Termo (video game)

Termo is a web-based word game created and developed by Fernando Serboncini, a Brazilian software engineer based in Montreal, Canada. Released on 5 January 2022, Termo quickly became popular in Brazil and Portugal, attracting hundreds of thousands of daily players. It is based on the mechanics of Wordle, the English-language puzzle developed by Josh Wardle. In the game, players have six attempts to identify a secret five-letter Portuguese word, with color-coded feedback given after each guess indicating whether letters are correctly placed, present but mispositioned, or absent from the word. A new word is issued daily and is identical for all players worldwide. Alongside the standard format, two variants are offered, with Dueto challenging players to solve two words simultaneously and Quarteto requiring four to be solved at once. Serboncini began developing Termo in late December 2021, after encountering Wordle and recognizing the absence of equivalent free word games in Portuguese. The most demanding aspect of development was compiling a lexicon of approximately 18,000 five-letter words, drawn from operating system dictionaries, social media, and legal documents, and refined to exclude obscure terms, proper nouns, and regional vocabulary. Within an hour of launch, the game had attracted over 20,000 players, and by February 2022 it was drawing more than half a million daily users.