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Puzzle #434 Streak — Difficulty Gentle
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Free daily word game

Guess Word is the daily word game with a free archive, a streak that survives, and your own spelling.

One five-letter word a day, six guesses, and every puzzle we have ever run still free to play. If you like Wordle but resent the paywalled archive, the streak that vanishes when you travel, and the American spellings, this is the daily word game built from those complaints.

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How to play the daily word game

  1. Guess any five-letter word to start

    Type a real word and press enter. You get six guesses, and every guess has to be a word in the dictionary you have chosen — US, UK or Australian. A guess that is not in the list is refused without costing you a turn.

    Type your first guess, then press enter.

  2. Read the colours and the symbols

    Every tile carries a symbol as well as a colour, so you never have to tell two colours apart. A blue tile with a filled circle is the right letter in the right place. An amber tile with a half circle is a letter that is in the word but somewhere else. A grey tile with an empty circle means the letter is not in the word at all.

    H is in place, I and N are in the word, C and A are not.

  3. Use what each guess ruled out

    Keep the letters you have placed, move the ones in the wrong spot, and drop the ones that came back grey. The keyboard remembers all of it for you, so you can see at a glance which letters are still worth trying.

    Four letters placed. One to go.

  4. Solve it inside six guesses

    Get all five tiles blue and you have it. Miss on the sixth and the game shows you the word — no waiting until tomorrow to find out, and no reason to go looking for a spoiler.

    Solved in three.

  5. Come back tomorrow, or keep playing now

    A new word arrives at midnight in whichever time zone you set, so travelling never costs you a streak. If one a day is not enough, unlimited mode plays as many as you like at four to eleven letters, and the whole archive is free to play with no account.

    Midnight in your time zone, wherever you happen to be.

Tips that actually shorten the game

Open with a word full of common letters

Something like SLATE, CRANE or ROAST covers three of the five most common letters in one go. A first guess is for information, not for winning — you almost never solve on it, so spend it well.

Three letters ruled out and two placed, on one guess.

Do not waste a guess on a letter you have ruled out

A grey letter is gone. Reusing it tells you nothing you did not already know, and you only have six turns. Hard mode enforces this if you want the discipline.

TALES puts S, L and T back after all three came up grey.

Move amber letters, do not just shuffle them

An amber tile means the letter is in the word but NOT in that position. Putting it back in the same slot is a guaranteed amber again, which is a wasted turn.

E was amber in the first slot. Back in the first slot it can only be amber again.

Mind the repeated letters

Words like LEVEL and SPEED catch people out. The board marks each letter only as many times as the answer actually contains it, so a third copy comes back grey even though the letter is in the word.

SPEED holds two E's, so the third E comes back grey.

When you are stuck, guess for information

If four letters are placed and several words fit, do not guess them one at a time. Play a word that tests several of the remaining possibilities at once, even if it cannot be the answer.

FLINT cannot be the answer. It tests F, L and N in one turn.

Learn the vowel-heavy openers

Words like ADIEU and AUDIO clear four vowels in a single turn. If your first guess came back almost blank, one of those is often the fastest way to narrow it down.

Two vowels found and three ruled out, in a single turn.

More free word games and tools

Wordle Unlimited Play wordle unlimited free, as many rounds as you like, at four to eleven letters. The practice mode the daily game never gave you, with no one-a-day limit and nothing to sign up to. Wordle Archive Every past wordle puzzle, still playable and still free. Catch up on the ones you missed, or play old wordle puzzles from the very beginning, with no account and no subscription. Mini Crossword A free online crossword in five by five, with real clues written from a dictionary rather than trivia. An easy crossword you can finish in a couple of minutes, new every day. Word Search Word search online at four difficulties, on a grid generated fresh every time so you never meet the same puzzle twice. There are printable word search sheets too if you would rather use a pen. Spelling Bee The spelling bee game with your spelling, not ours: seven letters, one in the middle, and every word you can build from them. A daily spelling bee puzzle plus every hive we have set before it. Boggle Play boggle free on a four by four tray: trace every word you can find through touching letters before the clock runs out. A word grid game that scores longer finds higher. Text Twist Text twist online and free: six letters, and every word they can make, against the clock. A word scramble game where finding the six-letter word opens the next round. Word Ladder A word ladder puzzle: change one letter at a time to get from the first word to the last, and every rung has to be a real word. Solve it in as few steps as you can. Cryptogram Cryptogram puzzles in a letter substitution cipher, in the cryptoquote style. Crack a single letter and it fills in everywhere at once, until the whole quote reads. Hangman The hangman game online, at three to eleven letters. Free hangman with a word list long enough that it will not repeat on you, and the one game everybody already knows how to play. Sight Word Games Sight word bingo on a four by four card: a word is called and your child finds it. Built on the Dolch sight words schools have set since 1936, for the words that cannot be sounded out. Phonics Games Phonics games for children learning to read: sound out CVC words one letter at a time, with the missing sound to find. Phonics practice for kids that speaks the word aloud. Wordle for Kids Wordle for kids, age-banded for five to thirteen at three to five letters. Word games for kids that stay inside vocabulary a child that age actually meets, with no ads during play. Wordle Solver A free wordle solver and wordle helper: enter the letters you have found and where they sit, and see every word still possible. No account, and it never shows you the answer unasked. Word Unscrambler Unscramble words instantly: type your letters and get every word they make, longest first. A letter unscrambler that works on anything from three letters to a full rack. Anagram Solver An anagram solver that uses every letter you give it, not just some of them. Rearrange a word or a name into the real words hiding inside it. Word Finder Find words with letters you already hold, and say where they sit. A word finder tool for a board you are part way through rather than a blank rack. Scrabble Word Finder Every playable word from your Scrabble rack, scored on official tile values and sorted highest first. A scrabble helper for the word you cannot quite see. Words With Friends Finder Your rack scored on Words With Friends tile values, which are not the Scrabble ones, against the dictionary that game actually accepts. A words with friends cheat that knows the difference. Crossword Solver A crossword clue solver for a half-filled grid: give it the letters you have and a question mark for the rest, and see every answer that fits.

Daily word game questions, answered

Is the daily word game free?

Yes, permanently. The daily puzzle, unlimited practice, the whole archive and every tool are free with no account and no subscription. Nothing here goes behind a paywall later.

What time does the daily word game reset?

Midnight in the time zone you set yourself, not the one your device happens to be reporting. That is why flying somewhere does not skip a day or give you two.

Can I play the puzzles I missed?

Yes. Every past puzzle is in the free archive and needs no account. Pick any number and play it — there is no subscription and no limit on how many you catch up on.

Do I need an account?

No. Guest play is complete, with full statistics kept on your device. An account only means your streak and stats follow you between devices, and everything you played as a guest comes with you when you make one.

Does it use American spelling?

Only if you choose it. Pick US, UK or Australian and both the accepted guesses and the word lists follow. The shared daily answer is never a word that is spelled differently between them, so nobody is caught out by their own spelling.

Why did I lose my streak?

On most word games it is a time zone, a cleared browser or a new device. Here the streak is tied to your account rather than your browser, it rolls over in your own time zone, and if something does go wrong you can repair it yourself.

How many guesses do I get?

Six for the standard five-letter game. Unlimited mode lets you play four to eleven letters, and longer words are given more guesses.

Can letters repeat in the answer?

Yes, and it is where most people slip. In a word like LEVEL the board marks each letter only as many times as the answer contains it, so a second L can come back grey even though the word plainly has one.