How to play Unriddle
Unriddle is a cryptic-clue trainer. Every clue has two halves that both point at the same answer: an ordinary definition, and a piece of wordplay that spells the answer out letter by letter. You also get the number of letters. Solve either half and the other one confirms it — and the moment you get it right, the clue disassembles on screen and shows you exactly how the wordplay was built. Five clues a day, and six kinds of wordplay you meet one at a time.
Make your own Unriddle puzzle and share it with a link.
How to play
- Read the two halves. The first is a straight definition; the second is a recipe for building the same answer out of letters.
- Count the letters. The enumeration is the cheapest check you have — it rules out most wrong ideas instantly.
- Type your answer and press Check. Wrong guesses cost nothing, so try things out.
- Stuck? The first hint names the kind of wordplay, the second explains how that clue is built, the third offers another way of defining the answer, and only the last gives you a letter.
- Solve a clue and it takes itself apart: every piece of the wordplay, what each piece means, and why no other word fits.
- Play Practice as often as you like, or drill one kind of wordplay until it clicks. Only the Daily counts toward your streak.
Tips & strategy
- Decide which half is the definition first. It is almost always at one end of the clue, never in the middle.
- Watch for the instruction word. "Shaken" or "at sea" means rearrange the printed letters; "beheaded" means drop the first letter; "hidden in" means read straight through the gap.
- Trust the letter count over your first idea. If your answer is the wrong length, the reading is wrong, not the clue.
- On a two-piece clue, solve the short piece first. Three-letter everyday words come quickly and they pin down the rest.
- Take the first hint freely — it only names the technique. Cracking a clue with no hints at all is what your score counts, so save the later hints for a genuine wall.
- Every clue is checked against the full word list before it is set, so a clue never has a second right answer. If two readings both seem to work, one of them is not really working.
- Once you can solve them, make one. Pick any of the two thousand-odd words we can clue and we build the cryptic for it — definition, wordplay and the disassembly your friend gets when they solve it. You write nothing, and the link is private.
Accessibility
Unriddle is pure text with no grid, no colours and no timer. The definition and wordplay halves are labelled for screen readers rather than distinguished only by layout, and the disassembly is a lasting definition list you can re-read term by term, not a passing announcement. It plays end to end with a keyboard, and the reveal animation is removed when your device asks for reduced motion.