How to play Filippine

A filippine is a word puzzle from the Netherlands and Flanders: a stack of short crossword-style clues whose answers are written on separate rows. The rows are shifted so that one highlighted column, read from top to bottom, spells a hidden word. Solve the clues and the hidden word reveals itself.

The rules

1. Each numbered clue has one answer, and each answer goes on the row with the same number. The number in brackets after the clue is the length of the answer.
2. The rows are offset left and right, so they do not all start in the same place. Exactly one letter of every row sits in the yellow column.
3. Read the yellow column from top to bottom to get the solution word. It has as many letters as there are rows.
4. The puzzle is solved when every row is filled in correctly. The solution word and its own short definition then appear in the Solution panel.

Getting started

Click a clue or any cell of a row to select that row; it lights up and the clue appears in the status line. Type your answer. The cursor moves along the row and jumps to the next row when you reach the end. You can also use the arrow keys, Backspace to erase, and Enter or Tab to go to the next row (Shift+Tab goes back).

Suppose clue 3 reads "Large body of salt water (5)" and the yellow cell is the third square of row 3. You type OCEAN, so the yellow cell holds E. In the Solution panel the third box now shows E as well, because those boxes copy the yellow column as you fill it in. With a few rows done you might see, for instance, S, _, E, _, L, and start wondering whether the hidden word is STEEL or SPELL. A guess like that, in turn, tells you which letter must sit in the yellow cell of the rows you have not solved yet.

Strategies and tips

• Start with the clues you are sure of. The rows do not cross each other, so you can solve them in any order. Easy wins give you letters in the solution column straight away.
• Count the letters. The length in brackets rules out many candidates. A clue like "Pet animal (3)" is CAT or DOG, not RABBIT.
• Use the position of the yellow cell. You can see where the yellow square falls within each row. If it is the fourth of six squares and you suspect the hidden word needs an R there, look for six-letter answers with R in fourth place.
• Work in both directions. Once you can guess the hidden word, every unsolved row gets one known letter, which often unlocks the hardest clues.
• Check sparingly. The Check button colours each filled letter green or red. Use it when you are torn between two answers, rather than after every row, so you keep doing the reasoning yourself.
• Hint one letter at a time. Hint reveals the letter in the selected cell (or another open letter in that row). One letter is often enough to make a clue click.

How the difficulty adapts

You pick the level, and it controls the size of the puzzle. On Easy the hidden word has 5 or 6 letters, so there are 5 or 6 clues, and answers are at most 8 letters long. Medium has 7 or 8 rows with answers of up to 10 letters. Hard has 9 to 12 rows with answers of up to 12 letters. The generator prefers to place the solution letter somewhere in the middle of an answer rather than at its start or end, which keeps the yellow column from being too obvious. Every puzzle is new.

Once a level feels comfortable, try the next one: the brain benefits most when the challenge keeps rising with your skill, and a puzzle that is always slightly hard is better training than one you solve on autopilot. Read more about what research says about puzzles and brain health.

A short history of Filippine

The filippine is a long-standing feature of Dutch and Flemish puzzle magazines, where it sits alongside crosswords and word searches as one of the standard formats. It combines two familiar ideas: the definition clue of the crossword, and the hidden word that many Dutch puzzles produce as a final answer.

Puzzles built on the same principle exist in other countries, but they have no single standard name in English. Here we keep the Dutch name, while the French and Spanish versions of the page call it a hidden column word ("mot caché en colonne") and a hidden word ("palabra oculta").

Frequently asked questions