Kanji Compound Puzzle (Wadō Kaichin)Free, no sign-up

Put one kanji in the empty middle square. The arrows from the top and left kanji point into the middle, so “top + middle” and “left + middle” must be Japanese words; the arrows from the middle point to the right and bottom kanji, so “middle + right” and “middle + bottom” must be words too. For example, with 席 (seat) in the middle: 着席 (chakuseki, taking a seat), 即席 (sokuseki, instant), 席巻 (sekken, sweeping) and 席上 (sekijō, at a meeting).

Wadō Kaichin is an old Japanese coin with a square hole in the middle and one kanji on each side of the hole. This puzzle puts four kanji around an empty square in the same way, so in Japan it's often called a Wadō Kaichin puzzle.

The wrong kanji is crossed out and you can pick again until you get it, but it no longer counts as right on the first try. The wrong choices are picked to be tricky: each makes a word with some of the four kanji. Any kanji that would make all four words is checked against the whole dictionary and never offered as a wrong choice.

By how many of the ten puzzles you got right on the first try, then by time. You only need a nickname, up to 30 submissions per level a day. Your picks are checked on the server.

From the two-kanji headwords of JMdict, a Japanese–English dictionary (© EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0), which also gives the readings and English meanings shown after each puzzle. Easy uses only common words; Hard includes at least two less common ones.