Rebusly

A rebus spells out words with pictures, letters and their placement, and Rebusly makes one a day from the news. One recent puzzle hung the letters N, O, S and E on a clothes line, dripping into a puddle. Others place words inside, above or across each other, the way OUT sliding out of its frame reads as falling out. The puzzle for 22 October, No. 201 in the Sports section, bubbled the letters of a word up out of a cauldron, with the answer lengths (5, 2, 7) shown under the picture.

You have three tries. Three hints come in order, the news context, how to read the visual and the first letter of each word, and each hint or wrong guess costs one of the tries; Reveal ends the puzzle and shows the answer. A timer runs while you work.

Once you solve the puzzle, the page opens onto the story behind it: four articles from different outlets, chosen from left, centre and right. The section rotates through the week, from the Front Page on Sunday through Business, Op-Ed, Entertainment, Sports, History and Culture. Your result can be shared as small shapes with your time, without giving the answer away.

A new puzzle goes up at midnight Eastern Time. Every past puzzle stays in a free archive, and the site has no ads and needs no account. Rebusly is edited by Robert Lyons, who writes each puzzle by hand; the company also makes custom puzzles for brands and free worksheet packs for teachers.

It suits players who like word play and want a daily game that also tells them something about the day.