What is Synonymo?
Synonymo is a daily French vocabulary game. Every day, a target word appears at the top of the screen, usually a common French noun or adjective. Your goal: find three synonyms of that word.
Below the target word, three rows of squares are waiting. Each row shows the first letter of the synonym to find, and the number of squares gives its length. Together, these two clues narrow things down a lot: there aren't fifty synonyms of RAPIDE (fast) that start with V and have 4 letters.
How does a game work?
You play row by row, in any order:
- Tap a row to select it. On a computer, the up and down arrow keys move between rows.
- Type the letters that follow the first letter, on the on-screen keyboard or your own. The delete key removes the last letter.
- Submit once every square is filled.
- If the word is accepted, the row is marked as found. Then fill in the others.
You win when all three rows are found. The word changes every day at midnight, and every player gets the same one.
Which synonyms are accepted?
For each target word, the game has a list of at least five synonyms. The three rows match three of them, but any synonym on the list is accepted if it fits the row's first letter and length and hasn't already been used.
In practice, the first letter and length almost always point to a single word. That is what makes the game approachable: you are not trying to read the game's mind, just to find the word that fits the squares.
What happens after a wrong guess?
If your word isn't accepted, the row shakes and the game compares it, letter by letter, with the synonym expected on that row. Letters in the right place turn green and stay locked, while the other squares are cleared. You start again with a partly filled word.
Tries are unlimited. Each mistake does lower your score, but a rejected guess is never completely wasted, since it can reveal letters.
A sample game, step by step
Let's take an imaginary grid, with the target word RAPIDE (fast) and three rows: V with 4 letters, P with 6 letters, V with 6 letters.
Row 1: V, 4 letters. The first idea is the right one: VITE (quickly). The word is accepted and the row is marked as found.
Row 2: P, 6 letters. We try PRESSE (hurried), which isn't on this grid's list. The game compares it with the expected word: only the R, in second place, is right. It turns green. A 6-letter word for fast starting with PR: PROMPT, the same word as in English. Accepted.
Row 3: V, 6 letters. Nothing comes to mind. We could try a random word, but a joker is the better call here: it reveals an L in third place. V, L, 6 letters, meaning "fast": VÉLOCE, typed VELOCE. The game is won.
The joker: a letter in exchange for points
The Joker button reveals one letter of the selected row, in a position you don't know yet (never the first letter, which is already given). The letter is locked in place. Jokers are unlimited, but each one takes 60 points off the score of a winning game.
What if you are completely stuck?
Before giving up, think of the joker: one or two letters can be enough to unlock a row. You can also abandon. The game then counts as lost: your partial score, based on the rows already found, is capped at 400 points and earns no stars.
How is the score calculated?
Your score out of 1,000 takes into account mistakes, jokers and time. Synonymo is a short game: the reference time is one and a half minutes at medium difficulty, and beating it earns a bonus. A winning game also earns 1 to 3 stars.
For more advanced strategies, read our Synonymo tips. And for some variety, discover our other daily French word games, such as Melimelo.