About Don't Guess
The word game where losing means winning at spelling.
Why this game exists
Somewhere along the way, daily word games taught millions of people to hunt a hidden word in six guesses. Don't Guess asks the opposite question: how long can you keep yourself from finding it? It turns out that dodging a word while the rules herd you toward it is a completely different kind of puzzle - less deduction, more escape artistry.
We loved the reverse-guessing genre but kept running into the same wall: one puzzle per day. Don't Guess was built so that anyone can play the moment the itch strikes - an unlimited mode with endless fresh rounds, plus a classic shared Daily for streaks and bragging rights.
What makes it different
- Unlimited rounds, free, forever - plus a shared Daily challenge.
- A live safe-word counter and danger meter, so you can feel the trap closing in real time.
- 5 undos per round with a visible undo history - the classic reverse-game rules, unchanged.
- Post-round analysis showing the safe words you could have played.
- A word journal that collects every hidden word with its dictionary definition - vocabulary practice on the side.
- Achievements, streaks, per-mode statistics, shareable emoji results.
- Dark and light themes, a high-contrast colorblind palette, reduced-motion support, and full keyboard play.
- Installable as an app and playable offline.
Under the hood
Don't Guess is a hand-built, dependency-free web game - plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript, no frameworks, no account system, no tracking scripts of our own. Your statistics live in your browser's local storage and never leave your device.
The dictionaries are compiled from open-license word lists: the dwyl/english-words project (released under The Unlicense) supplies the playable dictionary, and the answer pool is drawn from the most common English words per the google-10000-english list, hand-filtered for fairness and family-friendliness. Word-journal definitions come from the free Free Dictionary API, with deeper links to Wiktionary.
Advertising
The site is free to play and supported by a small number of display ads. Ads are clearly labelled, kept away from the game controls, and governed by our privacy policy, where you can also manage your consent choices.
Contact
Found a bug? Missing a legitimate word? Want to say hi? Email aks1706hay@gmail.com - we read everything.
Fair play & trademarks
Don't Guess is an independent game. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with The New York Times Company, Wordle, or dontwordle.com. WORDLE is a registered trademark of The New York Times Company. Game mechanics are not subject to copyright, and everything on this site - code, design, word lists and text - is an original implementation built from the open-license sources credited above.