half | abet

About half | abet

half | abet is a small browser word game shown on Hacker News in 2026. Its idea fits in a line: each day half the alphabet is lit up, the other half greyed out, and you have 120 seconds to type words made only of the lit letters.

Scoring is by rarity. Every word you submit is placed on a rarity map from 0, the most common words, to 100, the rarest, and rare finds earn far more than common ones. The letters are the same for everyone that day, so the game becomes a test of who can dig out the unusual words rather than who types fastest.

There is no account and nothing to install. The timer, the number of words and the running score sit at the top of the page, and the words you have found are listed below the rarity map.

It suits players of Spelling Bee and Boggle-style games who want something quick, and anyone who likes hunting for obscure words.

How to play half | abet

1. Open halfabet.com and look at Today's letters: the lit half of the alphabet.
2. Press Start to begin the 120-second clock.
3. Type a word made only of today's letters and press Submit.
4. Keep going until time runs out; rarer words score more.
5. Compare your score with friends who played the same letters.

Tips

• Skip the obvious short words first and spend your time on longer or unusual ones, which score more.
• Check which vowels are lit before you start: they decide what you can spell.
• Plurals and word endings from the lit letters can turn one find into several.

Questions