Lingo – Color Meanings + Other Tips

A guide which will explain what each color of block means, plus other information you’ll need to prevent yourself from getting completely stuck.

The Basics

All credit goes to Omega Fallon !

Lingo is a game about inputting words into blocks. This is what all the game’s puzzles come down to. Several factors of the puzzle block determine what the rules of that specific puzzle are. These factors are:

• Color
• Height
• Size
• Position relative to other blocks/connections to other blocks

Height

The height of the block has a massive impact on how you are meant to approach the puzzle. This fact is fairly non-obvious, and if you’re like me, you completely missed it until you read it in a guide. This information alone should be enough for you to figure out what the pattern is, but if you’re still struggling, here it is:

• Blocks that are above eye-level are about how a word is spoken.
• Blocks at eye-level are about how a word is spelled.
• Blocks that are on the ground are about the meaning of the word.

Size

The size of a block is an odd factor. Simply put, it sometimes matters and sometimes doesn’t. All throughout Level 1 (if you don’t know what Level 1 is, don’t worry, you’re in it) block size really doesn’t matter too much. In Level 2, however, double-size blocks are introduced. These blocks require you to split a word into two parts and apply the block’s rule to both parts individually. Double-size blocks can also be two colors, in which case you apply the left color to the first sub-word and the right color to the second sub-word.

Interactions with Other Blocks

Multiple blocks can combine to form a single puzzle. However, it’s important to realize that there are two very different kinds of combined puzzles:

• Vertical: If two or more puzzle blocks are stacked vertically, all this means is that all blocks in the stack have the same answer. You can think of this as each block in the stack has a different route of achieving the same answer.
• Horizontal or connected in a chain: This means you apply the rules of all blocks in the chain in succession. Sometimes this can even mean applying the same rule multiple times. There are some very clever and fun puzzles done with this.

Color

Color is the most obvious and arguably most important factor of puzzle blocks. Below, I will list all the colors, their broad meanings, and what they mean at each of the three eye levels. If you’re colorblind and trying to play this game, God help you.

Color – White

White is the most basic color, and the first one you will see. It’s theme can be thought of as “unchanging”; its puzzles are about remaining the same.

• High: The answer is a homonym of the clue word, that is to say, a word that sounds the same, like “fright” -> “freight”.
• Middle: The answer is the clue, exactly. Just copy what the clue is. Shrimple as that.
• Bottom: The answer is a synonym of the clue word, that is to say, a word that means the same thing. For example, “kill” -> “exterminate”.

Color – Black

Black is the opposite of White, as you may have guessed. Its theme is opposites and reversals.

• High: The answer is the code word pronounced backwards. This can be a little weird to figure out, but try saying the word out loud and then attempting to pronounce each of the syllables backwards.
• Middle: The answer is the clue word spelled backwards.
• Bottom: The answer is an antonym of the clue word, that is to say, a word with the opposite meaning. For example, “rich” -> “poor”.

Color – Red

Red is a color all about subtraction.

• High: The answer is the clue word with one or more syllables removed.
• Middle: The answer is the clue word with one or more letters removed.
• Bottom: The answer is a “lesser” form of the clue word, i.e. something that the clue word contains, a part of the clue word, etc. For example, “beach” -> “sand”.

Color – Blue

Blue is the opposite of Red and is a color all about addition.

• High: The answer is the clue word with one or more syllables added.
• Middle: The answer is the clue word with one or more letters added.
• Bottom: The answer is a “greater” form of the clue word, i.e. something that contains the clue word, something the clue word is a part of, etc. For example, “sand” -> “beach”.

Color – Purple

Purple is a combination of Red and Blue. It is about replacement.

• High: The answer is the clue word with one or more syllables replaced.
• Middle: The answer is the clue word with one or more letters replaced.
• Bottom: The answer is* an alternative of the clue word, i.e. something that could be used in its place or another item in the “set”. Example, “knife” -> “fork”.

* Not 100% sure about this one.

Color – Yellow

Yellow is a color all about mixing things up.

• High: The answer is the clue word with its syllables mixed up.
• Middle: The answer is the clue word with its letter re-ordered. If the answer string and the clue string are the same length, you can think of this as an anagram.
• Bottom: The answer is the clue word literally mixed up. Example: “eggs” -> “scrambled eggs”.

Color – Green

Green is about finding clues in the environment. To my knowledge, the position of the block either doesn’t matter or matters in an obtuse way. Just look around your environment to figure out the clue.

Color – Brown

Brown is a color about the passage of time.

• High: Never seen.
• Middle: The answer is a modern version of an old-timey word. Example: “thou” -> “you”.
• Bottom: The answer is the clue word after time has passed. Example: “seed” -> “plant”.

Color – Checkered Brown and Black

This mouthful of a color is the exact same as Brown, but instead of the rule being passage of time forward, it’s passage of time backwards.

Color – Orange

Oranges are all about ciphers. When used in tandem with other blocks, they can refer to a variety of simple ciphers that you can probably figure out if you look a few of them up. When used on their own, though, they follow their own cipher specific to this game. At some point late in the game you will encounter an orange block with a strange word on it, and next to it, you will find a block with the numbers 1234567890. Give it a second to click.

Color – Grey

Grey—or if you’re a heathen, Gray—is a vague, context-specific block. In the most general sense, Grey blocks ask you to answer a question or fill in the rest of a phrase started by other blocks. Like many other weird blocks, position either doesn’t matter or matters in an obtuse way.

Color – Mint

Introduced in Level 2, Mint is a color about the solutions to other puzzles. That is the extent of my grasp upon its meaning.

Color – Magenta

Magenta is a color about examples.

• High: The answer is the sound that the clue word makes. Example: “cow” -> “moo”.
• Middle: The clue is a part of speech/language, and the answer is that part of speech/language. Example: “adjective” -> “obtuse”.
• Bottom: The answer is an example of the clue. Example: “planet” -> “earth”.

Color – Kiwi

Kiwi is the opposite of Magenta. Its answers are what the clue is an example of. Simply put, to figure out Kiwi blocks, just reverse the rules of Magenta.

Color – Lavender

Haven’t yet figured out Lavender.

• High: Unknown.
• Middle: Unknown.
• Bottom: The answer seems to be what the clue lives in. Example: “human” -> “house”.