Word Guess
Type a word and press Enter. Green: right letter, right place. Amber: in the word, elsewhere.Type with the keys below. Green: right letter, right place. Amber: in the word, elsewhere.
About the game
Word Guess
Word Guess is a five-letter word puzzle: you have six tries to find the hidden word, and after each guess every letter turns green (right spot), amber (in the word, wrong spot) or grey (not in the word). Play the daily word or unlimited games, or solve 2, 4 or 8 words at once.
- Word length
- 5 letters
- Guesses
- 6 for one word
- Modes
- Daily and Unlimited
- At once
- 1, 2, 4 or 8 words
How to play
Guess the hidden five-letter word in six tries. Type any valid English word and press Enter. After each guess the tiles change colour:
- Green: the letter is in the word and in the right spot.
- Amber: the letter is in the word but in a different spot.
- Grey: the letter is not in the word.
A letter can appear more than once. If you guess a letter twice and it appears once in the answer, only one tile is coloured. The keyboard keeps track of the letters you have used.
2, 4 or 8 words at once
Every guess is entered on all boards, and you get extra guesses: 7 for two words, 9 for four, 13 for eight. Each key is split into sections, one per board, so you can see how a letter scored on each word. A board locks once its word is found.
Strategy
- Start with common letters. E, A, R, T, O, I, S, N and L narrow things down fastest.
- Don’t repeat grey letters early. Use each guess to test new letters.
- Move amber letters. An amber letter can’t be in the spot where it turned amber.
- Watch for double letters. SPEED, LLAMA and FLOOR catch many players out.
- With several words, spend the first two or three guesses covering as many different letters as possible before solving any one board.
Origins
Guessing a hidden word from coded feedback is an old parlour game. Jotto, invented in 1955 by Morton M. Rosenfeld, had two players pick secret five-letter words and take turns guessing; the only clue was how many letters a guess shared with the secret word. The number game Bulls and Cows works the same way with digits.
This version gives a richer clue than Jotto: every letter is marked, green for the right place and amber for the right letter in another place.
History
- 1955 Jotto: two players, secret five-letter words, and a count of shared letters as the only clue.
- Before 1970 The first known computer version of Bulls and Cows, the number form of the idea, is written at Cambridge.
- 1972 It is ported to Multics at MIT and to early Unix at Bell Labs.
- 2026 This version on Zippi, with daily puzzles for 1, 2, 4 and 8 words and world leaderboards.
Why it’s fun
- Every guess is information. Colours turn a blind guess into a narrowing search.
- The last guess is a moment. Six rows, and the tension builds as they fill.
- Everyone plays the same word. The Daily gives friends something to compare.
- Short. A game takes a few minutes, which makes it an easy daily habit.
What it trains
Word Guess exercises vocabulary and spelling patterns, and it rewards thinking about information: the best guess is often not a possible answer, but the one that rules out the most.
FAQ
How does the daily leaderboard work?
Each daily puzzle (1, 2, 4 or 8 words) has its own leaderboard. Players are ranked by the number of guesses, then by time from the first letter typed to the last guess, measured by our server. Unlimited games are not ranked.
Which words are allowed?
More than 12,000 five-letter English words are accepted as guesses. Answers come from about 2,000 common words; plurals ending in S and past tenses ending in ED are not used as answers. Word lists are based on SCOWL, Copyright 2000–2016 by Kevin Atkinson, and the word-list package (MIT licence).
Can I play more than one puzzle a day?
Yes. Switch to Unlimited for a new word every game. Daily and Unlimited keep separate statistics.
How do I share my result?
Press Share in the results window. It copies a grid of coloured squares without revealing the word.
This version
- A Daily puzzle for 1, 2, 4 and 8 words, each with its own world leaderboard.
- Unlimited mode: a new word every game, with separate statistics.
- More than 12,000 accepted guesses; answers from about 2,000 common words.
- Streaks, guess distribution and a spoiler-free share grid.
Updates
- Daily leaderboards ranked by guesses, then by server-measured time.
- First version on Zippi: Daily and Unlimited, 1 to 8 words at once.
Page last reviewed .
