Words and definitions come from Noah Webster’s An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), which is in the public domain. The data is from github.com/kayson-argyle/websters_1828 (dictionary.db). That repository’s text is transcribed from this archive.org copy.
Only plain a–z headwords are used. Answers are the better-known 1828 headwords, and any 1828 headword of the right length is accepted as a guess. Every length gets 6 guesses.
Pronunciation recordings are by Wiktionary contributors, served through the Free Dictionary API and Wikimedia Commons, under CC BY-SA. When no recording can be reached, your browser’s own speech voice is used.
Westminster Trivia
The text is the Westminster Confession of Faith (33 chapters) and the Larger Catechism (196 questions), Westminster Assembly, 1647. This is the original text, not the 1788 American revision. It is in the public domain.
Questions are generated automatically from that text, and every answer is quoted from it. Scripture proof texts are not included.
Bible Trivia
All verse text is the King James Version (1769 Oxford text), which is in the public domain in the United States. (In the UK the KJV is under Crown letters patent.) The text comes from eBible.org (eng-kjv). Words the translators printed in italics are shown as plain text.
“Which character” and “Who said it” questions are hand-written, and each is tied to the verse reference shown on the reveal card. The build checks every one against the KJV text: each quote must appear word for word in the cited verse, and each answer’s name must appear in the cited passage or the verse that introduces the speaker.
“Which book” questions use well-known verses. Verses that appear almost word for word in another book (for example Deuteronomy 6:4 and Mark 12:29) are left out, as are verses that name their own book. Psalm titles such as “A Psalm of David” are hidden until you answer.
The US map uses us-atlas v3 (ISC licence), drawn from U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundary files (public domain). Small states are circled.
State populations, city populations and largest cities come from the U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2023 population estimates (sub-est2023, public domain). Cities include all 50 capitals and the 100 largest other cities whose names are not shared by a large city in another state.
State flags are from Wikimedia Commons (“Flag of …” SVGs), all public domain or copyrighted free use. They show current designs: Minnesota (2024), Utah (2024) and Mississippi (2021). Maine, Massachusetts and Illinois keep their long-standing flags because no replacement has been adopted. Adoption years are from Wikipedia’s “Flags of the U.S. states and territories”. On the 25 state flags and 5 national flags that spell out the name, the text is covered until you answer.
World flags are from flag-icons (MIT), drawn in 4:3 proportions. Afghanistan is left out of the flag game because its national flag is disputed.
Country names, capitals, regions, areas and borders come from mledoze/countries (ODbL 1.0), limited to the 193 UN member states. Major-city names and populations come from GeoNames cities15000 (CC BY 4.0).
Continents follow the UN geoscheme, with the Americas split into North America (including Central America and the Caribbean) and South America. Countries that straddle two continents or are classed differently by different conventions are left out of the continent game: Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Cyprus, Egypt, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Trinidad and Tobago, and Panama.
Capitals that would give the answer away (Kuwait City, Brasília and the like) are skipped, as are countries whose capital is disputed or split (Israel, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, and those with more than one capital).
Latin & Greek Roots
The 77 roots and their meanings were chosen by hand from standard Latin and Greek vocabulary. Every example word is an 1828 headword, and its definition and etymology on the reveal card are quoted from Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language (1828, public domain), using the same websters_1828 data as Webster Wordle.
The build checks that every example word is in the 1828 dictionary, and that no wrong answer shares the root being asked about.
Hymn Trivia
Only hymn texts written or translated before 1929 and marked “Public Domain” on Hymnary.org are used. The words, authors and dates come from each hymn’s Hymnary.org text page, which is linked on the reveal card. Pages were fetched slowly, following the site’s robots.txt crawl delay.
The words follow Hymnary’s “representative text”, so spelling and wording can differ a little from the hymnal you know. Wrong answers in “finish the line” are real lines from other hymns, chosen in the same metre where possible.
History
Timeline events were written for this game. Every year is checked automatically against the lead section of the English Wikipedia article named on the reveal card (text CC BY-SA 4.0). Years before 1 AD are shown as BC.
President numbers, names, parties and terms come from unitedstates/congress-legislatorsexecutive.yaml (CC0). Grover Cleveland and Donald Trump are counted once for each of their non-consecutive terms, as official numbering does.
Quotations are limited to well-attested public documents and letters: the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, inaugural and farewell addresses, the Gettysburg Address, and the like. Each card names its source. Popular misattributions are deliberately left out.
Logic & Puzzles
Mini Sudoku puzzles are made on your device. A seeded generator fills a grid, then removes clues only while a solver still finds exactly one solution. The daily puzzle is a 6×6 grid seeded by the date, so it is the same for everyone on a given day.
Riddles: 18 are from The Real Mother Goose (1916), Project Gutenberg eBook #10607 (public domain), with the book’s own answers. Three are classics: Samson’s riddle (Judges 14:14, KJV), the Sphinx’s riddle (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8), and Alcuin’s wolf, goat and cabbages river-crossing puzzle (Propositiones ad acuendos juvenes, c. 800).
Logical-fallacy examples are original and written for this game. Each one has a single clearly intended answer, and a close cousin of the right answer (for example, false cause beside slippery slope) is never offered as a wrong choice. Definitions follow standard logic textbooks.
Daily Sign (ASL)
Word-sign photos come from the “ASL …” series on Wikimedia Commons, by Bellevue College ASL students and Rod A. Smith (User:Rodasmith), under CC BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 4.0 or CC0. Each sign’s page names its photos, authors and licences, and the full list is under Games › Sign language › Photo credits. The pictures are shown smaller than the originals; otherwise they are unchanged.
The A–Z hand-shape drawings (“Sign language A.svg” …) are public domain (wpclipart.com, via Wikimedia Commons).
Signs without a freely licensed picture are described in words (hand shape, where, and how it moves). Those descriptions and every how-to tip were written for this site. Nothing comes from Lifeprint/ASL University, Handspeak or other all-rights-reserved sites.
Daily Verse
Verses are the King James Version (1769 Oxford text, public domain in the United States), from eBible.org. About 400 well-known, self-contained verses were picked by hand; one is shown each day, the same for everyone, changing at midnight Chicago time.
Themes
Psalms theme art: Nicolaes de Bruyn, David speelt op zijn harp (David Rex), engraving, 1581–1656, Rijksmuseum RP-P-BI-5048, public domain (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons. It was cropped, faded at the edges and tinted tan for this site. The theme is only inspired by the mood of the Psalms album covers; no album art is used.
The City Nights skyline and the Ocean, Jungle, Candy and Cottage decorations are original drawings made for this site. Black & Gold uses colours only, with no team names or logos.
Fonts: Cormorant Garamond, Oswald and Fredoka, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (see LICENSES-fonts.txt).
Movies, music & video games
Look-ups use Wikidata (CC0) and Wikipedia page pictures for movies, shows and games, and MusicBrainz (CC0 core data) with the Cover Art Archive for music. No account or key is needed, and you can always type details in yourself. Cover pictures are shown from those sites, not copied.
Jellyfin is our own home server. Its address and API key are stored where only admins can read them.
The games work offline. The network is used for pronunciation lookups, movie and music look-ups, and, when you’re signed in, to sync with the Treader household account (Supabase).