Say What You See
2,121 rebus cards, 1v1 duels and a 100-player knockout
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About Say What You See
Say What You See is a browser word game built on 2,121 rebus cards — the picture-word brain teasers also known as dingbats, catchphrase puzzles, or simply say what you see. Each card is a phrase drawn with words instead of spelled out. Where a word sits, how big it is, which way it faces and how many times it appears all carry meaning. HEAD written above HEELS is head over heels. MILL, then 1, then AIR is millionaire. The alphabet with the U taken out is missing you. The whole game is that one trick, worked in every direction it will go.
The career deals every card that can fairly be typed — 2,015 of them over 403 levels, five to a level, easy at the start and very hard by the end, unlocking one at a time. Every card appears once, so you never meet the same puzzle twice on the way up. The few cards whose answer needs words the picture cannot show are kept for the multiple-choice modes.
You type the answer rather than pick it from a list. Four options give away most of a rebus — you can work backwards from the wording instead of reading the card — so multiple choice is kept for the modes where speed is the point. Spelling is forgiven, so head over heals is accepted; a, an and the are optional; and three blind mice can be typed with a numeral. What is not forgiven is being right about a different card: a guess that exactly names some other phrase in the game is a wrong answer however close the letters look.
Three lives per level. A wrong guess costs one but leaves you on the same card, so the letters you have already uncovered still count for something. Revealing a letter is the way out that costs points instead of lives, which makes being stuck a decision rather than a dead end.
Playing other people is the part that is not ordinary rebus solving, and it comes in four shapes. Play now needs no room code and nobody to wait for: one card goes up in front of the whole room at once, everyone answers against the same clock, and the fastest correct answer scores most, with a ranked board after every question. 1v1 Duel is buzzer rules for two: the first right answer takes the card, a wrong answer locks you out of it, and the first to five wins. Knockout 100 is a hall that starts every ten minutes — four rounds of ten cards, the top 50 go through, then the top 25, then the top 10 play the final, and every round starts from zero. Seats nobody takes are AI players and are always marked AI. The Mini cup is the four-seat version, cut twice over fifteen cards. In every live room the answer stays on the server until the card closes, and the room steers away from cards you have already seen. Away from it there is the Ladder — fifteen multiple-choice cards worth 100 up to 1,000,000, with checkpoints at five and ten, three lifelines and the option to walk away with what you have — plus Blitz, ten cards at fifteen seconds each against seven computer rivals, and a Daily Five that is the same five cards for every player in the world.
How to play Say What You See
Press Level 1, or open All levels and pick any level you have unlocked.
Read the card and type what it says into the box, then press Enter.
Stuck? Press Reveal a letter — it uncovers the next letter and costs points but no life.
Get every card on the level before three wrong guesses to unlock the next one.
Press Play live for a room, a 1v1 duel or the Knockout 100, or try the Ladder for the quiz-show format.
About this game
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Say What You See rankings
Ranked by career points — every card you have ever read added together, from levels, the ladder, blitz runs, the daily five and arena races. Today resets at midnight IST, the week resets on Monday.
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Say What You See — frequently asked questions
What is a rebus?
A phrase drawn with words and their arrangement instead of being spelled out. HEAD above HEELS is head over heels; JOB IN JOB is in between jobs; ECNALG is a backward glance. Position, size, direction, repetition and missing letters are all part of the reading.
Is this the same as dingbats or say what you see?
Yes — they are three names for the same puzzle. Rebus is the standard term, dingbats is what they are usually called in Britain, and say what you see is the instruction people give when they explain one. Catchphrase puzzles and picture word brain teasers describe them too. If you have played any of those, you already know how this works.
Is Say What You See free?
Yes. It runs in the browser with no download and no sign-up. Your levels, best times, streak and badges save in the browser you play in.
How many puzzles are there?
2,121 cards across four difficulty tiers. The career deals 2,015 of them over 403 levels and never repeats a card; the live rooms, the Ladder, Blitz and the Daily Five draw on all of them, and live rooms steer away from cards you have already seen.
Do I have to spell the answer exactly?
No. Capitals and punctuation are ignored, a, an and the are optional, small misspellings are accepted, and number words can be typed as digits. The one thing that is refused is a guess that exactly names a different phrase in the game.
Why do I type instead of choosing from options?
Because four options give most of a rebus away — you can reason backwards from the wording without ever reading the card. Multiple choice is kept for the Ladder and Blitz, where the point is speed rather than the puzzle.
What happens when I run out of lives?
The level ends and you can start it again with the same cards. Levels you have already beaten stay unlocked and your best times stay recorded.
What is the Live Quiz?
A room where everyone sees the same card at the same moment and answers against a shared clock, the way a live quiz works. Ten questions, ramped from easy to very hard. A correct answer scores 500 plus up to 500 more depending on how fast you were, and a ranked scoreboard appears after every question. The answer stays on the server until the question closes, so nobody can read it out of the page.
Are the Blitz rivals real people?
No. The seven names in Blitz are the game playing against you, and the results screen says so. Play live is where you play against actual people.
Can you play Say What You See on a phone?
Yes. The card, the answer box and the buttons are sized for one hand, and typing uses the phone's own keyboard.
Can I play against other people without a room code?
Yes. Press Play now and the matchmaker puts you in a room that already has people in it, or opens a new one if every room is full. A room code is only needed when you want a private room with people you know.
What is a tournament?
There are two. Knockout 100 is a hall that starts every ten minutes: four rounds of ten cards, with the top 50 going through, then the top 25, then the top 10 playing the final. Every round starts from zero, and seats nobody takes are AI players marked AI. The Mini cup is a four-seat version over fifteen cards, cut twice.
What is a 1v1 duel?
Two players see the same card at the same moment. The first right answer takes the card, a wrong answer locks you out of that card, and the first to five wins. If nobody else is looking for a duel within a few seconds you get an AI opponent, labelled as one, and if a person turns up the duel restarts as a real one.
Tell us what to fix
Found a bug, or think something should play differently? This goes straight to the developer — no account, no email address required.