A word is hidden. Guess it — every guess tells you more.
✓right spot◐wrong spot✕not in word
🎯 The idea
One word is hidden, and your job is to work out that word. Spell a
guess with the keyboard and press ENTER. Every letter lights up to
tell you how close you got, and you get six tries.
🧪 Guesses are experiments
Your guess doesn't have to be a real word! Try any letters you like just
to see where they are — the clues come back either way. It only costs you
one of your six tries, so spend them how you want. (To win, though,
you do have to land on the real hidden word.)
📖 Real words only
Want it harder? On the menu screen there's a Real words only
switch. Turn it on and every guess has to be a word the game knows — no
more spelling ZZZZZ just to find out where the Z isn't. If a guess
is refused it doesn't cost you a try and your letters stay put, so
you can change one and try again. The switch is off to start with, and
you pick it before you press Play.
🚦 What each letter tells you
A✓Green ✓ — this letter is in the word, and it's in
exactly the right spot. Keep it there!
B◐Yellow ◐ — this letter is in the word, but
somewhere else. Try it in a different spot.
C✕Grey ✕ — this letter isn't in the word at all.
Don't use it again.
Every tile carries a mark (✓ ◐ ✕) as well as a colour, so
the clues still work if the colours are hard to tell apart.
⌨️ The keyboard
The keyboard tells you one thing: letters that aren't in the word at
all fade out, so you know not to bother with them. Everything about
where letters go stays on the board above, where you can see it
guess by guess — a letter can be in the word twice, and one key can't
say that.
🔒 Right letters lock in
Once a letter turns green, it's yours. The game writes it into
every guess after that and locks it there, so you only ever fill in the
gaps. Locked letters have a green outline, and ⌫ can't remove
them — it only takes back letters you typed yourself.
💡 Stuck?
Tap the 💡 lightbulb at the top and the game shows you one of the
letters, in the right spot. Clues are free — they never cost you a turn.
But they unlock as you go: your first arrives once you've used a
couple of guesses, and the rest turn up when you're running low. Tap the
bulb any time and it'll tell you how long until the next one.
🌱 Pick your size
Sprout hides a 4-letter word and starts you off with the first
letter already filled in. Scout hides 5 letters and
Sleuth 6. Six tries either way.
📅 Puzzle of the Day
Everyone gets the same word each day. Solve it to build a streak — it
works offline, so a car ride counts.