Hidden Word: spell the word from mixed-up letters
Hidden Word is a word scramble game with a clue for every word. Tap the mixed-up letters in the right order to spell it: for the clue "A striped animal," that's Z, E, B, R, A.
Play a free round of Hidden Word
Unscramble the letters to find the word. No sign-up, and speed never counts.
How to play
- Read the clue. Each game has 5 words, one at a time.
- Tap a letter tile. It goes into the next empty space, and its tile leaves the row.
- Made a slip? Tap Undo to take back the last letter.
- When every space is filled, the game checks the word. If it's right, you see "✓ Correct!" and the next word comes up. If not, you see "Not quite — try again," and the letters go back to their tiles.
- Stuck? Tap Skip. The game shows you the word, and waits until you tap Next.
Three worked examples
These words come from the game's own word list. The letters show one way they might be mixed up.
5 letters. Clue: Grows in a garden. Letters: N T A L P. There is only one vowel, A, so it probably sits in the middle. P and L often start a word together: PL-A-NT. The word is PLANT.
6 letters. Clue: Flies to space. Letters: T C O K E R. -ET and -ER are common endings. Put E and T at the end, and R, O, C, K are left to go in front. The word is ROCKET.
7 letters. Clue: Orange, in the fall. Letters: N K I P M U P. Two P tiles mean the word has two P's. Look for a short piece first: PUMP, then KIN. The word is PUMPKIN.
Tips
- Start with the clue. It often narrows things down to a few words before you look at the letters.
- Try the endings. Plenty of words in the game end in -ER, -ET or -OW. Set those letters aside, and the rest is shorter.
- Watch for doubles. Two tiles with the same letter often go side by side in the word, like the T's in BUTTER or the F's in COFFEE.
- Take as many tries as you like. In relaxed mode, Undo and wrong tries cost no points. Only a skipped word scores 0.
Levels
| Level | The 5 words in a game |
|---|---|
| 1 | four 5-letter words and one 6-letter word |
| 2 | two 5-letter words and three 6-letter words |
| 3 | one 5-letter, three 6-letter and one 7-letter word |
| 4 | two 6-letter words and three 7-letter words |
| 5 | one 6-letter word and four 7-letter words |
The free round on this page is Level 2.
The words
The game draws from 60 everyday words: 22 with 5 letters, 22 with 6 and 16 with 7. Each one has its own clue, and no word comes up twice in the same game. A few from the list: HOUSE (A place to live), GUITAR (Has six strings) and LIBRARY (Full of books).
How the score works
In relaxed mode, which is how the free round plays and how the app starts out, every word you spell earns 100 points and a skipped word earns 0. Your score is the average of the 5 words: spell 4 and skip 1, and you score 80.
If you turn relaxed mode off in the app (Account → Settings), time counts a little. A word spelled within 30 seconds still earns 100, or within 40 seconds for a 7-letter word. After that, its points slide down over the next minute, to no less than 60.
In the app, the Extra-large text setting (Account → Settings) makes the clue and the letters bigger.
More word puzzles: Word Groups and Grocery List. For a picture game, try Match the Pairs, or see all the games.