Controls at a glance
Keyboard
Type letters on your keyboard, Enter checks the word and Backspace deletes a letter. While you are typing, every letter key types, so use the on-screen buttons to pause, restart or mute.
Touch screen
Tap the letters on the on-screen keyboard, tap Enter to check your word and the delete key to remove a letter. The page does not scroll while you play.
How to play Word of the Day
There is one hidden five-letter English word, and you have six tries to find it. Type any real five-letter word and press Enter. Each tile in your row then turns over and shows what that letter tells you. A tile marked with a check mark is the right letter in the right spot. A tile marked with a ring (and a striped pattern) is a letter that is in the word but in a different spot. A plain dark tile is a letter that is not in the word at all.
Use what you learn to make a better guess on the next row. Letters on the on-screen keyboard change too, so you can see at a glance which letters are still possible. Guesses must be real words from our list; if a word is not accepted the row shakes and you do not lose a try. Solve it in six rows or fewer to win. If you run out of tries, the hidden word is shown under the board.
Daily word, free play and friend challenges
In Daily mode everyone gets the same word on the same date, so you can compare results with friends and family. Finishing it grows your daily streak. Free play picks a new random word every time you press Play again, so you can keep practising as long as you like.
After a game, Copy results copies a small grid of coloured squares that shows how your guesses went without giving the word away, plus a link. Anyone who opens the link gets exactly the same word and sees the number of tries to beat. Your win streak, best streak and number of games are stored only in your browser.
Colour-blind friendly tiles
Colour is never the only clue. Right-spot tiles always carry a check mark, in-the-word tiles carry a ring and a striped pattern, and screen readers announce every letter with its result, for example "A, in the word, wrong spot". The High contrast button switches the colours to orange and blue, a pair that most people with red-green colour blindness can tell apart easily, and the shared grid uses the same colours.
Tips and strategy
- Open with common letters. A first guess with several different vowels and common consonants such as R, S, T, L and N tells you the most.
- Do not repeat grey letters. Every letter you already know is missing wastes part of a guess.
- Move yellow letters. A ring means the letter belongs somewhere else, so try it in a new spot next time.
- Remember double letters. Words such as APPLE or SHEEP have a letter twice. If you are stuck, a double letter is often the reason.
- Think in patterns. Common endings like -ER, -LY and -CH, and starts like SH-, ST- and TR-, narrow things down fast.
Frequently asked questions
Is the daily word the same for everyone?
Yes. The daily word depends only on the date, so everyone who plays on the same day gets the same word. A new word starts at midnight in your own time zone.
What happens when a letter appears twice?
Each letter in your guess is matched with one copy in the hidden word. If the word has one E and you guess two, only one of them is marked as in the word and the other stays dark.
Why was my word not accepted?
Guesses must be five-letter English words from our list. The list covers thousands of common words but leaves out names, abbreviations and very rare words. A rejected guess does not cost you a try.
Where do the words come from?
The answers are a list of several hundred common, family-friendly words that we picked for this game. The accepted guesses come from our own list of more than three thousand common five-letter words.
Can I play more than one word a day?
Yes. Switch to Free play for a new random word every game. Only the daily word counts towards your daily streak, while every game counts towards your win streak.
