Name that famous Canadian.
Celebrity is Canuckle's newest mode. Instead of a word, you're guessing the last name of a famous Canadian: singers, actors, hockey legends, prime ministers, astronauts and Nobel winners. You get a clue up front, the first name after three guesses, and the tiles work exactly like the classic game.
The rules
- Every guess must fill the row: five letters in Daily and Unlimited, however long the last name is in Celebrity. Type it with the on-screen keyboard or your real one, then press Enter.
- After each guess the tiles flip and change colour to show how close you were.
- You get six guesses. Solve it in fewer and your stats look better.
- The keyboard remembers what you've learned: keys turn red, gold, or grey to match the tiles.
- Any five-letter guess is accepted, but the answer always comes from the Canuckle word list.
What the colours mean
Red with a leaf
The letter is in the word and in exactly the right spot. T stays put. Beauty.
Gold
The letter is in the word, but somewhere else. A belongs in a different spot. Close, bud.
Grey
The letter isn't in the word at all. S can be crossed off. Sorry.
Repeated letters follow the same logic. If the answer has one O and you guess a word with two, only one of them can light up. The other goes grey so you know not to look for a second one.
Three ways to play
One word a day, and it's the same word for everyone from Victoria to St. John's. A new one arrives at midnight, local time. Your progress is saved, so you can start on the bus and finish at lunch. Solve it and your streak grows. Miss a day and it resets, so no pressure. Okay, a little pressure. Play today's word.
Finished the daily and still itching? Unlimited deals a fresh random word from the list every time you tap Next word. It keeps its own separate stats and streak, so warm up here as much as you like without touching your Daily record. Play Canuckle Unlimited.
A new famous Canadian every day. You're guessing the last name, so the grid stretches or shrinks to fit: DRAKE is five tiles, GRETZKY is seven. You start with a clue about who they are. Still stuck after three guesses? The first name is revealed. Six tries, same colours, own streak.
Switch between modes any time with the toggle at the top. Each mode keeps its own game in progress and its own stats.
Hard mode
Turn it on in Settings for an honest challenge. In hard mode, every hint you've uncovered has to be used in your next guess: red letters must stay in the same spot, and gold letters must appear somewhere in the word. No throwing away a guess just to test five new letters. Your subline will show Hard mode so you can prove it.
Stats, streaks, and sharing
The Stats button tracks games played, win percentage, current streak, and your best streak ever, plus a chart of how many guesses you usually need. When a game ends you'll get a spoiler-free result card: a grid of leaves, gold, and grey squares with no letters. Tap Copy result and paste it into the group chat. Nobody learns the word, everybody learns you got it in three.
A few tips from the rink
- Open with vowels. Canadian words love an O and an E. MOOSE, CANOE, and TOQUE cover a lot of ground in one go.
- Think like a Canadian. Places, weather, wildlife, food, and hockey. If a word feels like it belongs on a Tim's cup or a provincial licence plate, it's probably in the list.
- Trust the grey. A grey key means that letter is gone. Don't guess it again unless you enjoy suffering.
- Watch for doubles. GEESE, BANFF, MITTS. Repeated letters trip up more players than any spelling ever did.
- Stumped? Peek at the full word list under About. No shame in it. Well, a little.
Questions, eh?
Who counts as a famous Canadian?
Musicians, actors, athletes, writers, scientists, astronauts, politicians and business people who were born in Canada or are Canadian citizens. Hundreds of them, from Wayne Gretzky to Margaret Atwood.
Why does the grid change size?
Because you are guessing a last name, and last names come in all lengths. The board shows exactly as many tiles as the name has letters, from three to ten.
What if I have no idea who it is?
Read the clue, guess a common name to reveal some letters, and after three guesses the first name appears. If it still slips away, the answer and a short bio show at the end.
What about accents and hyphens?
Accents are ignored, so CĂ©line Dion is DION and FĂ©lix Auger-Aliassime is not in the list. Names with hyphens, spaces or apostrophes are left out to keep the board simple.