Juthoor

Arabic is built on three-letter roots. From ك-ت-ب come kitāb, kātib, maktab, maktaba — book, writer, desk, library — and a native speaker feels that relationship without ever being taught it. Juthoor turns the feeling into the mechanic.

A root appears at the top of the screen. You trace letters on a circular keyboard to form words derived from it, filling a crossword grid to advance, with extra derivations paying out in coins.

Why this is not a translated word game

Every mainstream word puzzle is built on a Latin alphabet and rewards spotting letter patterns. Arabic does not work that way — the interesting structure is morphological, not orthographic. A translated puzzle throws that away and ends up as a worse version of an English game. Building on roots means the puzzle is only possible in Arabic, and it teaches vocabulary as a side effect of being fun rather than as homework.

The shape of it

Fifty levels run from the oasis to the summit, scored with oud, qanun and ney rather than generic puzzle-game music. A prestige mode replays the whole thing at night with the hints removed, for anyone who wants to know whether they actually knew the words.

Shipped

Live on the App Store.