About this site
A free word guessing game with no accounts, no paywall, and no app to install — plus a growing library of strategy writing for people who want to get better at it.
Why it exists
Word guessing games became a daily ritual for a lot of people, and for good reason: a single puzzle takes about three minutes, it is the same puzzle everyone else is solving, and it rewards thinking rather than reflexes.
What most versions do not offer is any explanation of how to play well. Players tend to settle on a favourite opening word and stop there, without ever learning why some openers consistently outperform others, or how to work through the awkward positions where four letters are known and six words still fit. This site was built to cover both halves — a clean version of the game, and honest writing about the strategy behind it.
What you can play
The game runs entirely in your browser. There is nothing to install and no sign-up.
- Variable word lengths. Puzzles are not limited to five letters; you can change the length in settings, which meaningfully changes the strategy.
- Daily mode. One shared puzzle per day, the same for everyone, resetting at midnight.
- Practice mode. Unlimited random puzzles for when one a day is not enough.
- Statistics. Win rate, current streak, and a guess distribution, stored on your own device.
- Colour-blind mode. An alternative palette for players who find green and orange hard to distinguish.
- Light and dark themes, remembered between visits.
How the puzzles work
Answers are drawn from a curated list of common words. The list of words you are allowed to guess is much larger than the list of words that can be answers — this is deliberate, and it matches how these games are normally built. It means obscure words are accepted as probes without ever turning up as an answer you could not reasonably have known.
In daily mode, the answer is derived from the date, so every player sees the same puzzle. Nothing is fetched from a server, which is why the game keeps working even on a poor connection.
The guides
The strategy guides are written from scratch for this site. They cover opening word selection, how to extract information from a mixed result, hard mode, and the letter patterns that catch people out at the end of a game. They are aimed at players who already know the rules and want to lose fewer games.
How the site is funded
The game is free and we would like to keep it that way. Hosting and domain costs are covered by advertising displayed on the site. We have tried to keep advertising out of the way of the puzzle itself rather than wrapped around it.
We do not run accounts, do not collect email addresses, and do not sell data. What advertising involves in practice is described plainly on the privacy page, including how to opt out of personalised ads.
Independence
This is an independent, unaffiliated project. It has no connection to The New York Times Company or to any other puzzle publisher, and none of them endorse it. Any trademark mentioned belongs to its owner and is referred to descriptively only.
Corrections and suggestions
If a word was rejected that should have been accepted, or you spot an error in a guide, please say so — that feedback is genuinely useful and is the main way the word lists improve. The contact page explains how to get in touch.