Word people: what is your word-game hill? Mine are that proper nouns should never count, plurals are legal but morally gray, and any dictionary that accepts ZA owes the rest of us a written apology. Post yours, I am collecting grievances.

Elimination word games are older than any app. Ghost in the back seat on long drives, classroom spelling bees where one slip sends you back to your desk in front of everyone. Getting knocked out by a word is a childhood memory for most of us. I just put a timer on it and made the room strangers.

The 30-day leaderboard is quietly the cruelest thing I ever shipped. It does not care what you did in June. Every day one of your best days ages out, and you either replace it or slide. Nothing personal. It just forgets you at a perfectly steady rate.

I describe Word King as a word game that is a little bit mean, and I have stopped apologizing for it. If a 30-second timer and losing for the shortest word sounds stressful, it is not for you. If it sounds fun, it is free: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hirsch.wordking

The worst way to lose a word round is not getting out-vocabularied. It is seeing your word, hesitating half a second, and going out with a longer one still sitting untyped in your own head. You did not lose to them. You lost to your own hands.

Loaded a rack today that was almost all consonants and one nervous vowel. Watched the whole room realize at the same second that the best word here was four letters and this round had turned into a knife fight over scraps. Some racks are not puzzles. They are a dare.

Question for word-game people: when a fresh rack loads, do you grab the first real word you see to get on the board, or sit in silence hunting the big one while the clock bleeds out? I am half convinced your opening move is the entire tell for how you lose.

If your word-game shelf is all calm dailies and some part of you keeps wanting one with a pulse, that gap is the whole reason I made this. Might not be your thing, but it is free to find out. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hirsch.wordking

Building this taught me the scariest part of a round is not finding a word. It is the couple of seconds right after you lock it, watching the other words keep climbing and quietly hoping yours holds.

Under a timer your vocabulary shrinks to about forty words and three of them are CAT. Thirty seconds does something strange to the alphabet. The only cure is reps, and the browser version drops you straight into a live rack, no install: https://wordking.web.app/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=post

You can tell a lot about a word player by which letter they are happiest to see. S people want safety. E people want options. Q people have memorized QI and refuse to apologize for anything. Which letter are you loyal to?

On Tuesday, every Word King player got the same nine: T G E V T S I O I Top finds, all 5 letters: VOTES, GIVES and GEIST. Today's rack is up. One shot, right in the browser: https://wordking.web.app/play?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=recap

Typed GARDEN with four seconds on the clock, slammed lock, and looked down to find GARDNE sitting there like a crime scene. The rack did not beat me. The other players did not beat me. My own thumbs sold me out.

The rack everyone shared on Friday: T H R N I O V E N THRIVEN (7) took it, THRONE (6) close behind. Today's rack is up. One shot, right in the browser: https://wordking.web.app/play?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=recap

One rack a day, one shot, then you see what everyone else found in the same letters. The gap between your word and the top word is the real puzzle.

Thursday's Word King rack: Y K H C I E N S O HOCKEYS (7) took it, CHOSEN (6) close behind. Today's rack is up. One shot, right in the browser: https://wordking.web.app/play?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=recap

Word King 1.4.9 is live on Android. Finish the daily now and you see your streak and a countdown to the next set of letters, so you know when there is something new waiting. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hirsch.wordking

On Wednesday, every Word King player got the same nine: T M E H T L K E A Dead heat at the top: HAMLET and HELMET, 6 letters apiece. Would yours have survived? Today's rack is live in your browser, no install: https://wordking.web.app/play?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=recap

Word King 1.4.8 is out everywhere. The Daily Arena countdown is shorter, so there is less standing around before a game starts, and the pill that tells you someone is waiting to play now shows up for regular matches too. Free in your browser: https://wordking.web.app

Word King, current form: ten-player elimination rounds, a shared daily rack, leaderboards, streaks, medals, weekly goals. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hirsch.wordking

The rack everyone shared on Tuesday: U T T H A R A O M Top find: AUTHOR (6). Would yours have survived? Today's rack is live in your browser, no install: https://wordking.web.app/play?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=recap

The daily rack gives you one submission and no do-overs, which means you spend the rest of the day quietly relitigating it. Found a better word at lunch? Too late. It already counts. Today's nine are live in your browser, no install: https://wordking.web.app/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=post

Every timed word game player has an emergency word, the one your hands type on autopilot when the clock gets loud and the good ideas leave. Mine is TRAIN and I could not tell you why. What is yours?

Monday's Word King rack: H C U E S R N P O Dead heat at the top: PUNCHERS and POUNCERS, 8 letters apiece. Would yours have survived? Today's rack is live in your browser, no install: https://wordking.web.app/play?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=recap

One rack, one shot, same letters for everyone on Sunday: K G L O I A L T H Nobody beat GOLIATH (7). Beat that today, no download needed: https://wordking.web.app/play?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=recap

The quietly addictive part of the daily is not your word. It is scrolling to yesterday and seeing the one word that beat the whole room. You get one shot, then you get to measure exactly how much you left in the letters.

On Saturday, every Word King player got the same nine: E N A I R P C H L Top finds, all 7 letters: PLAINER, CHARNEL and PINCHER. Beat that today, no download needed: https://wordking.web.app/play?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=recap

Word King 1.4.7 is out everywhere. The home screen now shows when a player is waiting in a lobby, so you can jump straight into a live match. Returning players get a small thank you from us, and daily streaks now count exactly right. Free in your browser: https://wordking.web.app

The rack everyone shared on Friday: T E E D T U T R G Nobody beat GUTTERED (8). Beat that today, no download needed: https://wordking.web.app/play?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=recap

Genuine question for word people: what is the longest word you have ever landed under an actual ticking timer? Not the one you spotted after the round ended. The one you typed with your hands shaking. Mine is a seven and I think about it more than most of my life decisions.