Middle Word (PZL games)

About Middle Word (PZL games)

Middle Word is part of PZL games, the daily puzzle site from Perfect Level Games Ltd. It first appeared on Hacker News under the question of which of 20,000 words is the middle one.

The day opens with two bounds, for example Match above and Noise below, each about 10,000 dictionary words from the answer. The answer is the common word in its basic form that sits alphabetically halfway between them. You type a guess; if it comes before the answer it moves above the input, if after it goes below, and a number on the guess shows how many dictionary words separate it from the answer. The range tightens with each guess.

You have ten guesses. It plays like a binary search through the dictionary, but choosing words that halve the gap quickly takes some feel for how many words start with each letter pair.

It suits players of alphabetical guessing games such as Betweenle and Guess My Word who like a numeric hint as well as a direction.

How to play Middle Word (PZL games)

1. Open Middle Word on PZL games and read the two starting words.
2. Type a guess that falls alphabetically between them.
3. See whether your guess lands above or below the answer, and how many words lie between.
4. Use each new bound to pick a guess closer to the middle.
5. Find the word within ten guesses and share your result.

Tips

• Use the counts, not just the direction: a number in the hundreds means you are close.
• The answer is always a common word in its basic form, so skip plurals and rare words.
• Halve the remaining range each time rather than guessing words you like.

Questions