The idea in one sentence
Motamo is a French word chain game: you guess five words from their definitions, and the last letter of each word becomes the first letter of the next. At the start, only the first letter of the chain is known. The rest arrive as you solve.
Think of it as a crossword without the grid: everything hinges on reading the definitions and on the letter constraint. A new chain goes live every day on the Motamo page, the same for every player. The words and definitions are in French, so it suits French speakers and learners with a solid vocabulary.
The rules of Motamo
What you see on screen
At the top, a row of dots shows the chain: one dot per word, filled once the word is found. In the middle, tiles show the length of the current word, with its first letter already in place. Below them, the definition types itself out.
Each word comes with several definition sentences. The first is deliberately the most cryptic; the next ones get more and more direct. Words are usually 5 to 9 letters long.
How to submit a word
Type the missing letters on the on-screen keyboard or your computer's keyboard, then press Valider (submit). The button only lights up once every tile is filled. Accents are ignored: just type the plain letter.
What happens after a guess
- Right word: it appears in full, its last letter slides over to the next word, which starts with it.
- Wrong word: the row shakes, correctly placed letters stay in blue and lock, and the others clear. You can try again straight away.
Motamo only flags correctly placed letters. Unlike Wordle, there is no colour for a letter that appears elsewhere in the word.
The joker
The Joker button reveals an unknown letter of the current word, at a random position. Jokers are unlimited. If a joker fills the last empty tile, the word is submitted automatically.
A first game, walked through
Here is a sample game, with a chain made up for the example.
Word 1, M, 6 letters. The definition opens with "You always come back to it, without even thinking." Vague. The next sentence is clearer: "Building where you live." With an M and six tiles, MAISON (house) fits. Its final N passes to the next word.
Word 2, N, 5 letters. "It travels without luggage and changes shape on the way." Then: "Mass of droplets floating in the sky." That's NUAGE (cloud). It ends in E, so word three starts with E.
Word 3, E, 6 letters. "It has guided sailors for centuries." You try ETABLE (stable), just to test letters. Wrong, but three letters stay blue: T in second place, L in fifth and the final E. That leaves E T _ _ L E. The next sentence, "Heavenly body shining at night", points to ETOILE (star).
Word 4, E, 7 letters. The definition describes something worn around the neck in winter. ECHARPE (scarf) comes quickly, and its final E keeps the chain going.
Word 5, E, 5 letters. You get stuck on "It dries more slowly than thought." A joker reveals N in second place: E N _ _ _. The rest of the definition mentions quills and inkwells: ENCRE (ink). Chain complete, game won.
The tally: five words in six guesses and one joker. The score takes both into account, along with your time.
How the score works
Scores are out of 1000 points, with 1 to 3 stars. Three things matter:
| Factor | Effect on the score |
|---|---|
| Accuracy | 30% of the play rating depends on words found per guess |
| Jokers | about 60 points off per joker |
| Time | a bonus for beating the reference time, a penalty if you are much slower |
Words found make up the other 70% of the play rating, and since a game only ends with a full chain, that share is always yours. The reference time is 3 minutes for a medium chain, 2 minutes for an easy one and 4 minutes for a hard one. Difficulty is estimated from the day's words and applies a multiplier from 0.9 to 1.15.
Two stars start at 450 points, three at 750.
After your first game
Once the rules click, the best way to improve is to play every day: you quickly get used to the style of the definitions and the letters that keep ending words. To go further, read our Motamo tips. If you enjoy daily letter games, our pick of daily word games has more.