About Country Scramble
Country Scramble gives you the letters of a country name in a jumbled order and 90 seconds to solve as many as you can. You can ask for the country's flag as a hint, but that halves the points for that word.
How to play
- Press Start to begin a 90-second round.
- Each puzzle is a single-word country name of 4 to 9 letters, so names like Kenya, Peru or Portugal can appear but United Kingdom cannot. There are 140 possible names.
- Type the country in the box. It is accepted the moment your letters match, with no need to press Enter, and case does not matter.
- A solve is worth 2 points, or 1 point if you used Show flag on that word.
- Skip moves to a new word with no penalty other than the time spent.
- When the clock reaches zero the round ends and your score is compared with your best.
Controls
- Type on a physical or on-screen keyboard; the text box is focused when the round starts.
- Click or tap Show flag (half points) for a hint, or Skip to move on.
- Press Play again after the round to start a new 90 seconds.
Tips and strategy
- Look for common endings first. Many names end in -IA, -LAND or -STAN, and pulling those letters aside leaves a much shorter puzzle.
- Count the letters. Every puzzle is 4 to 9 letters long, and the length alone often narrows it to a few countries you can test against the tiles.
- Skip quickly. A skip costs nothing but time, and two quick solves are worth more than one long struggle.
- Save the flag hint for words you recognise as a country but cannot place. A half-point solve still beats a skip.
- Typing the start of a guess does no harm, so try out a likely first few letters to see whether the rest falls into place.
Background
Anagram puzzles are among the oldest word games, and rearranging letters was a popular pastime long before crosswords existed. Country names suit anagrams well because the set is fixed and familiar, yet several short names share most of their letters: Niger and Nigeria, Oman and Romania, Mali and Malawi, or Iran and Iraq. Recognising the shared core and then placing the extra letters is often the quickest way to solve.
Questions
- Does the timer stop while I use a hint?
- No. The 90-second clock keeps running whether you are typing, reading the flag hint or skipping.
- Why do I never see names with spaces or accents?
- The puzzle pool only uses single-word names written in plain letters, between 4 and 9 letters long, so that every scramble has a clean answer.
- Where is my best score saved?
- In your browser on this device. Only the round's final total is compared with your best.