A daily semantic word guessing game in ChatGPT
Sonarlex is a daily hidden-word game: you try up to 5 words a turn, and each gets a number for how close it is in meaning to a secret word, #1 being the word itself. You play it inside ChatGPT in English or Turkish, everyone playing a language gets the same word each day, and the fewer turns you need, the better.
Updated · The Open Apps, Inc.
How to play
- Open the puzzle. In ChatGPT, say “Let's play today's Sonarlex”. New to it? Say “Start the Sonarlex practice puzzle”: its word never changes, so you can learn the game on it.
- Try a few words. Give up to 5 words at once, like “ocean, ship, salt”, or type them in the card. Each gets a number: the lower, the closer in meaning.
- Follow the warm ones. A word in the hundreds is on the right track. Try its neighbours, synonyms and things it goes with, and drop the cold directions.
- Use a hint when stuck. You get 3 hints a puzzle. Each shows a word about halfway between your best word and the secret, and costs one turn.
- Share without spoiling. Once you find it, the card shows coloured squares for each turn that you can share. They give nothing away.
How close is close?
Every word in the list (28,271 in English, 22.327 in Turkish) is sorted by how close its meaning is to the secret word, using openly licensed word vectors. Your word's number is its place in that list.
Plurals and other forms count as their base word (“ships” is “ship”). Very common words like “the” and words outside the list cost nothing.
| Word tried | Its number when the secret is “orchard” |
|---|---|
| farm | #3 |
| garden | #5 |
| fruit | #14 |
| tree | #24 |
| apple | #100 |
What the numbers mean
Numbers are places in a list of every word, closest first.
| Number | What it means | What to do next |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | The secret word itself | You found it |
| #2–10 | Burning: one of its very closest words | Try synonyms and the obvious neighbours |
| #11–100 | Hot: same small topic | Narrow down within that topic |
| #101–500 | Warm: right area, wrong corner | Keep the theme, change the angle |
| #501–2,000 | Cool: loosely related | Look for a nearby theme |
| Over 2,000 | Cold | Jump somewhere new |
Turns, not words, are the score: 5 words in one turn cost the same as 1.
Use it in ChatGPT
Sonarlex Word Puzzle is a ChatGPT plugin. Type one of these:
- “Let's play today's Sonarlex”
- “Start the Sonarlex practice puzzle”
- “My words: ocean, ship, salt”
Questions
- Can ChatGPT just tell me the answer?
- No. The secret word stays on Sonarlex's server. ChatGPT only sees the numbers of the words you tried, so it can help you think, but it can't know the word.
- Is there a Turkish version?
- Yes. Sonarlex has a separate daily word in Turkish and follows your ChatGPT language; you can also say “Let's play in Turkish”.
- When does a new word come?
- The English word changes at midnight UTC and the Turkish one at midnight Türkiye time. Everyone playing a language gets the same word that day.
- What happens if I give up?
- Sonarlex shows the word and its closest words. Your streak starts again the next day.
- Do I need an account?
- No. Sonarlex knows you only by an anonymous ID that ChatGPT provides, and it shows no ads.