How to play

Picoword is one themed word puzzle a day, plus three modes you can play for as long as you like. Here's how each one works.

The daily puzzle

Every day there's one board and one theme. Every word hidden on the board fits the theme.
Enter valid words that fit the category.
You have unlimited guesses and 5 hearts. Finish the board before you run out.
Valid words not in the puzzle reveal consonants and cost one heart.
A guess that isn't a real word costs nothing.
Vowels never appear that way. You only get them by finding the words they're in.
Some boards have hearts hidden on them. Find the word that covers one and you get a heart back.

Some words fit the category but aren't on the board. Those are bonus words.
Type one like any other guess. A hit earns a diamond and costs no heart.
Careful, though — a real word that isn't one costs a heart.
Win the daily and you may get a bonus round: up to three more words, each with a clue, and three guesses to find them.

There's one puzzle a day. The next one is ready at midnight Eastern Time.

Endless is a run of small crosswords, one after another, for as long as you last.
Solve the crossword.
The bar at the top is your health.
Typing costs health. White is what you can still win back — solve a word and it comes home. A second after each key it starts turning red, and red is gone for good.
Guess any real word. Letters that are in the puzzle give you health back and reveal a consonant on the board. Letters that aren't cost you health.
Solved words pay into a bank. The bank isn't yours until you cash it in.
Banking locks in your points and resets the multiplier.
Wrong guesses empty the bank.
You can move to the next board for a cost in health.
Running out of health ends your run.
Your banked score goes on the Endless leaderboard.

Five words, stacked and cut into pieces. Put them back so every row spells a word.
It has to be one of the five. Any other real word doesn't count.
A green bar marks one of the five words — even on the wrong row.
There are no lives and no clock, and pieces don't rotate. Boards get harder as you go, and new tiles show up along the way:
- Veiled letters. Some tiles arrive with a letter missing. The letter shows once its row spells a word.
- Dead cells. A grayed out square means that the word on this row is shorter.
- Anchors. Anchors are tiles that are already placed and cannot be moved. Their letters stay hidden until you solve that row.

Head-to-Head is a trivia duel against another player. If nobody else is around, you play a computer opponent.
A duel is six multiple-choice questions in two rounds of three. Each of you picks the category for one round.
You get 15 seconds per question. A right answer scores 100 points, plus up to 100 more for speed. Most points wins.
Leave in the middle of a duel and you lose it.
Winning raises your Pico Rank. Losing never lowers it.