Wordle Unlimited

Guess the five-letter word in six tries. Play today's daily puzzle, or switch to Unlimited for a new word as many times as you like.

How to play

1. Type a five-letter word and press Enter. You have six guesses, and every guess must be a real word from the dictionary.
2. Green means the letter is in the word and in the right spot. Yellow means it's in the word but somewhere else. Grey means it isn't in the word.
3. Letters can repeat. Greens are marked first, then yellows only for copies the answer still has. If the answer has one E and you guess two, one E lights up and the other stays grey.
4. Keys on the keyboard keep their best colour. A green key never turns yellow or grey again.
5. Daily gives everyone the same word and counts toward your streak. Unlimited hands you a fresh word every time, and the link in the address bar lets a friend play the exact same puzzle.

Hard mode

Press Hard above the board to turn it on. In hard mode every green letter must stay in its spot in later guesses, and every yellow letter must appear somewhere in them. Break a rule and the guess is refused with a note such as "2nd letter must be R" or "Guess must contain A". You can turn hard mode on only before your first guess. You can turn it off at any time, but that round then scores as a normal game. Your choice is remembered for next time.

Hints

Stuck? Press Hint. You get two per game. The first tells you one letter that is in the word and outlines its key in yellow. The second shows one letter in its correct spot and outlines that key in green. Each hint costs 75 points and can lower your stars. Hints on the daily puzzle are saved, so reloading the page doesn't hand you fresh ones.

Points and stars

A win scores 100 points for every guess you had left, plus the one you used: 600 for a first-guess win, 100 for a sixth-guess win. Hard mode adds 50 and each hint takes away 75. A win never scores below zero, and a loss scores zero.

• Three stars: solved in three guesses or fewer, with no hints.
• Two stars: solved in five guesses or fewer, with at most one hint.
• One star: any other win.

The share text shows your guesses, an asterisk for hard mode, any hints used and your points, for example: Wordle Unlimited #d1931 4/6* · 1 hint · 275 pts.

Daily or Unlimited?

Daily is the one to compare with friends: one word, one shot, resets at midnight on your clock. Once you finish it, it stays finished until the next day, and it counts toward your statistics only once. Your streak grows with each daily you win on consecutive days, and resets if you lose or miss a day. Unlimited is for practice. Wins and losses there count toward your statistics but never your streak, so you can experiment without risk.

A few opening tips

• Start with a word heavy in common letters. CRANE, SLATE and TRACE each test five of the most frequent letters.
• Use your second guess to test new letters rather than to solve. Finding where letters aren't is as useful as finding where they are.
• Watch the keyboard. Greyed keys are letters you've ruled out; don't spend a guess on them.
• Stuck with two or three possible answers? The five-letter word list and the word finder (set length to 5, add your known letters) will show you what's left.

Which words can be answers?

Answers come from a list of about 1,600 everyday five-letter words, so you'll never be asked to guess something obscure. Guesses are checked against the full dictionary of 8,600 five-letter words, so unusual words still count as valid attempts.