About Etymo
Etymo is a daily puzzle about where English words come from.
Every day at 00:00 UTC there are five new words, the same for everyone. Each word is a short puzzle about its history: split it into the pieces it was built from, put its older forms in order, or give each old form the meaning it had then. A word starts at 1,000 points; clues and wrong answers cost points.
After each word you see the path it took into English, language by language, and the dictionary entries the puzzle rests on.
Where the histories come from
Every puzzle is built from edited dictionaries: mainly Merriam-Webster and the Online Etymology Dictionary, with the Middle English Dictionary and others where a word needs them. Every reveal links the entries it uses, so you can read them yourself. Forms that were never written down, and that linguists have reconstructed, are marked as reconstructed.
How the puzzles are checked
The puzzles are researched and checked against those sources with the help of AI, and every puzzle is played through before it goes live. They are not reviewed by a professional linguist. If you spot a mistake, write to contact@etymo.net and it will be corrected.
Who makes it
Etymo is made by Sybren. It is free, has no ads and needs no account. Your progress is kept anonymously; Privacy explains what is stored.