the list, so it plays words you may not have met and lands you on more awkward letters. It plays by exactly the same rules you do — same list, same letter, no repeats — and it cannot see anything you cannot.
Why is there no leaderboard?: There is no server and no account, so there is nobody to compare you with. Your scores live in this browser and nowhere else. We would rather show you your own best than invent a rank.
Why does the Daily keep no best score?: It gives everybody the same starting word each day, and a lucky starting word and an awkward one are not comparable. It keeps your result for the day and how many days in a row you have played instead.