Nothing leaves the device
No account, no sign-in, no analytics SDK, no advertising SDK. Your guesses, streaks and statistics stay in the app on your own hardware.
Daily semantic word game · iPhone · iPad · Mac
Guess the word by what it means.
Lexical hides one secret word each day. Every guess you make is scored by how close its meaning is to the secret word — not by which letters it shares. Guess ocean when the answer is sea and you are one word away. Guess car and you are nowhere near.
Lexical has not been released yet. The App Store link is a placeholder until launch day.
- Works offline
- No account
- No ads
- No tracking
- English + French
Semantic field · demo
Secret word: hidden
Demo secret word: sea
- ocean78.42 · #1Scalding
- tide47.02 · #19Hot
- ship37.60 · #96Warm
- car2.31 · unrankedCold
What is Lexical?
Lexical is a daily word game for iPhone, iPad and Mac in which every guess is scored by semantic similarity to a hidden secret word rather than by shared letters. Each guess returns three pieces of feedback: a similarity score, a rank showing where the guess falls among the 1,000 words nearest in meaning to the secret word, and a temperature describing how warm that is. There is one secret word per day in English and a separate one in French.
The whole game runs on the device. Lexical computes similarity locally using Apple's Natural Language framework, so it needs no server, no network connection and no account. Roughly 29,000 English words and 28,000 French words are playable. Nothing about your play is uploaded, because there is nowhere for it to go.
The result is a word game that rewards knowledge and lateral association instead of spelling. There is no five-letter limit, no grid, and no alphabet to eliminate. The only signal is meaning — which is why a good guess can be twelve letters long and share nothing with the answer.
At a glance
- Category
- Word game · daily puzzle
- Platforms
- iPhone, iPad, Mac — native on each
- Requires
- iOS 26, iPadOS 26 or macOS 26 and later
- Languages
- English and French, one secret word per day each
- Vocabulary
- ≈29,000 English words · ≈28,000 French words
- Engine
- On-device, Apple Natural Language framework
- Network
- None required — plays fully offline
- Account
- Not required
- Tracking
- None. No ads, no analytics SDKs
- Also includes
- Game Center leaderboards, streaks, statistics, spoiler-free share cards, daily reminders
- Accessibility
- VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, Dark Mode
- Status
- In development — not yet on the App Store
How do you play Lexical?
Type any word you like and Lexical tells you how close its meaning is to the secret word. Keep guessing, follow the warmth, and narrow in. There is no limit on the number of guesses and no penalty for a cold one.
-
Guess any word
Open the day's puzzle and type a word. Anything in the vocabulary is a legal guess — length, spelling and starting letter are all irrelevant. Most players open with a broad, common noun to get their bearings.
-
Read the similarity score
Every guess gets a score describing how close its meaning is to the secret word. Higher is closer. A score on its own is hard to calibrate, which is why Lexical also gives you a rank.
-
Watch the rank
If your guess is one of the 1,000 words nearest in meaning to the secret word, Lexical shows its position in that list. Rank 1 is the single closest word in the language. Rank 900 still means you are in the right neighbourhood. No rank means you are outside the neighbourhood entirely.
-
Follow the temperature
Each guess is labelled from Cold to Scalding so you can read your progress at a glance without doing arithmetic. Temperatures are shown as words as well as colours, so the signal survives colour-blindness and greyscale.
-
Triangulate
The real skill is reading the pattern across several guesses rather than chasing one hot word. If ship and tide are both warm but captain is cold, the answer is probably about the water, not the people on it.
-
Share without spoiling
When you find the word, Lexical builds a share card that shows your guess count and your warmth curve but never the answer or the words you tried. Streaks and statistics update, and Game Center leaderboards record the day.
What do the score, the rank and the temperature mean?
The score measures similarity, the rank measures position, and the temperature translates both into something you can act on. They answer different questions, and the rank is usually the one that wins games.
Score: how close, in absolute terms
The similarity score compares the meaning of your guess with the meaning of the secret word. It is an absolute measurement, so it is comparable between your own guesses but not especially comparable between puzzles: some words simply live in denser parts of the language than others.
Rank: how close, relative to every other word
Before the day begins, Lexical works out the 1,000 words closest in meaning to the secret word. If your guess is in that list, you get its position. This is the most useful number in the game because it is self-calibrating: rank 40 always means “thirty-nine words in the language are closer than this one”, whatever the puzzle.
A guess outside those 1,000 words shows a score but no rank. That is deliberate information, not a failure — it tells you to change direction rather than refine.
Temperature: how close, at a glance
Temperature is a plain-language summary of the rank, so you can scan a long guess list quickly. Each band is labelled in words, never by colour alone.
| Temperature | Rank | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Scalding | 1–10 | You are inside the ten nearest words. Read your list again; the answer is a synonym away. |
| Hot | 11–60 | The right concept. Refine along the same line of thought. |
| Warm | 61–250 | The right general field. Keep the theme, change the specificity. |
| Lukewarm | 251–1000 | A real connection exists, but it is loose. Useful as a bearing. |
| Cold | Unranked | Outside the 1,000 nearest words. Try a different domain entirely. |
How is a semantic word game different from Wordle?
A letter-based game like Wordle tells you which characters are in the answer and where. A semantic game like Lexical tells you how close your guess is in meaning and says nothing about spelling at all. They exercise almost opposite parts of your vocabulary.
| Aspect | Letter-based games | Lexical |
|---|---|---|
| What a guess reveals | Which letters are correct and in which position | How close the guess is in meaning, as a score and a rank |
| Word length | Usually fixed, often five letters | Any length. Length is never a clue |
| Number of guesses | Capped, typically six | Unlimited. Cold guesses cost nothing but time |
| Core skill | Spelling patterns and letter frequency | Association, general knowledge and lateral thinking |
| Typical session | A short, bounded sprint | An open-ended hunt you can put down and come back to |
| Translating the game | Needs a new word list per language | Needs a whole separate model of that language's meanings |
| Failure mode | Running out of attempts | Getting stuck in the wrong region of meaning |
If you have played Semantle, Cemantle or Cémantix, the core idea will be familiar: those browser games popularised meaning-based guessing. Lexical is a native Apple app built on the same premise, with the differences that follow from being an app rather than a web page — it works with no connection, keeps your history and streaks on the device, supports VoiceOver and Dynamic Type, and adds a rank readout and Game Center leaderboards.
The two genres pair well. A letter game trains pattern recognition; a semantic game trains recall and association. Playing both in a morning uses two different halves of your vocabulary.
Can I play in French?
Yes. Lexical ships with English and French at launch, and they are two genuinely separate games: each language has its own daily secret word, its own vocabulary and its own model of meaning. Switching language gives you a second puzzle, not a translation of the first.
English · en
≈29,000playable English words
One English secret word per day, with its own 1,000-word neighbourhood computed on your device. English streaks, statistics and Game Center leaderboards are tracked separately from French.
Français · fr
≈28,000mots français jouables
A French puzzle written for French players, not run through a translator. The French vocabulary, the daily word and the semantic neighbourhood are all native to French. Voir la version française du site.
Because meaning is language-specific, a semantic game cannot simply be localised the way a letter game can. Sea and mer sit in different company: the words nearest to one are not the translations of the words nearest to the other. Each language therefore needs its own vocabulary and its own similarity model, which is exactly what Lexical ships.
Why does Lexical work with no connection?
Because the semantic engine is on your device. Lexical uses Apple's Natural Language framework to measure the distance between meanings locally, so there is no request to send and no server to wait for.
Playable on a plane
Aeroplane mode, the Métro, a hotel with hostile Wi-Fi: the puzzle is already there. Every word for every day is resolved locally.
Native on three platforms
Built for iPhone, iPad and Mac rather than a web page in a wrapper — real keyboard handling on Mac, real multitasking on iPad.
Accessible by default
Full VoiceOver support, Dynamic Type at every size, and a Dark Mode designed rather than inverted. Temperature is always spoken as a word.
Streaks and leaderboards
Game Center leaderboards, a running streak, and statistics that show how your guess counts move over time — per language.
Spoiler-free sharing
Share cards show how long the hunt took and how the warmth climbed, without leaking the answer or any word you tried.
Frequently asked questions
What is a semantic word game?
A semantic word game is a word puzzle in which guesses are judged by meaning rather than by spelling. Instead of telling you which letters are correct, the game tells you how close the meaning of your guess is to the answer, so car and automobile score almost identically despite sharing no letters. Lexical is a semantic word game with one secret word per day.
How is Lexical different from Wordle?
Wordle scores letters and positions; Lexical scores meaning. In Lexical the answer can be any length, you get unlimited guesses, and a guess that shares no letters with the answer can still be the best guess you have made. There is no grid and no green-and-yellow feedback — only a similarity score, a rank among the 1,000 nearest words, and a temperature.
Does Lexical work offline?
Yes, completely. The semantic engine runs on the device using Apple's Natural Language framework, so no network connection is needed to start a puzzle, score a guess or finish a day. Nothing is fetched from a server while you play.
Do I need an account to play?
No. Lexical requires no account, no sign-in and no email address. Your streaks, statistics and guess history live on the device. Game Center is optional and is used only if you want leaderboards.
Which devices does Lexical run on?
Lexical runs on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and requires iOS 26, iPadOS 26 or macOS 26 or later. Each version is a native app for its platform rather than a shared web view.
How many words can I guess?
Roughly 29,000 words are playable in English and roughly 28,000 in French. There is no cap on the number of guesses in a day — you can make as many as you need, and a cold guess costs you nothing but a line in the list.
What does the rank number mean?
The rank tells you where your guess sits among the 1,000 words closest in meaning to the secret word. Rank 1 is the single closest word in the language; rank 1000 is the last word still in the neighbourhood. A guess with no rank is outside those 1,000 words, and you should change direction rather than refine.
Is there a new word every day?
Yes — one secret word per day in English and a separate secret word per day in French. Because the two languages have different vocabularies and different neighbourhoods of meaning, solving one gives you no advantage in the other.
Does Lexical collect any data about me?
No. Lexical contains no analytics SDK, no advertising SDK and no tracking of any kind, and it does not require an account. Because the game runs entirely on the device, there is no server that could receive your data in the first place.
Can I share my result without spoiling the answer?
Yes. Lexical generates a share card that shows how many guesses you took and how your warmth progressed, without naming the secret word or any word you tried. It is safe to post before your friends have played.
Is Lexical available on Android or in a browser?
No. Lexical is an Apple-platform app for iPhone, iPad and Mac only. The offline semantic engine depends on Apple's Natural Language framework, which is not available on other platforms.
Has Lexical been released?
Lexical is submitted to the App Store and is free to download. The daily word, both languages, statistics and the Game Center leaderboards cost nothing; optional in-app purchases add hints and a playable archive.
Coming soon
One word a day. Meaning is the only clue.
Lexical is being built for iPhone, iPad and Mac. English and French, entirely offline, with no account and nothing to opt out of.