Lingo is a word game played with interlocking tiles. Players take turns removing a single tile from the dispenser and placing it in the pool. Any player can then call a word, using the letters in pool, or a combination of letters in the pool plus an already completed word. If this word is unchallenged, the player claims the tiles and joins them as a word in his play area. In this way, players can 'steal' a word from another player.

At the end of the game, players join all their words together. The player with the longest 'word stick' is declared the winner.

The dispenser is then used as a 'word breaker', as the sticks are fed into a slot and broken apart, ready for the next game.