One secret word, scored guesses and no limit. The numbers reward meaning rather than spelling, so the best next guess is often a topic, not a neighbour.
How a guess is scored
The rules on the page are short. Guess a single word. Semantle reports how similar it is to the secret one. The page insists this is not about spelling but about meaning, calculated with word2vec technology, and the FAQ names the dataset behind it: GoogleNews-vectors-negative300, from late 2021.
Scores can run negative, and the proximity column stays quiet until a guess falls within one thousand words of the target. In the screenshots above, labels such as cold and far sit beside the numbers.
A first session
Type a word into the box and press Enter. A table builds underneath with four columns: the order you guessed in, the word, its similarity and a proximity note. A sort control reorders the rows by score, which is how the best guesses climb to the top.
Probe with broad nouns, then follow whichever one scores highest. The FAQ mentions that very common words such as and and of are missing from the dataset, so skip them. It also says the daily word was picked from a shuffled list of the most popular words in English, with capitalised and hyphenated entries removed.
Why one more guess wins
Because the score is a number, you can reason with it. If garden returns a negative value and music a positive one, a whole region of meaning has just closed. The first screenshot shows exactly that kind of split on its first three guesses.
A new word arrives at 3:00AM your local time, according to the FAQ, and the archive holds every earlier game, so the habit can be restarted any evening.
Ads, hints and accounts
The About page names the ad service, and says the site is managed by The Word Finder. A Hint button gives a word slightly better than your best guess, and a Give Up button sits beside it.
Stats can be saved across devices by creating a Semantle account, per the FAQ. Other pieces on the menu are a Junior version, Teams for playing with friends, and a Spanish-language version.
Likely readers
People who liked Contexto's idea but want raw numbers instead of positions. It is the more mathematical of the two, and the less forgiving.
In the browser
Semantle plays in a browser tab at semantle.com. The FAQ credits its creator, David Turner, and says it is now part of The Word Finder.