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Secret Word

No. of Players: 2
Type of Game: written
What you need: pen and paper

Goal

To guess the secret word chosen by one's opponent.

How to play

This game is a variation of Jotto. The two players each choose a five-letter word and then take turns trying to guess the word of their opponent. With each guess the player tells the guesser if there are any perfectly matching letters (i.e., the same letter and in the same position in both words). The first player to successfully guess the other player's secret word is the winner. Players should also set other rules, such as whether duplicate letters and proper nouns are permissible. Words of different length can be used to vary game difficulty.

A more difficult version of this game is Super Secret Word.

Example

Alexander chooses the word BREAD. Bryan first guesses TIGER and he is informed that there are no perfectly matching letters between the two words. In subsequent rounds, Bryan slowly zeros in on the secret word.

Bryce: How about TRAIN?
Alexander: The second letter is correct.
Bryce: BRACE?
Alexander: The first letter is correct.
Bryce: BRAWN?
Alexander: No additional correct letters.
Bryce: BRASS?
Alexander: No additional correct letters.
Bryce: BRAND?
Alexander: The fifth letter is correct.
Bryce: BRAID?
Alexander: No additional correct letters.
Bryce: BREAD.
Alexander: Correct!

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