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 Lingo is an American television game show with multiple international adaptations. The first American version aired from 1987–1988 in syndication, and a revival of the show ran as an original series on GSN for six seasons from 2002–2007. A second revival will begin airing on GSN in 2011.  

 The game features two teams of two contestants each who attempt to guess five-letter words and place markers on a 5×5 numbered Lingo board, attempting to cover five spaces in a row in a fashion similar to bingo. 

 ==1987 version== 
 ===Main game=== 
 The game is played between two teams of two contestants each. At the start of the game, each team is given a Lingo card with 25 spaces on it, and seven spaces on each card are automatically covered. The champion team's card contains even numbers and blue markers, and the opponents' contains odd numbers and red markers. 

 The team in control (beginning with the challengers) is shown the first letter of a five-letter word randomly selected by the show's Amiga computer. One team member attempts to guess the word and spells their guess. A red square is then placed around letters from their guess that are in the correct position and a yellow circle is placed around letters that are in the word but not in the correct position. If the team in control guesses the word on the first try, they win a $1,000 bonus. Otherwise, the other team member takes a guess, then the first team member takes the third guess, and so on. 

 If the team fails to identify the word within five guesses, fails to answer at any time within the five-second time limit, gives a misspelled or nonexistent word, gives a word that is not five letters in length, or gives a word that is only a proper name, control passes to the other team. If there is more than one letter unrevealed, one of those letters is revealed and the team is given five seconds to make a guess. If there is only one unrevealed letter in the word, it is not revealed, but during the five seconds of thinking time, the team is allowed to confer; this is the only time when conferring between teammates is permitted. 

 The team that correctly guesses the mystery word then pulls two Lingo balls out of a hopper in front of them. Eighteen of the balls are labeled with numbers corresponding to the numbers on their Lingo board; when a numbered ball is drawn, the corresponding space on the Lingo card is covered. Also in the hopper are three prize balls; when one of them is drawn, it is put aside and the contestant who drew it gets to pick again. Winning with one ball wins $250 in Traveler's cheques, winning with two also wins a trip and winning with all three is worth a jackpot which starts at $1,000 and increases by $500 every game the jackpot isn't claimed. Later in this version, there were only two prize balls. Winning with one got the trip and winning with both won the jackpot. Even later, the