Pawmoku glossary
This glossary explains the words used on Pawmoku boards, in solving walkthroughs and in the daily team race. Start with tiles and lines, look up a deduction, or check what a team term means. Each definition stands on its own and links to a fuller explanation.
Tile
A tile is one square of the grid: empty, or holding a cat or a dog.
More about TileStarting animal
A starting animal, also called a given, is a cat or dog already placed when a puzzle begins and locked in its tile.
More about Starting animalRow
A row is a horizontal line of tiles. Rows are numbered from the top, so row 1 is the top row.
More about RowColumn
A column is a vertical line of tiles. Columns are numbered from the left, so column 1 is the leftmost.
More about ColumnLine
A line means either one row or one column of the board.
More about LineTally
A tally shows how many of each animal a line still needs, with a plus sign for too many and a tick for a complete valid line.
More about TallyThree's a crowd
Three's a crowd is the rule that forbids three matching animals in consecutive tiles across or down.
More about Three's a crowdPair ends
Pair ends gives the other animal to an empty tile at either end of two matching animals side by side.
More about Pair endsMiddle tile
Middle tile fills a one-tile gap between matching animals with their opposite.
More about Middle tileLast spare
Last spare keeps a line's last needed animal of one kind out of any tile where it would force three of the other kind together.
More about Last spareDaily
The daily is the free puzzle shared by every player for their own local date.
More about DailyJourney
The Journey is the app's path of puzzles from 4x4 to 10x10, with up to three stars per level.
More about JourneyTeam Cat
Team Cat is one of the two sides players choose for the daily race against Team Dog.
More about Team CatTeam Dog
Team Dog is the other side in the daily race. Only first-attempt solves with no hint and no check count for either team.
More about Team DogMedian
The median is the middle of a team's ordered solve times, used so that team size alone cannot win the day.
More about MedianWeekly crown
The team that wins more days from Monday to Sunday earns the weekly crown for the following week.
More about Weekly crownStreak
A streak records consecutive daily play, with held streak freezes able to cover a missed day.
More about StreakStreak freeze
A streak freeze, bought with Treats, keeps a streak going over a missed day, as long as the player held it on that day.
More about Streak freezeTreats
Treats buy hints, checks, streak freezes, past dailies, Journey energy refills, skins and themes; they never expire.
More about TreatsHint
A hint is bought with Treats; a solve using one never counts toward the team score or sets a best time.
More about HintCheck
A check is bought with Treats; a solve using one is excluded from the team score and cannot set a best time.
More about Check