Keyword

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Find the six-letter word that fills the gap in six other words.

Play Keyword

on washingtonpost.com

Keyword's own artwork from The Washington Post: a white letter tile with a black keyhole over a blue circle

Keyword is a daily word puzzle from The Washington Post. Six words each lack one letter, and those six letters, read across, spell the day's keyword. You guess letter by letter against a timer, aiming to get every letter right first time.

About Keyword

Keyword is one of the games The Washington Post makes for its own games section, next to its crossword, Mini Meta and Wridges. It is free to play in the browser, and signing in keeps your scores and unlocks the weekly bonus.

Each puzzle is a small grid. Six words run down the board, and each one is missing a single letter. The missing letters all sit on the same row, where they spell the keyword, a six-letter word that runs across. There are no clues: the only help is the letters you can already see and the fact that each letter you place has to work in two words at once.

You select a square and guess a letter. A letter that is right turns gold, a wrong one is marked and you try again, and the game counts how many guesses each square took. Six guesses for six letters is a perfect score. A timer runs as you play, and when you finish you see your average guesses, average time and number of perfect games.

The results screen also shows the last seven days, so a missed puzzle can still be played that week. Score three perfects in one week while signed in and a bonus Keyword unlocks. It suits players who like the quick crossing logic of a mini crossword but want a puzzle that takes a couple of minutes.

How to play Keyword

Open Keyword to load today's grid of six words, each missing one letter.
Select an empty square on the keyword row.
Type a letter that completes the word running through that square.
If the letter is wrong, it is marked and you try another; each extra guess counts against you.
Fill all six squares to reveal the keyword and see your guesses and time.
Use the recap to play any of the last seven days you missed.

Tips

Start with the word that has the fewest possible completions, such as one that ends in an unusual pair of letters.
Once two or three letters are in, read the keyword row as a word and guess the rest from it.
Common letters like E, A, R, S and T fill many six-letter words, so try them where several fit.
Sign in if you want the weekly bonus: perfects only count toward it when you are logged in.