Hidden Joey

Hidden Joey is a daily word game that started in July 2026. Its name comes from the idea of kangaroo words: a word, like a mother kangaroo, carrying a joey that means the same thing, spelled with its letters in the right order but not always next to each other.

A day has three rounds, called The Warm-Up, The Hunt and The Deep End. The first shows a single word, and later rounds can show three words, only one of which hides a joey. You tap letters from left to right to spell your answer, and each round gives a limited number of tries, three in the warm-up and more in the later rounds, shown as tracks that fade as you miss. You press Catch to send a guess. If you get stuck you can spend hints: the length of the joey, ruling out one of the wrong words, or a short clue. After each round a card explains the words, often tracing where they came from, and these cards are kept in a collection.

The puzzles feel closer to a word curiosity than a vocabulary test, and the history notes are a large part of the appeal. It suits people who enjoy etymology, cryptic-style wordplay and short games that teach something new, and the archive lets newcomers replay earlier days without touching their streak.