One Clue online

Everyone writes one clue — and every word two of you wrote is thrown away.

Players: 3–8 players
Difficulty: Easy
Length: 15–25 min
Type: Word · Co-op

One Clue is the co-operative word game where the obvious answer is worthless. One player is the guesser and does not see the word. Everybody else writes a single word as a clue — and before the guesser sees any of them, every clue that two or more people wrote is thrown away.

That one rule changes what you are doing completely. You are not trying to write the best clue; you are trying to write a clue nobody else will think of, which means spending twenty seconds modelling the four people sitting next to you. The room that knows each other well is the room that cancels everything.

Nobody plays against anybody. We hold the word, hide it from the one player who must not see it, match the clues that are really the same word — cats and CAT cancel — and hand over whatever survived.

How to play One Clue

1Create a room and share the 6-letter code with 2 or more friends.
2One player is the guesser each round and does not see the secret word. Everyone else does.
3Every other player writes one single word as a clue, privately.
4Clues that two or more people wrote are cancelled and never shown. The guesser sees what is left.
5One guess. Get it and the whole room scores — there are no individual winners.

One Clue FAQ

How many people do you need to play One Clue?+

Three is the minimum and five or six is the sweet spot. With three there is only one guesser and two clue-writers, so very little cancels; with six the cancellation starts doing real work.

What happens if every clue cancels?+

The guesser gets nothing and has to guess blind, which is a legitimate and very funny outcome. It usually means the word had one overwhelmingly obvious association.

Do plurals count as the same clue?+

Yes. Cat and CATS cancel each other, as do most simple endings. Cancelling slightly too much is deliberate — a missed duplicate quietly makes the round easier than the game intends.

Can I write the secret word as my clue?+

No, and you will be told so immediately rather than finding out at the reveal. Anything the matcher reads as the word itself is refused at the moment you send it.

Is it competitive?+

Not between players. Everyone scores the same points on a solved word, so the only opponent is the word list. It is the game to reach for when a group has had enough of being lied to.

Ready to play One Clue?

Create a room, share the code, and start in seconds — free.

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