How to play

The basics

1. Read the category

   It narrows the field — for example “Animals”, “Science” or “Hollywood Movies”.

2. Read the clue

   The clue is a short description of the hidden word. Think about what it points to before you type anything.

3. Count the tiles

   Each row has one tile per letter, so the board tells you the word's length. Lengths vary from puzzle to puzzle.

4. Enter a guess

   Type a word that fills the row, using the on-screen keyboard or your own keyboard, then press Enter.

5. Read the colors

   Each tile changes color to show how close that letter is. The on-screen keyboard updates too.

6. Solve it in six

   You have six attempts. Use the feedback from each guess to narrow down the next one.

A worked example

This example is for illustration only. Suppose your first guess is ZEROS:

• Green — Z and E are in the word and in the correct spots.
• Yellow — R is in the word, but in a different spot.
• Gray — O and S are not in the word at all.

Putting the clue and the colors together, the answer is ZEBRA:

Repeated letters

If you guess the same letter twice, each copy is scored separately. A letter only turns green or yellow as many times as it actually appears in the answer; any extra copies turn gray.

Color-vision settings

In Settings you can switch on High contrast, which uses orange for correct letters and blue for letters in the wrong spot. You can also choose a dark theme and reduce animations.

Hints

Hints are optional rewards. Select Need a Hint? next to the clue and you can choose to watch a short advertisement to unlock the next hint:

• The first hint adds an extra written clue.
• Each further hint reveals one letter in its correct position, up to half the letters of the word.

The button shows how many hints are left and what the next one will give you. The hint is unlocked once the advertisement has finished. If you close the advertisement early, or no advertisement is available at that moment, the hint stays locked and you can try again later. You never need to click on an advertisement, and you can always keep playing without hints. If you used hints, your result notes it.

The daily puzzle

There is one official puzzle each day, released at midnight in your local time zone. Everyone playing on the same date gets the same numbered puzzle. Your progress is saved as you play, so you can close the page and come back later the same day. Solving the daily puzzle on consecutive days builds your streak; missing a day or failing a puzzle resets it.

Archive and practice

Open the archive from the calendar icon at the top of the game. You can:

• play any earlier puzzle by date,
• filter puzzles by category,
• jump to a random puzzle you haven't solved yet.

Archive games are practice: they don't change your statistics or streak.

Statistics

When a daily puzzle ends you'll see games played, win percentage, current streak, longest streak and your guess distribution — how many of your wins took one guess, two guesses, and so on. These numbers are stored in your browser, so they belong to this device only.

Share Score

After you finish, Share Score copies a spoiler-free summary to your clipboard. It shows the colors of each guess, never the letters, so you can post it without giving the answer away. It looks like this:

Keyboard shortcuts

• A–Z type letters
• Enter submit your guess
• Backspace delete the last letter
• Esc close an open dialog