What is apterous?

apterous is a UK-based puzzle game where players compete to solve word and number puzzles. You can play in British English, French, German, Welsh, global English and a variety of other languages.

Register here, or log in if you already have an account.

Current Duel Leaders

#PlayerScore
1Matt Hamer—  

Format: 10 rounds of 15 seconds.
[Vote for the next Duel's format]

Top Dog

#Player%
1Ravi Choudhary81%

These are the finest bones dug up lately,
in Mr Dog's opinion (patent pending).

Discussions

13Up votes 0Down votes 7Replies

GOTY Revival Discussion

Brainstorm by Matthew Brockwell. Status: Unconfirmed.

From 2010 until 2021, the best games of the year were voted on in a fun contest known as Game of the Year (GOTY). Here are the historical results, from the votes run by Adam Gillard and Elliott Mellor: ... [Read more] [More miscellany]

5Up votes 0Down votes 1Replies

Upcoming FOCAL Tournaments: January - April 2025

Announcement by George Armstrong. Status: Unconfirmed.

Hello all, Whether you've been to 100 FOCAL tournaments or haven't yet come along, everyone is always welcome, whatever your ability. We're planning on having more tourneys this year than ever before, ... [Read more] [More miscellany]

20Up votes 0Down votes 5Replies

The Twelve Games of Chris-mas: Vol. III.: So, Hare it is, Merry Chris-mas: Review

Announcement by Chris Hare. Status: Unconfirmed.

With another year over and another Chris-mas done and dusted, I invite you to join me for the traditional recap of events, brought to you with all my usual zeal and vigour. Naturally, that means it arrives ... [Read more] [More miscellany]

6Up votes 1Down votes 4Replies

Lexplorer field for culled words

Website feature request by Matty Artell. Status: Unconfirmed.

For invalid words, it would be useful if Lexplorer had a section which indicates whether they have been valid in English in the past. Currently, this can be checked by going to "word search" and manually ... [Read more] [More feature requests]

19Up votes 0Down votes 10Replies

2025 Apterous ATP Tour

Announcement by Andy SC. Status: Unconfirmed.

This is not what you think it might be. After 6 years of hosting the Apterous ATP Tour, I have decided to not proceed with it next year. However, that won't be the complete end of it. Next year I may ... [Read more] [More miscellany]

4Up votes 1Down votes 14Replies

Mass nouns and actions...

Brainstorm by Fiona T. Status: Unconfirmed.

I'm working through a long list of mass nouns that have plurals in apterous. Food ones we allow because of the 'restaurant rule'. In the past, actions have been allowed - see discussion here https://www.apterous.org/ticket_view.php?ticket=6225 ... [Read more] [More miscellany]

8Up votes 0Down votes 4Replies

Ability to see [+ others] for Notifications

Website feature request by Chris Hare. Status: Unconfirmed.

Currently, if I receive more than one notification for the same thing, Apterous kindly combines them and says [+n others]. This is useful, and avoids clutter. Unfortunately, this is also incredibly inconvenient ... [Read more] [More feature requests]

1Up votes 7Down votes 4Replies

cann you add boolean to the discitonary

Brainstorm by Captain Jack. Status: Unconfirmed.

it's showibng as valid on OED but invalid on apterous [Read more] [More miscellany]

23Up votes 1Down votes 6Replies

'Unready' button

Game feature request by Jonathan Dyke. Status: Unconfirmed.

I have been playing multiple games recently when I have joined a game and clicked 'play next round' and then my opponent has said that they'll brb. Whilst the most cordial of opponents would again ask ... [Read more] [More feature requests]

11Up votes 3Down votes 3Replies

New character idea: Sgt. Nicholas Angel

Game feature request by Piaras Last-Name. Status: Unconfirmed.

This ticket was created by the Character Spindlomatic, which you should use to create your own characters! https://www.apterous.org/spindlomatic.php --------------------------------------- I suggest the ... [Read more] [More feature requests]

22Up votes 2Down votes 0Replies

Apterous History to Include games of the week

Website feature request by Jack Hurst. Status: Unconfirmed.

I think the apterous history for each month should include games played in that month that won game of the week. [Read more] [More feature requests]

14Up votes 0Down votes 8Replies

CO:LON 2025 - Countdown in London 2025 - Saturday 12th April 2025

Announcement by Phil Stanton. Status: Unconfirmed.

I'm pleased to announce CO:LON - Countdown in London 2025 – a FOCAL Countdown event. WHEN Saturday 12th April 2025 Doors open at 10:45 am. Gameplay starts at 11:30. WHERE & GETTING THERE “The Venue”, ... [Read more] [More miscellany]

14Up votes 8Down votes 15Replies

Deleting unwanted games

Game feature request by Sam Prouse. Status: Unconfirmed.

I think there should be an option to delete games that you simply don't want to carry on anymore. For example: unfinished games and unplayed tourney games against another user (if both players taking part ... [Read more] [More feature requests]

20Up votes 1Down votes 1Replies

Collapsible tournament notifications on the main page

Brainstorm by Marcus Hares. Status: Unconfirmed.

I'm delighted to see all the great tourneys on apterous - the more the merrier as far as I'm concerned! But would it be possible to collapse/hide all the tournament notifications from the main page please? ... [Read more] [More miscellany]

20Up votes 2Down votes 1Replies

Extend Tournament Deadlines

Website feature request by Rhys Benjamin. Status: Unconfirmed.

Title pretty much summarises this - in the case of downtime, or a game not being played, it should be possible for the tournament creator to change the deadline of a tournament, particularly Owl Licensees. ... [Read more] [More feature requests]

21Up votes 3Down votes 2Replies

Undeclared 9s

Game feature request by Cyril Topher. Status: Unconfirmed.

If possible, valid 9 letter words that were noted but undeclared; similar to the BIG WORDS, and DISALLOWED feature on a users profile page. [Read more] [More feature requests]

15Up votes 0Down votes 2Replies

Will bots' optimal picks be updated to reflect the much-reduced dictionary?

Miscellaneous topic by Sam Cappleman-Lynes. Status: Unconfirmed.

In this ticket (https://www.apterous.org/ticket_view.php?ticket=5970) it was explained data had been crunched to enable optimal bot picking in a number of variants. I got the impression that bots do not ... [Read more] [More miscellany]

5Up votes 0Down votes 2Replies

Maxes only

Variant idea by Peter Thomas. Status: Unconfirmed.

Is there a variant where you can only declare maxes and the game can go on indefinitely until you fail to declare a max? [Read more] [More variant ideas]

15Up votes 1Down votes 5Replies

Tourney System: "Play X Times" rather than "Best of X"

Website feature request by Rhys Benjamin. Status: Unconfirmed.

Useful for aptolympics and so on, if you want x attempts or to double/triple/etc a round-robin, can we have an option for "play 5 times" rather than putting in the same fixture 5 times? [Read more] [More feature requests]

17Up votes 0Down votes 3Replies

Default Custom Setup Setting

Game feature request by Adam Finlay. Status: Unconfirmed.

As far as I am aware, there's no way to set a default custom setting that isn't standard. As a person who likes to get pencils from playing in German or Portuguese in Junior variants, I'd like not having ... [Read more] [More feature requests]

News

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