The Daily Word Game: One Five-Letter Word, Six Guesses
Every day there is one five-letter word, the same for everyone who plays, and six tries to find it. Type any real five-letter word as a guess. Each letter then turns green if it is in the word and in the right place, yellow if it is in the word but somewhere else, or grey if it is not in the word at all. Use what each guess tells you to narrow down the next.
The trick is the first two guesses. A word with common, different letters — CRANE, SLATE, PLANT — tells you far more than a word with repeats or rare letters, because every grey letter rules out a slice of the alphabet. From the third guess on, the best move is usually to place your greens where they belong and try your yellows in new positions.
Repeated letters are scored the way you would expect. If the answer has one E and you guess a word with two, only one of your Es lights up; if the answer has two, both can. The on-screen keyboard keeps a running colour for every letter you have tried, so you never waste a guess on a letter you already know is out.
Your guesses are checked against a list of about 12,600 English words, so a random string of letters will not be accepted. The answers themselves are everyday words a ten-year-old would know — no obscure plurals or technical terms.
When you finish, you see the word, your stats — games played, win rate, your current streak and your best — and a share button that copies a spoiler-free grid of coloured squares to paste into a chat. A new word arrives at midnight in your own time zone; in the meantime, practice mode deals as many extra words as you like without touching your streak. Everything is stored in your own browser, with no account and nothing sent anywhere.
How to play Daily Word Game
- Press "Play today's puzzle".
- Type a five-letter word with your keyboard or the on-screen keys, then press Enter.
- Green means right letter, right place; yellow means right letter, wrong place; grey means not in the word.
- Use the clues to make your next guess. You have six tries.
- Share your result, then come back tomorrow for a new word — or play practice words in the meantime.