How to play Redactle

Redactle hides a Wikipedia article behind black bars. You guess a word, and every place it appears is revealed. Find the title and you solve the puzzle.

A few common words like the, and, of, and is stay visible so you can read the shape of the sentences. Everything else starts hidden. Fewer guesses is a better score, and the game also tracks your time and your accuracy, the share of guesses that hit at least one word.

The first sentence is your best clue

Almost every Wikipedia article opens the same way: the title, a linking verb, a few descriptors, then a category noun. X is a [descriptor] [descriptor] [category]. Once you spot the category, you know what you're hunting for.

Walk through K2

Here's the real first sentence of K2, redacted the way you'd first see it:

██, at 8,611 metres (28,251 ft) above ███ █████, is the ██████-███████ ████████ on █████.

The numbers give it away before you guess anything. Metres, feet, and "above ___ ___" are elevation language, so the subject is geographic. Guess sea and "above sea level" appears. Guess mountain and the category noun shows up in "second-highest mountain on ___." Now you know it's a famous mountain, second only to Everest. That's K2, and the two-letter title is easy once the shape is clear.

Dates in brackets mean a person

Biographies have their own shape: a name, then birth and death dates in brackets, then a nationality and a job.

███ █████████ (14 █████ 1879 – 9 ████ 1955) was an ███████ █████████.

If you see (date – date) after a short title, it's almost always a person. Open with born, then try a profession or nationality like English or physicist.

Shapes by category

Each kind of article leaves its own fingerprints. A few to watch for:

• Places: population and area figures, coordinates, and phrases like "is a city in" or "is a river in." Try city, country, river, island, or capital.
• People: dates in brackets, plus headings like "Early life" and "Career." Try born, then a job such as actor, politician, or writer.
• Living things: "is a species of," a Latin genus name, and a "family." Try species, genus, or found.
• Creative works: "is a [year] film," "album," or "novel," with "released" or "directed by." Try film, album, released, or directed.
• Historical events: clusters of years and words like "war," "battle," or "treaty." Try war, battle, or forces.

Starter words and what they test

Open with a broad word that sorts the article into a category, then follow the reveals. These all show up often across Wikipedia:

Reading the rest of the page

The clues aren't only in the first line. The redacted title in the top heading shows how many words and letters you're after, so a one-word title narrows things fast. A word that reveals many times is close to the topic: if film shows up fifteen times, you're on a movie or a director.

Headings leak the category too. "Discography" means a musician. "Geography" and "Demographics" mean a place. "Reign" means a monarch. Years, large numbers, and units stay visible from the start, so a run of dates in the 1940s often points at the Second World War.

When you're stuck

Every hidden word keeps its length, so short words rule out or confirm a lot in one guess. If you've run dry, an AI hint points at the topic without naming it. And there's no shame in giving up and reading the article: the revealed text is the best teacher for the next puzzle.

Modes

• Daily puzzle: one article a day, the same for everyone, released at midnight UTC. Solving it keeps your streak going.
• Junior: starts with three clue words and forgives close guesses. A gentler, quicker game.
• Collections and leagues: themed sets you can play at your own pace or compete over with friends.
• Multiplayer: the same puzzle, live, racing a friend to the title.

Start playing

Open today's puzzle on the homepage. The patterns get easier every game, and after a dozen puzzles you'll read a redacted first line almost as fast as a plain one.