Daily Brains · six dictionary entries, some of them fakes. Unmask the impostors.
The Impostor's Dictionary is the bluffing word puzzle in Daily Brains (/daily). Someone has slipped fakes into an old leather-bound dictionary. Every day brings six entries, the same for every player: in some you must find the one genuine definition of a rare real word, in others you must unmask the invented word hiding among three real ones. After every pick the book shows the truth, stamps the impostors and adds a short note on where the word comes from.
STORY & LORE
Two kinds of entry
"Which definition is genuine?" shows one real word with four definitions; three are convincing impostors (often built from a lookalike word, like noisome and noise). "Which word is the impostor?" shows four words with definitions; three are real, one word was invented for the game. Each day alternates the two kinds, three of each.
The weekly ramp
Monday is Gentle (words many readers half-know), then Mild, Tricky, Sly, Devious and Wicked, up to Sunday, which is Fiendish: genuinely obscure words, and real words that sound made up (gardyloo, snollygoster, crwth) sitting next to invented ones that sound perfectly respectable.
Accuracy
Every real word and definition comes from standard dictionaries (Merriam-Webster or Oxford). Every invented word was checked against a 545,000-word list of English, including archaic and dialect words, to make sure it is not secretly real.
HOW IT PLAYS
Playing
Tap an entry to put it under the magnifying glass, then lock it in. The impostors get a moustache-and-mask IMPOSTOR stamp, the genuine entry gets a gold seal, and a footnote explains the word. Keys 1–4 select, Enter locks in and turns the page.
Scoring
Each correct entry scores 100 points, plus 20 for every correct answer in a row before it, so a perfect day is 900. Three or more correct out of six counts as a win for the streak; all six is a perfect day.
Sharing
The share line is spoiler-free: "🎭 Impostor's Dictionary #25 · 5/6" with a green or red square per entry, the day's difficulty and your points.
The word bank
190 definition rounds and 140 invented words (330 rounds), plus 263 real decoy words, split into four difficulty tiers. Each tier is dealt in a fixed order, so a round only comes back after its whole tier has been used (at least five weeks), and no day's puzzle repeats within a year. Answers are stored hashed and the notes obfuscated, so they cannot be read from the page source.
DIFFICULTY BY WEEKDAY
| Day | Label | Tiers used |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Gentle | 1 |
| Tuesday | Mild | 1–2 |
| Wednesday | Tricky | 2 |
| Thursday | Sly | 2–3 |
| Friday | Devious | 3 |
| Saturday | Wicked | 3–4 |
| Sunday | Fiendish | 4 |
REWARDS
| Event | Reward |
|---|---|
| Win the day (3+ correct) | 15 Tickets |
| Perfect day (6/6) | +25 Tickets |
| Unmasked (first win) | 🥸 Bronze · 10 Tickets |
| Chief Lexicographer (6/6) | 🔍 Silver · 20 Tickets |
| Proofreader (3-day streak) | 📖 Bronze · 15 Tickets |
| Etymologist (7-day streak) | 🎭 Gold · 40 Tickets |
| Keeper of the Words (30-day streak) | 📜 Legendary · 100 Tickets |
VERSION HISTORY
- Launch version in Daily Brains.
- Two round types, six entries a day, difficulty ramp from Monday (Gentle) to Sunday (Fiendish).
- 330-round bank with hashed answers, etymology notes, streaks, statistics and a spoiler-free share line.