Daily Challenges

Minesweeper Glossary: Every Term Defined

This glossary covers every term used in Minesweeper — from basic gameplay words to competitive jargon and mathematical concepts. Terms are organized alphabetically. Click any term for a quick definition, and follow the links for in-depth guides where available.

Numbers & Symbols

1-1-X Pattern

A pattern where two adjacent “1” cells along a wall guarantee the cell past the second “1” (the X) is safe. The fundamental safe-cell deduction.

1-2-1 Pattern

The most famous Minesweeper pattern. Three numbers along a wall reading 1-2-1 mean mines at the ends, the middle cell is safe. Appears in nearly every game.

1-2-2-1 Pattern

The extended version of 1-2-1. Four numbers along a wall reading 1-2-2-1 mean mines at both ends, both middle cells are safe.

1-2-X Pattern

A pattern where a “1” and “2” are adjacent along a wall. The cell past the “2” (the X) is always a mine. The core building block for mine identification.

50/50

A position where two or more cells could each contain a mine with equal probability, and there is no logical way to determine which. The player must guess. No-guess Minesweeper eliminates 50/50s by design.

A

Adjacent

The cells immediately surrounding a given cell: up, down, left, right, and four diagonals. Every cell has up to 8 adjacent cells (fewer at edges and corners). Synonymous with neighbor.

Anti-Minesweeper

A variant where the goal is inverted: click all the mines while avoiding safe cells. Numbers still indicate adjacent mine counts.

Arbiter (Minesweeper Arbiter)

A popular competitive Minesweeper implementation with built-in replay saving and anti-cheat features. One of the programs accepted for official records on Minesweeper.info.

B

Beginner

The easiest standard difficulty: 9×9 grid with 10 mines (12.3% density). See Difficulty Levels.

Blank Cell

A cell with zero adjacent mines. When revealed, it triggers a cascade that automatically reveals all its neighbors.

Board

The rectangular grid of cells that makes up a Minesweeper game. Also called the field or grid.

Boundary

The ring of cells at the edge of the revealed area — where revealed numbered cells meet unrevealed covered cells. Nearly all deductions happen at the boundary.

C

Cascade

The chain reaction that occurs when you reveal a blank cell (zero adjacent mines). The game automatically reveals all its neighbors. If any of those are also blank, the cascade continues recursively, potentially opening large portions of the board.

Cell

A single square on the Minesweeper grid. Each cell is either covered (hidden), revealed (showing a number or blank), or flagged.

Chord / Chording

Clicking a revealed number that has the correct number of adjacent flags to instantly reveal all its remaining unflagged neighbors. The primary speed technique in Minesweeper. See the Chording Guide.

Chord Chain

A sequence of chords where each one reveals cells that satisfy the next number, enabling consecutive chords without pausing. The key to competitive speed.

Constraint

A logical rule derived from a numbered cell: “exactly N of my unrevealed neighbors are mines.” Every number on the board creates a constraint. Combining constraints is how advanced deductions work.

Constraint Propagation

The technique of combining multiple constraints to deduce cells that no single constraint resolves alone. The mathematical basis for subset logic and solver algorithms.

Covered Cell

A cell that has not been revealed or flagged. It could contain a mine, a number, or a blank. Also called an unrevealed cell or hidden cell.

Custom Board

A board with non-standard grid size or mine count, configured by the player. Not used for official records.

D

Daily Challenge

A puzzle generated from a shared seed so all players worldwide get the same board. Used for asynchronous competition — everyone compares their solve time.

Density

See Mine Density.

Diagonal

The four cells touching a given cell at its corners (upper-left, upper-right, lower-left, lower-right). Often overlooked by beginners when counting neighbors.

Difficulty

One of three standard levels: Beginner, Intermediate, or Expert. See Difficulty Levels.

E

Edge Cell

A cell on the border of the board (but not a corner). Has 5 neighbors instead of the interior cell’s 8.

Endgame

The final phase of a game where most of the board is revealed and only a few covered cells remain. Endgames in Expert often require advanced logic or probability reasoning.

Expert

The hardest standard difficulty: 30×16 grid with 99 mines (20.6% density). See Difficulty Levels.

F

Field

Another name for the game board.

First Click Safe

A rule in virtually all modern Minesweeper implementations: the first cell you click is guaranteed not to contain a mine. The board is generated (or adjusted) after your first click to ensure this.

Flag

A marker placed on a covered cell (via right-click or long-press) to indicate the player believes it contains a mine. Flags prevent accidental clicking and enable chording. Flags are optional — you do not need to flag all mines to win.

Flagging Style

A playstyle that uses flags to mark mines, enabling chording. Contrasted with NF (no-flag) style.

G

Guess

A move made without logical certainty — the player does not know whether the cell is safe or a mine. Guessing is sometimes unavoidable in standard Minesweeper. No-guess mode eliminates this.

Grid

The rectangular array of cells that makes up the game board. Described by dimensions (e.g., 30×16 for Expert).

H

Hidden Cell

A cell that has not been revealed. Synonymous with covered cell.

I

Interior Cell

A cell not on the edge or corner of the board. Has the maximum 8 neighbors.

Intermediate

The middle standard difficulty: 16×16 grid with 40 mines (15.6% density). See Difficulty Levels.

L

Logic

The deductive reasoning used to determine cell states without guessing. Minesweeper is fundamentally a logic puzzle.

M

Mine

A hidden explosive in a cell. Clicking a mine ends the game. The number of mines is known at the start of each game.

Mine Counter

The display showing how many mines remain unflagged (total mines minus flags placed). This counts flags, not confirmed mines — if you flag a safe cell, the counter still decreases.

Mine Density

The percentage of cells that contain mines: $\frac{\text{Mines}}{\text{Total Cells}} \times 100$. Higher density means harder games. See Probability Guide.

Minesweeper.info

The authoritative website for competitive Minesweeper rankings, maintained by the global community. Tracks verified records for Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert in both flagging and NF categories.

N

Neighbor

A cell adjacent to a given cell (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally). Interior cells have 8 neighbors, edge cells have 5, and corner cells have 3.

NF (No-Flag)

A playstyle where the player never places flags, only left-clicking safe cells. NF is faster than flagging because it eliminates right-click time, but it requires stronger mental tracking. Most speed records are set with NF play.

No-Guess

A Minesweeper mode where every generated board is guaranteed to be solvable through pure logic. No 50/50 situations or forced guesses. See No-Guess Minesweeper.

NP-Complete

A complexity classification from computer science. Richard Kaye proved in 2000 that the Minesweeper Consistency Problem is NP-complete, meaning it is among the hardest problems in the class NP. In practice, this means no fast algorithm can solve every possible board.

Number

The digit (1–8) displayed on a revealed cell, indicating exactly how many of its neighbors contain mines. Blank cells (showing nothing) have a value of 0.

O

Opening

The initial cascade of revealed cells after the first click. Larger openings provide more information. Corner clicks tend to produce the largest openings.

P

Pattern

A reusable configuration of numbers and cells that always resolves the same way. Examples: 1-2-1, 1-2-X, subset. See the complete Patterns Guide.

Probability

The mathematical likelihood that a specific covered cell contains a mine. Used for decision-making when logic alone does not determine a cell’s state. See the Probability Guide.

R

Reduction

A technique where known mines (flags) are subtracted from a number to simplify it, often revealing a familiar pattern. See Pattern Reduction and Advanced Reduction.

Reveal

Uncovering a cell by clicking it, showing its contents (number, blank, or mine).

S

Safe Cell

A cell that does not contain a mine. The goal is to reveal all safe cells.

Satisfied Number

A revealed number whose adjacent flag count equals its value. All remaining covered neighbors of a satisfied number are guaranteed safe and can be chorded.

Seed

A value used to generate a specific board. Shared seeds (as in Daily Challenges) ensure all players get the same puzzle.

Solver

A program that analyzes a board state and determines which cells are logically safe, which are mines, and which are ambiguous. See the Minesweeper Solver.

Subset Logic

A deduction technique that compares overlapping constraints. If one group of cells is a strict subset of another, the difference can be determined. See Subset Safe and Subset Mine.

T

Timer

The clock that starts on your first click and stops when the game ends (win or loss). Used for tracking personal bests and competitive records.

T-Pattern

A pattern found at perpendicular boundary junctions where two walls meet, forming a T-shape.

Trick Patterns (T1–T5)

Advanced patterns requiring multi-cell simultaneous reasoning. Named T1 (simplest) through T5 (most complex). These separate expert-level solvers from intermediate players.

U

Unrevealed Cell

A cell that has not been clicked. Synonymous with covered cell.

W

Wall

A straight row of unrevealed cells along the edge of the revealed area. Many patterns (1-2-1, 1-2-X, wall-edge patterns) are defined along walls.

Win Rate

The percentage of games won out of games played. A meaningful metric only on no-guess boards where every game is theoretically winnable.

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