How to ace State Silhouettes

State Silhouettes shows you the black outline of a state, no context, no map, no neighbors, and asks you to name it. Your eye is doing all the work. The fastest players group silhouettes into a mental hierarchy: easy shapes (Florida, Michigan, Louisiana), rectangles (Colorado, Wyoming), and tricky lookalikes (the Dakotas, New England's vertical strips). This guide gives you the visual cheat sheet.

Tier 1: instant-recognition silhouettes

These shapes are so distinctive that most players recognize them in under a second. If you see one and don't know it, memorize it now:

Tier 2: the rectangle states

The "rectangle states" are a curse in this game, they all look the same at a glance. Colorado and Wyoming are near-perfect rectangles, and three more are rectangles with one bite or bump. Memorize their proportions:

• Colorado, Perfect rectangle. Wider than tall. Almost 1.4:1 ratio.
• Wyoming, Perfect rectangle. Slightly wider than tall. Very similar to Colorado.
• Utah, Rectangle with a notch cut out of the upper-right corner (that's where Wyoming sits).
• Kansas, Rectangle, but the northeast corner is cut irregularly by the Missouri River.
• Nebraska, Rectangle with a panhandle sticking out the upper-west corner.

Trick: Colorado vs Wyoming, Wyoming is slightly more compact (closer to a square). Colorado is more elongated horizontally. In silhouette, this is the only difference.

Tier 3: distinctive coastline states

Coastline gives the silhouette character. Use it:

• Massachusetts, Cape Cod (the hook curling back on itself) is unmistakable.
• South Carolina, Triangular wedge between Georgia and North Carolina, with a smooth Atlantic coast.
• Virginia, Has the Delmarva Peninsula tip (a separate island-like blob to the east).
• New Jersey, Vertical shape with a clean Atlantic coast and the Delaware Bay cutout at the bottom.
• Maine, Jagged Atlantic coastline with hundreds of inlets, very irregular eastern edge.
• Washington, Puget Sound creates a distinctive bay in the northwest corner.
• Oregon, Cleaner rectangular shape, smooth Pacific coast on the west.

Tier 4: the tricky lookalike pairs

North Dakota vs South Dakota

Both are wider-than-tall rectangles with the Missouri River cutting through. The differences:

• North Dakota, Almost a perfect rectangle. The northern border (Canada) is dead straight.
• South Dakota, Has a small bend on the east border where the Big Sioux River dips inward.

In pure silhouette, North Dakota is more uniform; South Dakota has slightly more irregular edges.

Iowa vs Missouri

Both are square-ish Midwestern states along the Mississippi. Differences:

• Iowa, Curves on the eastern and western borders (Mississippi and Missouri rivers), but mostly even.
• Missouri, Has the famous "boot-heel" jutting south at the southeast corner. If you see a small bump pointing down-right, it's Missouri.

New Hampshire vs Vermont

Both are skinny vertical New England states. They're mirror images.

• New Hampshire, Widens at the bottom, has a small Atlantic coastline (tiny southern bump).
• Vermont, Widens at the top (the Canada border is wider than the southern Massachusetts border). Fully landlocked.

Visual rule: NH widens downward, VT widens upward.

Alabama vs Mississippi

Both are tall skinny Gulf states. Differences:

• Alabama, a straight western border and a straight upper eastern border (the lower half follows the Chattahoochee River); its short Gulf coast sits at the bottom left, beside the Florida panhandle.
• Mississippi, The Mississippi River gives it a wiggly western edge; its short Gulf coast sits at the bottom right.

Tier 5: the irregular states

A few states have such irregular shapes that they're easy once you know them:

• West Virginia, Looks like a frog mid-jump. Two protrusions: one east (the Eastern Panhandle near DC) and one north (the Northern Panhandle between Ohio and Pennsylvania).
• Tennessee, Long horizontal parallelogram, tilted slightly. Stretches from Mississippi to North Carolina.
• Kentucky, Similar parallelogram but with a sharper western point. Sits north of Tennessee.
• Minnesota, Mostly square, but with the "Arrowhead" jutting northeast into Lake Superior.
• Idaho, The "chair" or "L" shape. Thin chimney north, wider body south.

The 4-step recognition method

1. Aspect ratio first. Is it taller-than-wide (New Jersey, Alabama, Vermont), wider-than-tall (Colorado, Wyoming, Tennessee), or nearer square? Few states really are: even Iowa is about one and a half times as wide as it is tall.
2. Look for hooks. Cape Cod = Massachusetts. Boot-heel = Missouri. Arrowhead = Minnesota.
3. Look for panhandles. Oklahoma's thin strip to the west. Idaho's chimney. Maryland's narrow west. Nebraska's NW corner. Florida's west.
4. Use the eliminate-rectangles trick. If it's a clean rectangle, you're choosing between Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah (with notch), and the Dakotas.

Frequently asked questions

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