How to play
- Press Start. You have 4 minutes and 20 scrambled countries, different every game.
- Each word is scrambled on its own and stays in its place, so the number of words and their lengths are a clue.
- Type the name for the selected scramble. It counts as soon as it’s right, and the next unsolved one is selected. Tap a scramble, or press Tab, to switch.
- Stuck? Reveal next letter shows the start of the answer, one letter at a time, and takes 5 seconds off the clock.
- Only the selected scramble counts: type another country and you’re told it isn’t that one.
- When time is up, the ones you missed show the country in red.
Modes
Choose before you press Start. Each combination keeps its own scores and best.
- Standard deals names of 4 to 16 letters with at most three words.
- Hard deals every country, including the long ones joined by “and”, such as the islands of the Caribbean.
- Each word scrambles every word on its own and keeps the gaps between them.
- All letters mixes the whole name together, so you can’t see how many words it has.
Tips for unscrambling
- Look at the shape first. A short second word is often a clue on its own, and South, North, United and Saint each start more than one country.
- Look for common endings. 39 of the 197 countries end in IA. Seven end in STAN, all of them in Asia. Ten end in LAND or LANDS, from Finland and Poland to the Solomon Islands.
- Rare letters narrow it down fast. Only four countries have a Q, two have an X, and seven have a J.
- Say the letters as syllables rather than reading them in order. For example, WNE NADALEZ starts making sense once you see that NEW is hiding in the first word.
- Skip the hard ones. Press Tab and come back later: the clock doesn’t care which order you solve them in.
Spelling
Capitals, accents, spaces and punctuation don’t matter, so “cote divoire” counts for Côte d’Ivoire. The name must use exactly the letters shown, so an alternative name with other letters, such as Ivory Coast, doesn’t count. The names are the ones used in Countries of the World.
Questions
Which countries can come up?
Any of the 197 countries in Countries of the World: the 193 member states of the United Nations, the two UN observer states, and two more that most country quizzes also include. Standard mode leaves out the 10 longest names, Hard mode includes them. The names you saw in your last three games are held back while there are enough others.
Can a scramble spell a rude word?
No. Every scramble is checked against a list of offensive words and shuffled again if it contains one.
Do hints affect my score?
Your score is the number you solve. Each hint takes 5 seconds off the clock, and the result shows how many hints you used and how many names you solved with one.
Can I stop and come back later?
Yes. Pause, or close the page: the game is saved in this browser with the same scrambles, and comes back paused.
Where are my scores kept?
Only in this browser. Nothing is sent anywhere, and clearing your browser’s site data removes them.
More geography
- Scrambled Capitals: the same game with capital cities
- Countries of the World: name all 197 countries from memory in 10 minutes
- Flags of the World: name the country from its flag
- All quizzes, including each continent’s countries, capitals and flags
More to play
- Countries of the World: Type every country you can before the clock runs out.
- Capitals of the World: Name the capital of every country before the clock runs out.
- Periodic Table: Name every chemical element before the clock runs out.
- Element Symbols: Name the chemical element behind every symbol.
- Flags of the World: Name the country from its flag.
- Scrambled Capitals: Unscramble the letters to find the capital city.
- All quizzes
- El Trivia home