What is Pedantix?
Pedantix hides one French Wikipedia page introduction each day by blanking every word. You uncover the text by proposing words: a word present in the introduction appears everywhere it is used, while a word that is merely semantically close tints its box without revealing it. The lighter the grey, the closer the meaning. You win when the words of the page title are uncovered. Title words are never tinted—they are either right or wrong. The game uses the same contextual proximity calculation as Cemantix, by the same author, enigmatix. There is no limit on tries, and a new page is drawn at random each day at noon French time.
How to play
Type a French word in the Mot field and submit it. Start with common grammatical words to uncover parts of the sentences; capitalization does not matter.
The page reveals a word from the introduction wherever it appears. A masculine singular noun or an infinitive may also reveal its feminine, plural, or conjugated forms.
After each guess, check the row of squares beside the input. Green squares mark every box the word opened, orange squares mark boxes it came close to, and one red square means it matched nothing.
The shades provide another clue. A word that appears nowhere but is close in meaning to a hidden word will lighten that word’s dark box. The lighter the grey, the closer the meaning.
When a sentence almost makes sense, click a black box to see the length of the word hidden beneath it.
Find all the words in the page title to complete the day’s puzzle. You can also click Révéler la page secrète to give up and reveal the page.
The page becomes readable before you know what it is about, which is a pleasure no other daily game offers. Early guesses are grammatical filler that opens up the sentence structure, and the topic only surfaces once enough common words are down, so it rewards knowing how an encyclopaedia sentence is built as much as knowing the subject. It suits readers who like a slow reveal and can leave a tab open for an hour. The rules warn that you will need more than six tries and probably dozens. Skip it if you want a two-minute puzzle.
Reading the feedback
Every try answers beside the input with a strip of coloured squares: a green square for each box the word opened, an orange square for each hidden word it came close to, and a single red square when it touched nothing. Revealed words appear in clear wherever they occur, while near misses leave the box dark and tint it, lighter as the meaning gets nearer. Title words are never tinted, only right or wrong. Each try is logged in a numbered table sortable by order or alphabetically. The ten-square meter under the day number tracks how much of the page is open.
Modes
Page du jour: One French Wikipedia page a day, the same for every player, drawn at random at noon French time, with no limit on tries.
Collaborer: Team play on the same daily page. Create or join a team with a code valid for the day, and the words found by one member are shared with the others.
Tips & strategy
Spend the first minute on articles, prepositions and auxiliary verbs. They say little about the subject, but they reveal each sentence’s structure, which helps you interpret the other words.
Encyclopaedia entries often begin in predictable ways. Once the first sentence is partly revealed, words such as né, commune, espèce or joueur can indicate what kind of thing the page describes.
A word that lightens several boxes, even without appearing, is more useful than one that appears in a single box without any tint. The tint gives you clues about the subject; the reveal then fills in the page.
Watch the ten-square meter under the day number. It shows the share of boxes that are revealed, tinted and untouched. The rules rank you by your place among that day’s finders, regardless of how many tries you needed.
Try singular forms and infinitives first. The masculine singular of a word or the infinitive of a verb may reveal its feminine, plural or conjugated forms, allowing one well-chosen lemma to open several boxes at once.
Once you find the page, choose Révéler les mots séparément instead of Voir la page. You can click the remaining black boxes one at a time and continue playing without spoilers.
Popular questions
How many guesses do I get?
There is no limit. The rules say you will need more than six tries, and probably dozens.
Do wrong words tell me anything?
Yes. A word that does not appear on the page still affects the boxes for nearby hidden words. The closer its meaning, the lighter the boxes become. The strip beside the input also marks near misses with orange squares.
Can I play a day I missed?
No. The page displays yesterday’s title, and the Historique panel lists previous days with your number of tries and the number of players who found each one. Those days cannot be replayed.
When does the page change?
It changes every day at noon French time. The rules panel converts that time to your local time.
Do I need an account? No. The daily plays without signing up. An optional Twitter sign-in exists only to sync your history or continue a game on another device, and the site states it uses nothing but the identifier.
Is there an English version? Yes, Pedantle, linked from the page with a flag, on the same site and by the same author.