The rules
- There is a hidden word. In the classic game it has five letters.
- You have six guesses to find it.
- Every guess must be a real word of the same length.
- After each guess, the tiles change color to show how close you were.
- Find the word before you run out of guesses to win.
In a daily game, everyone gets the same word that day. That is what makes comparing results with friends fun.
What the colors mean
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green | The letter is in the word, in exactly this spot. |
| Yellow | The letter is in the word, but in a different spot. |
| Gray | The letter is not in the word, or there are no more copies of it. |
The on-screen keyboard mirrors these colors, so you can see at a glance which letters are found, which are still possible and which are ruled out.
An example game
These words are examples only and are never daily answers here.
Guess 1: TILES. T is gray, I is yellow, L, E and S are gray. The word has an I, but not in spot two, and none of T, L, E or S.
Guess 2: RADIO. R is gray, A is green, D is gray, I is green, O is gray. Now you know spot two is A and spot four is I.
With five letters ruled out in each guess and two letters placed, the third guess has far fewer words to choose from. That steady narrowing is the whole game.
Double letters, explained
Double letters are where most confusion comes from, so here is the exact rule:
- Each letter in the answer can color only one tile in your guess.
- Green tiles claim their letters first.
- Yellow is then given, left to right, only while unused copies remain.
So if the answer has one O and you guess a word with two O's, only one O is colored. If the answer has two O's and your guess has one, that one O is colored, and you will need another guess to find the second.
Hard mode
Hard mode is a setting you turn on before your first guess. It means:
- A green letter must stay in the same spot in every later guess.
- A yellow letter must be used somewhere in every later guess.
It stops you from playing a "scouting" guess full of new letters, so it rewards careful thinking over clever tricks.
Where to go next
- Play today's five-letter word.
- Learn how to choose a starting word.
- Practice without pressure in Unlimited.
- New to reading and spelling? Try the kids game.