# Hot and Cold on Reddit

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-and-cold-on-reddit/1027699>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [February 16, 2026, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-and-cold-on-reddit/1027699 "2026-02-16T03:48:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-and-cold-on-reddit/1027699/1 "2026-02-16T03:48:07Z")

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[Anybody else playing this?](https://www.reddit.com/r/HotAndCold/) I am having the worst time getting a handle on how it works. Even after knowing the answers, I look at my guesses and cannot fathom how one was closer than the other.

Anybody have insight as to how this game defines “closeness”?

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**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-and-cold-on-reddit/1027699/2 "2026-02-17T01:05:04Z")

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So, here’s an example from today’s puzzle. The answer was gopher.

I began with “thing” which was relatively low, and then went to “object” which scored closer than “animal” on this list. I just don’t see how the darn thing defines “close.”

animal#18465

plunger 🔥#131

rubber#1104

thing#1695

eraser#2695

ball#2706

stopper#2852

plastic#3685

glass#3956

hard#4881

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**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-and-cold-on-reddit/1027699/3 "2026-02-17T08:16:40Z")

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I don’t know about that puzzle specifically, but it seems to be like [Semantle](https://semantle.com/). That uses an AI concept for determining semantic similarity called [word2vec](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word2vec). So it’s not so much about strict conceptual similarity as it is “what words might be found in similar contexts” across a large number of texts.

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**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-and-cold-on-reddit/1027699/4 "2026-02-17T16:54:26Z")

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Yeah, this is exactly Semantle. And just as frustrating.

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-and-cold-on-reddit/1027699/5 "2026-02-17T17:23:08Z")

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I randomly Puzzle 194 and quickly got to #241 which is almost certainly beginner’s luck. What an odd game.

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-and-cold-on-reddit/1027699/6 "2026-02-17T17:29:27Z")

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Holy shit! I got it in 41 guesses.