State Silhouettes
Guess the US state from its outline alone.
Ten outlines, no labels, no borders, no context. This is pure shape recognition, the skill that makes an unlabeled map readable, and a round runs about ninety seconds. Every one of the fifty states can appear, so the tall rectangles and the small New England states turn up as often as Florida and Michigan.
How to play
Press Start. A single state is drawn in solid navy, scaled to fill the frame, which means size gives you no help at all. Rhode Island and Texas appear the same height. Four state names sit below it. Click the one that matches. A correct pick scores a point. A wrong pick costs one of your three hearts and marks the right answer in green before moving on. Three hearts lost ends the round early, otherwise you get all ten outlines.
Stars follow percentage: nine or ten correct is three stars, six is two, three is one. Best score and daily streak are kept in your browser only.
The lookalike pairs
Start by asking one question: does the shape have a panhandle? Idaho, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, Florida and Maryland all do, and the direction sorts them out fast. Oklahoma's is a thin bar pointing due west, Idaho's points north and is far wider at the base, West Virginia has two at once, one reaching north and one reaching east.
Then work the confusable pairs, because those are where the hearts go.
| Pair | The tell |
|---|---|
| Wyoming and Colorado | The only two states bounded entirely by straight lines. Shape cannot separate them, only proportion can. |
| Vermont and New Hampshire | Mirrored wedges. Vermont is widest at its northern Canadian border and tapers south. New Hampshire is widest at the bottom and tapers to a point in the north. |
| Alabama and Mississippi | Mississippi's whole western edge is the river, so it wanders. Alabama's western edge is near straight, and it has a short squared Gulf frontage in the southwest. |
| North Dakota and South Dakota | North Dakota is closer to a clean rectangle. South Dakota's southeastern corner cuts away on a diagonal. |
| Kentucky and Tennessee | Tennessee is a long parallelogram with straight top and bottom. Kentucky's top is the Ohio River, curved the whole way, and it ends in a hook at its far west. |
| Arizona and New Mexico | Both are near squares. Arizona's southwest edge is a long diagonal toward the Colorado River, New Mexico has no diagonal at all. |
Two shapes are giveaways once you know them. Iowa is bordered by rivers on both the east and the west, so it is the only state that wanders on both sides while staying flat on top. Delaware has a perfect arc across its northern border, a circular boundary drawn from a point in New Castle, and nothing else in the fifty has one. Utah is the square with a rectangular bite taken out of its northeast corner, which separates it instantly from Colorado and Wyoming.
For the small northeast, Connecticut is a plain rectangle with a notch cut from its southwest corner, and Rhode Island is broken open by Narragansett Bay reaching deep inland from the south.
Practice against a real map
Outlines stick faster when you trace them yourself. The printable US states map gives you a blank version to work from, and state flags covers the other visual identifier worth learning. Related games:
Read more about this topic
→ /State FlagsFrequently asked questions
How do you play State Silhouettes?
Guess the US state from its outline alone. Scores tracked locally; streak preserved across days.
Is this game free?
Yes, 100% free, no signup, no ads. Just play.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes, fully responsive on phones, tablets and desktop.