Wordpup word rules

What counts

Real US English words of 3 to 24 letters. Our list has 151,201 words. A word is in only when two independent word lists agree on it (SCOWL size 80, US spelling, and a public-domain English list), which keeps common misspellings out.

• Plurals and other everyday forms count when they're standard English: DOGS, RUNNING, WALKED, BOXES.
• Common American variants count: COLOR, THEATER, GRAY.
• British spellings (COLOUR, THEATRE, GREY) are not in this list yet. Tell us if you'd like them.

What doesn't count

• Names of people and places, brands, and abbreviations.
• Anything with a space, hyphen, apostrophe or number.
• A word already in this chain, including the starting word.
• Slurs and offensive words.

What Wordpup shows you

Everything the app puts on screen — spelling choices, starting words, daily boards, tips and share messages — is checked against a blocked-word list first. A friend's name on a dare is checked too.

• Wordpup is rated 9+. A rare or mild word you type yourself may still be accepted.

Spell trail choices

Four different words, one spelled right. The other three are real misspellings people make, never another correct spelling of the same word.

• The right answer's position is balanced, so where it sits is no clue.
• A wrong choice is never the right word with look-alike letters swapped (like rn for m).

Think we got one wrong?

Report it: from the fault line, from Round review, or in Settings → Report a word. Reports are saved on your phone first, then sent when you're online.

• A person reviews every report each week.
• Fixes ship in a dated word-list update. We can't promise every word gets in.
• In untimed practice you can accept a reported word for that round.