About Redactle
Redactle is a daily word puzzle built on Wikipedia. You’re shown an article with almost every word blacked out, and you have to work out what it’s about by guessing words to reveal them. Guess “water” and every “water” on the page appears. Slowly the shape of the subject emerges, and at some point it clicks. The goal is to name the article in as few guesses as you can.
It’s an independent site, run by one person, and it’s free to play. New to it? The how to play guide walks through a puzzle step by step.
Ways to play
- Daily — one puzzle a day, the same one for everybody, so you can compare notes with friends.
- Unlimited — keep playing as long as you like, with a large back catalogue of articles.
- Rush — ten articles in one sitting, one guess each, for when you want something quicker.
- Multiplayer and leagues — race other people through the same article, or play a season against a regular group.
- Collections — themed sets of puzzles to work through at your own pace.
- Junior — a gentler version with more familiar subjects, for younger players and classrooms.
There are also hints when you get stuck, and stats that follow your accuracy and streaks over time.
Where the puzzles come from
The articles come from Wikipedia, but a puzzle isn’t just a copy of a page. Articles are picked by hand — not scraped at random — because a good puzzle needs a subject that’s guessable but not obvious, and an article long enough to give you something to work with. From there the text is rebuilt into a game: words are grouped so that guessing “run” also reveals “running”, difficulty is estimated, and the scoring, hints and reveals are all this site’s own.
Redactle is not affiliated with Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia trademarks and content remain the property of their respective owners.
Who runs the site
Redactle is run by Ben Brady, as an ongoing side project rather than a company. The original Redactle, now inactive, was created by John Turner.
Ads and supporters
Ads are what pay for the servers and for the time that goes into the site. If you’d rather not see them, supporters don’t.
Already supporting the site? Log in with the same email address you used, and the ads should disappear. If they don’t, email me or message me on Discord and I’ll sort it out by hand.
Students and teachers can have ad-free access for free — log in first, then email [email protected] or message me on Discord from or mentioning the address on your account.
Get in touch
Questions, problems, ideas or business enquiries — email [email protected] or use the contact page. Bug reports and complaints about a specific puzzle are genuinely useful; a lot of the site has been fixed that way.
See also Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.