vowelism

overview

each round deals a set of letter tiles. type valid english words that follow the current mode. contractions are not accepted, and a word you have already found cannot be submitted again.

you can set a timer (15s, 30s, 60s, 5m, 10m, 60m), play untimed, or play zen. you can also require a word length: any, random, or a fixed number of letters. if a length is set, the target can change with each word.

modes

each round applies one letter rule.

• vowels, your word must include every vowel shown.
• anagrams, use only the letters on screen, each at most once.
• consonants, your word must include every consonant shown.
• avoidance, do not use any of the forbidden (red) letters.
• vowel + consonant, include every given vowel and every given consonant.

round modifiers

these sit on the landing screen and can be combined.

• progressive, every few words, the round gets harder. starting a new game begins at the easiest level; continuing a save keeps the current board and starts counting toward the next level from now.
• hardcore, one wrong guess wipes your found words, and your progressive level if that is also on. starting fresh clears the board immediately; continuing keeps what you have until the next miss.
• sudden death, a miss costs time; a valid word adds time back. with hardcore also on, a miss still wipes the board.

challenge modifiers

open the extra-challenge menu to stack these. once a modifier is on for a round, it cannot be turned off; start a new game without it if you want it gone. some modifiers have no effect in certain modes.

• ghost, letter tiles disappear 10 seconds after you start typing. remember them from there.
• original words, every word must be clearly its own. anything one letter away from a word you already found, or an inflected form of any of them, is rejected against your whole list.
• no verbisms, once you find a word, inflected forms of it are off limits (run, then running). unrelated words that only look similar, such as run and runt, are allowed.
• no rhyming, your next word cannot rhyme with the one you just found.
• ascending, every word must be longer than the one before it.
• no repeat start, your next word cannot start with the same letter as the previous one.
• no repeat end, your next word cannot end with the same letter as the previous one.
• echo, your next word must share at least two consonants with the previous one. vowels do not count.
• consonant cluster, every word needs at least one pair of adjacent consonants. short alternating words such as cat or dog no longer work.
• alphabetical, your next word's first letter must come later in the alphabet than the previous start. after z, it loops and the next word can start anywhere.
• bookend, every word must start and end with one of the required letters. they cannot hide in the middle.
• no bookend, none of the required letters can be the first or last letter. they must land in the middle.
• spread, required letters cannot sit close together: at least two other letters must fall between the earliest and latest required letter in the word.

scoring

your score is the number of valid words found. words per minute is tracked on timed rounds. personal bests are saved per setup.

versus

vowelism versus is a beta head-to-head mode. plus or max can host a room; anyone can join free with a five-character code or invite link. everyone sees the same letters and races to find the most words before the timer ends. hosting uses your versus allowance; joining does not.