Picking the Right Words for Your Word Game

Word games seem simple on the surface. Show some letters, ask players to guess a word, reward them for solving it.

But behind every successful word game lies something much harder to design:

The vocabulary itself.

Choosing the right words determines whether your game feels clever, educational, relaxing, frustrating, or simply unfair. Two games can use the exact same mechanics, yet one becomes addictive while the other is abandoned after five levels—simply because of the words they ask players to solve.

After building both Adam Asmaca - The Turkish Hangman Game and Reveal It! – The Word Puzzle Game, we learned this lesson firsthand. We started exactly where many developers start: with a dictionary.

It turned out that dictionaries aren't designed to create fun and this article simply explores why.

Every Word Game Has Different Vocabulary Needs

Although people casually refer to them all as "word games," different genres ask players to think in completely different ways.

The vocabulary that works beautifully in one genre can completely ruin another. Let's look at the most common categories.

Word Search Games

• 

  Word Search Game Screenshot

• 

  Word Search Explorer Game Screenshot

• 

  Word Search by Easybrain Game Screenshot

Examples

• Wordscapes

• Word Cookies

• Word Connect

  
  

Core mechanic

Players receive several letters and build every possible word.

Example:

• Letters:

  • S

  • T

  • A

  • R

• Possible answers:

  • STAR

  • RATS

  • ARTS

  • TAR

  • RAT

  • SAT

  • ART

  • 
    

Vocabulary requirements

These games require:

• dictionary consistency

• predictable spelling

• balanced word length

• many anagrams

  
  

The dictionary is almost the game itself. Everyday vocabulary words work best. Phrases are not very suitable to this kind of word games.

HANGMAN GAMES

• 

  Hangman Game Screenshot

• 

  Hangman King Game Screenshot

• 

  Adam Asmaca Game Logo

Examples

• Hangman

• Hangman King

• Adam Asmaca

  
  

Core mechanic

Players reveal letters one by one while avoiding mistakes. Unlike Word Search, the player has almost no information initially.

The word itself must therefore provide enough opportunities for deduction.

Bad words

Imagine these:

• XYLYL

• MYRRH

• ZYZZYVA

They're valid dictionary words. They're also terrible Hangman words. Most players have never encountered them. The game stops feeling like a puzzle and starts feeling like random guessing.

Everyday vocabulary words work good but context based words and phrases work much better.

Context Based Guessing Games

• 

  Reveal It! Game Screenshot

• 

  4 Pics 1 Word Game Screenshot

• 

  CoddyCross Game Screenshot

Examples

• Reveal It! – The Word Puzzle Game

• 4 Pics 1 Word

• CodyCross

  
  

These games provide some form of context. That context might be:

• a category,

• a topic,

• multiple pictures,

• surrounding words, or

• trivia knowledge

  
  

Instead of asking

"Guess this random word."

they ask

"Guess the breakfast food."

Suddenly the player's brain has something to work with.

Dictionary Words Aren't Automatically Fun

One of the biggest misconceptions in word game development is:

"The larger the dictionary, the better the game."

In practice, the opposite is often true. Imagine receiving this puzzle:

_ _ _ _ _

Category:
None

Possible answer:

ABACA

It is a real English word. Most players have never seen it. Even if they solve it, they don't feel smart. They feel lucky.

Now compare it with:

Category:
Breakfast Foods

_ A _ O N

Answer:

BACON

The player immediately starts thinking:

• eggs

• toast

• cereal

• pancakes

• bacon

  
  

Every incorrect guess still feels productive because the category narrows the search space.

The player isn't randomly trying letters anymore. They're reasoning. That's far more satisfying.

Context Creates Better Puzzles

Human memory isn't organized alphabetically. It's organized by associations.

When someone hears

Apple

their brain activates:

• fruit

• red

• pie

• orchard

• iPhone

  
  

Not thousands of unrelated dictionary entries. Psychologists call this semantic memory.

Good word games take advantage of it. Categories activate semantic networks, allowing players to solve puzzles through knowledge instead of luck.

Our First Version of Adam Asmaca

When we first launched Adam Asmaca H5 game, our word selection strategy was simple.

We imported a large dictionary. The assumption seemed logical:

More words = more content.

Technically, this worked. From a gameplay perspective, it didn't. Players regularly encountered words that:

• they'd never heard before,

• had multiple obscure spellings,

• were outdated,

• were extremely regional,

• or simply weren't enjoyable to guess.

  
  

Even when players won, the victory didn't feel rewarding because they hadn't actually recognized the word. They had merely uncovered enough letters.

The Turning Point

Eventually we asked ourselves a simple question:

Why should every puzzle be random?

Instead, we began organizing our vocabulary into themes.

Rather than presenting:

Random word

we presented:

Breakfast Foods

American Car Brands

Birds

Space Exploration

Kitchen Tools

Countries

Movie Genres

Sports

Musical Instruments

Everything changed. Players immediately had somewhere to begin. Instead of guessing every possible letter equally, they started thinking.

• They formed hypotheses.

• They eliminated possibilities.

• They recognized patterns.

The game became much more about deduction than probability.

Reveal It Was Built Around Context From Day One

When we later designed Reveal It! – The Word Puzzle Game, we didn't return to dictionary-first thinking.

Instead, every puzzle begins with a topic. Each level contains a small collection of related puzzles.

For example:

Level:
Breakfast

Puzzle 1
BACON

Puzzle 2
WAFFLES

Puzzle 3
ORANGE JUICE

or

American Car Brands

FORD

DODGE

CHEVROLET

The context becomes part of the gameplay. Players aren't just revealing letters.

They're activating prior knowledge. This makes the experience feel more rewarding while also helping players learn new vocabulary naturally.

Even when a player encounters an unfamiliar word, they often remember it because it appeared within a meaningful context rather than as an isolated dictionary entry.

Building Your Word Database

If you're developing your own word game, don't start with "How many words do I need?"

Instead ask:

• Which words do people actually recognize?

• Which words are satisfying to discover?

• Which categories encourage reasoning?

• Which words teach something interesting?

• Which words produce memorable "Aha!" moments?

  
  

A database of 10,000 carefully selected words will almost always outperform a dictionary containing 300,000 entries.

Quality beats quantity.

Practical Guidelines

After years of iterating on our own games, these are the principles we now follow:

• Prioritize familiar words before obscure ones.

• Organize words into meaningful categories.

• Avoid outdated, archaic, or hyper-specialized vocabulary unless it's central to the game's audience.

• Mix easy and difficult words within the same category.

• Prefer words that trigger recognition rather than random guessing.

• Test words with real players—not just developers.

• Remember that context is part of the puzzle, not merely metadata.

Final Thoughts

Players rarely remember the exact interface of a word game months later.

They remember moments like:

"I can't believe it was BACON."

or

"Of course! They're all American car brands."

Those moments come from thoughtful word selection, not from having the world's largest dictionary.

Our own journey—from dictionary-based puzzles in Adam Asmaca to carefully curated, topic-based chapters in Reveal It!- taught us that the best word games don't simply test vocabulary.

They activate knowledge, spark curiosity, and create satisfying moments of discovery. If you're building a word game, spend as much time designing your word database as you do designing your mechanics.

Because in the end, your mechanics create the puzzle. Your words create the fun.