The Word Desk · Nearle
How to solve today’s Nearle — July 28, 2026
duplixo publishes its own free daily Nearle — a Contexto-style semantic guessing game with unlimited practice — alongside the solving method below. Nearle is built with our own code and word-meaning ranking, and duplixo is not affiliated with Contexto. To learn the method or get unlimited practice, you are in the right place.
How to solve today’s Nearle
duplixo’s free daily Nearle for July 28, 2026 hides a single word you reach by meaning, not letters. Every guess returns a rank from 1 to 6,029 — the closer in meaning, the lower the number, with rank 1 being the answer itself. The warmest neighbours today cluster around ideas like cement and coal. Five graduated hints sit below; the worked solution is revealed further down whenever you are ready.
Getting warmer: five graduated hints
Hint 1The shape of itReveal
Today’s word has 6 letters and begins with C. Every guess is scored by meaning, not spelling, so think in themes rather than anagrams.
Hint 2A distant relativeReveal
A word sitting roughly 1,000 steps away in meaning is projects — same broad world, but not warm yet.
Hint 3Getting warmerReveal
Around rank 250 you would find gains. You are circling the right neighbourhood now.
Hint 4WarmReveal
Close in — near rank 40 sits exports. The answer shares its theme.
Hint 5Almost thereReveal
The second-closest word of all is iron. The answer is one short step warmer than that.
A worked solution: today’s Nearle word, revealed
Reveal the word Hide the word
Today’s word is COPPER
Its ten closest neighbours by meaning — the words that scored warmest — are below. Rank 1 is the answer itself.
- copper ANSWER
- iron 2
- cement 3
- steel 4
- deposits 5
- coal 6
- metal 7
- mining 8
- oil 9
- gas 10
How Nearle works
Nearle is a daily semantic word game — our free take on the Contexto-style puzzle. Instead of matching letters, you guess by meaning. Every word you enter comes back with a rank from 1 to 6,029: the closer it is in meaning to the hidden word, the lower the number, and rank 1 is the answer.
The ranking is computed from a word-meaning model, so “iron” and “cement” sit near the top today while an unrelated word lands in the thousands. The skill is triangulation: use two or three warm guesses to work out which theme the word belongs to, then close in. There is no guess limit.
Today’s puzzle, by difficulty
| Indicator | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Estimated solve rate | 73% |
| Typical guesses to solve | 41 |
| Best-case guesses | 4 |
| Warmest near-miss | iron |
| Words in the ranking | 6,029 |
How we build this. Each day’s word is ranked against a 6,029-word vocabulary using cosine similarity over pre-trained word-meaning vectors, computed offline and served as a fixed table — so every player sees the identical ranking and a guess is an instant lookup. The figures above are modelled difficulty indicators for that puzzle — derived from the word’s ranking structure, not measured from player sessions.
Why today’s Nearle played the way it did
| Date | Puzzle | Result |
|---|---|---|
| July 28, 2026 | No. 20 | 73% solvedToday |
| July 27, 2026 | No. 19 | 65% solved |
| July 26, 2026 | No. 18 | 69% solved |
| July 25, 2026 | No. 17 | 61% solved |
| July 24, 2026 | No. 16 | 68% solved |
| July 23, 2026 | No. 15 | 69% solved |
| July 22, 2026 | No. 14 | 67% solved |
| July 21, 2026 | No. 13 | 66% solved |
Nearle answer FAQ
How does Nearle work?
You guess words and each is scored by how close it is in meaning to a hidden word, shown as a rank. Rank 1 is the answer; lower ranks are warmer. Synonyms and related words rank near the top, unrelated words rank far away.
Is Nearle the same as Contexto?
Nearle is our own free, no-sign-up take on the Contexto-style semantic game, built with original code and an independent word-meaning ranking. duplixo is not affiliated with Contexto.
Is there a limit on guesses?
No. Guess as many times as you like — the game is about triangulating from your warmest guesses. There is also an unlimited practice mode for extra rounds.
Why is my word “not in the word list”?
Nearle ranks a fixed vocabulary of 6,029 common words. Very rare words, proper nouns, hyphenations and inflected forms may not be in it — try a more common base word.
Think you can beat it? Play today’s round.
The trap in a semantic round is chasing a single strong guess. “iron” and “cement” both score in the top handful, yet neither is the answer — they only tell you which direction is warm. The skill is triangulating from several near-misses rather than fixating on one.
Today’s word — copper — rewards solvers who noticed the theme early and narrowed inward. Words like “gas” and “heating” bracket it neatly; once the neighbourhood is clear, the last few ranks fall quickly. If you spent guesses far out in the cold, you were in good company.