How to play DubbleDef
Two definitions, one word. Each clue gives you two meanings that sound alike. Your job is to hear the word that fits both.
Try a few
A powder made from ground grain
The colorful bloom of a plant
Show answer
flour / flower. They're homophones: different spellings, same sound. Either spelling counts.
A flying nocturnal mammal
The club used to hit a ball in baseball or cricket
Show answer
bat. A homograph: one spelling, two unrelated meanings.
A writing tool that uses ink
A short, thin piece of metal with a sharp point
Show answer
pen / pin. A "close call": in much of the American South these two sound the same, so the game accepts them and stamps it Close enough!
The rules
- Type one word. For sound-alike pairs, either spelling is correct.
- Stuck? Tap Hint for the first letter. It still counts, and shows as 🟡 when you share.
- One DubbleDef of the Day, five clues, the same for everybody. It gets harder through the week: Monday's clues are mostly easy, Thursday's middling, and Sunday's mostly hard. The day's difficulty, from 1.0 to 5.0, is shown under the puzzle.
- "Close enough!" clues. Now and then a pair only sounds alike in some accents, like pen and pin in much of the American South. While you're solving, a 🤔 in the corner of the clue card tells you the pair is an inexact match. Once you answer, it gets a Close enough! stamp and a note explaining the quirk, so you'll know why it counts.
- Once a day. Each day's puzzle is played once; new clues arrive at midnight Eastern time, the same for everyone.
- Keep a streak. Play on consecutive days to build your 🔥 streak. Every 7 days in a row earns a 🧊 freeze that saves your streak if you miss a day.
- Share your result. Each clue shows as a pair of dots, one per definition, so you can show how you did without spoiling the answers: 🟢🟢 correct, 🟡🟡 with the hint, 🔴🔴 missed.
- Want more? Open 📅 Past puzzles to replay earlier days for practice. They don't count toward your streak or stats.
US Holiday Edition
On US federal holidays (New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas), the usual puzzle steps aside for the DubbleDef US Holiday Edition. It has its own twist: each of its five clues gives a single definition, and the answer is a word Americans and Britons spell differently. Only the British spelling earns credit: colour, not color; theatre, not theater. Type the American spelling and the game nudges you to try again, and the hint shows the first letter and the length of the British spelling. Rather play the usual puzzle? Tap This is puzzle gaol! Take me to regular DubbleDef, please! under the Holiday Edition button.
Homophones and homographs
Homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled differently and mean different things, like flour and flower, or knight and night. Homographs are spelled the same, with unrelated meanings, like a baseball bat and the animal. DubbleDef only uses homographs that are also pronounced the same, so every answer can be heard both ways.
In the classroom
DubbleDef is a quick daily warm-up for vocabulary, spelling and listening. Early-week puzzles suit roughly grades 3–6, midweek works for middle and high school, and weekends stretch into college-level vocabulary. It runs in any browser, with no accounts, no ads and nothing to install. It also works for English learners practicing words that sound alike.
Questions
- Is it free?
- Yes: no ads, no subscription, no sign-up. If you find some value in it, you can give back through the optional ☕ Support DubbleDef link.
- Do I need an account?
- No. Signing in (with an emailed link, no password) only saves your scores and history across devices.
- Why didn't a pair sound alike to me?
- It may be a "close enough" clue: a pair that matches in some accents but not others, like pen and pin, or cot and caught. They're occasional: a 🤔 in the corner of the clue card marks one as an inexact match while you solve, and the game explains the quirk when the answer is revealed.
- Can I play past days?
- Not yet. Everyone gets the same puzzles each day, and clues don't repeat until a level's whole collection has been played.
- Can I get a reminder?
- Yes. Tap 🔔 Daily reminder on the game page for a morning notification or email.