Heatword (Zalize)
Find the secret word of the day by how close each guess is in meaning.
Every day: One secret English word a day at 00:00 UTC, the same for every player; each guess gets a rank by closeness in meaning, with a daily solver ranking. On Sundays Geo Day swaps the word for a country to find by distance in km. New puzzle: Midnight UTC.
Heatword is a free daily semantic word game from Zalize Daily Games. Everyone hunts the same secret word each day: type any English word and it gets a rank for how close it is in meaning, with #1 being the answer. Guesses are unlimited, and on Sundays the game turns into Geo Day, a country hunt by distance.
About Heatword (Zalize)
Heatword belongs to the family of hot-and-cold word games started by Semantle and Contexto. There is one secret word a day, and you can type any English word as a guess. Instead of letter colours, each guess comes back with a rank: how close it sits in meaning to the secret word, with #1 being the word itself. The lower the rank, the hotter you are, and the trail of guesses sorted by rank shows which way to go.
Guesses are unlimited. If you are stuck you can take a free starter word that sits around rank 300, and after a run of cold guesses the game offers a hint word much closer to the answer. A commentator chimes in every ten guesses with a remark on how warm you are. When you solve it you see your place among the day's solvers and the site-wide median number of guesses.
The word is new every day at midnight UTC and numbered (#95 on 4 October 2026), so everyone plays the same puzzle and can share results without spoilers. Sundays are Geo Day: instead of a word you guess a country, and each guess tells you how many kilometres away it is; your streak is never at risk that day. Past puzzles can be replayed from an archive without touching today's streak, and progress can be moved between devices with a sync code, no account needed. The game is part of Zalize Daily Games and plays in the browser in English, German, Spanish and Portuguese.
How to play Heatword (Zalize)
- Open Heatword and type any English word as your first guess.
- Read the rank it gets: #1 is the secret word, and a lower rank means closer in meaning.
- Use your best-ranked guesses to steer toward related words.
- Take the starter word or a hint if you are stuck; guesses are unlimited.
- Find the word to see your place among today's solvers, then share your result.
Tips
- Start broad (a common noun, a verb, an adjective) to find which area of meaning is warm.
- Ranks under 100 mean you are in the right neighbourhood: try synonyms and words used in the same sentences.
- On Geo Day, use the distance from two far-apart countries to narrow down the region.
Questions
When does Heatword reset?
A new word comes every day at midnight UTC, the same for everyone.
How many guesses do I get?
As many as you like. The game counts them, and you can compare yours with the day's median.
What is Geo Day?
Sunday's variant: you guess a country and each guess shows its distance in km from the answer. Your streak is safe that day.
Is Heatword free?
Yes. It plays in the browser and needs no account.
Games like Heatword (Zalize)
Contexto
The best-known rank-by-meaning word game: one secret word a day, closest guess is #1
Semantle
The original semantic guessing game, scored by similarity instead of rank
Pimantle
Semantle's words laid out on a map of meaning, one secret word a day
Globle
Hot and cold by distance, like Heatword's Sunday Geo Day
Interrogate (Zalize)
Another of Zalize's daily games, a deduction puzzle with a new case each day
InfiniteAlchemy (Zalize)
Fuse elements from Water, Fire, Earth and Wind to reach today's target.
WordBridge (Zalize)
Sort 16 words into four groups, then name the hidden theme that bridges them.
Lexicle
Guess the day's word by meaning, hotter or colder.