How to play Word Guess
Word Guess is a five-letter word game. There is a hidden word, and you have six tries to find it. After each guess, every letter is marked to show whether it is in the right place, in the word but somewhere else, or not in the word at all.
Step by step
Type a five-letter word
Use the big on-screen keyboard or your own keyboard to type any five-letter word, then press Enter. It has to be a real word on our list.
Read the marks
Each letter is marked. Green with a small square: right letter, right place. Gold with a dot: the letter is in the word, but in a different place. Grey with a dash: the letter is not in the word.
Use what you learned
Keep the green letters where they are, move the gold letters to new places, and leave out the grey ones. The keyboard keeps track of every letter for you.
Guess again
Each guess narrows down the answer. You have six guesses in all to find the word.
Ask for a hint if you need one
The Hint button shows one correct letter in its place. You can use up to two hints on a word, and the result shows how many you used.
Come back tomorrow
There is a new daily word every day, the same for everyone. Practice mode gives you as many extra words as you like.
The full rules
What you need
Nothing but a few minutes. On GamesBento the board and keyboard are on screen, and you can tap the keys or type on your own keyboard. On paper, one person thinks of a five-letter word and marks the other player’s guesses.
The aim
Find the hidden five-letter word in six guesses or fewer. Every hidden word is an everyday word, such as SMILE, BREAD or PLANT.
How to play
Type a five-letter word and press Enter. The word must be a real word on our list; if it isn’t, you will see “Not in our word list” and you can try another without losing a guess.
When a guess is checked, each of its letters is marked in one of three ways:
- Right place (green, with a small square in the corner): this letter is in the hidden word, in exactly this place.
- Wrong place (gold, with a dot): this letter is in the hidden word, but somewhere else.
- Not in the word (grey, with a dash): this letter isn’t in the hidden word, or you have used it more times than the word does.
The on-screen keyboard shows the same marks on its keys, so you can see at a glance which letters are still worth trying.
You can also play with a keyboard: type the letters, press Backspace to take one back, Enter to check your word and Esc to clear the row.
Repeated letters
A letter can appear more than once in the hidden word, as in APPLE or SLEEP. The marks always count letters fairly. If you guess a word with two Es and the hidden word has only one, just one of your Es is marked as in the word. If one of them is already in the right place, that one is marked first.
Hints
If you are stuck, press Hint. One correct letter is shown in its place in the row you are typing, with a small blue dot. You can use up to two hints on a word, and a hint never gives away the whole word. Your result shows how many hints you used, and a word found with hints still counts as found.
Daily word and practice
Every day there is a new daily word, the same for everyone on the same date, so you can compare notes with friends and family. Daily words don’t repeat for several years. Your daily streak counts how many days in a row you have finished the daily word.
If you find the daily word within six guesses, you can add it to the weekly leaderboard. For more play, choose New game and then Practice for a fresh random word each time.
Tips for a five-letter word game
- Start with common letters. A first guess with several vowels and common consonants, such as STARE, CRANE or SLATE, tells you a lot.
- Use new letters early. Your second guess is often best spent on five letters you haven’t tried yet, even if you already know a few.
- Think about where letters can go. A gold letter can’t be in the place where it was marked, so move it somewhere new.
- Remember letters can repeat. If you’re stuck, try a word with a double letter, such as -LL-, -EE- or -SS.
- Look at the keyboard. Grey keys are out of the running; focus on the letters still left.
- Say words out loud. Common endings such as -ER, -LY, -CH and -NT can help a word jump out.
Common questions
What happens if I type a word that isn't on the list?
You will see the message “Not in our word list”, and the guess is not used up. Change a letter or two and try again. Repeating a word you have already tried doesn’t use up a guess either.
How are repeated letters marked?
Fairly, the way you would expect. If the answer has one E and your guess has two, only one of your Es is marked as in the word; the other is marked as not in the word. A letter in exactly the right place is always marked first.
Can I play if I find it hard to tell colours apart?
Yes. Every mark has its own shape as well as its own colour: a small square for the right place, a dot for the wrong place, and a dash for a letter that isn’t in the word. Screen readers read out each letter and its mark in words.
Is there a new word every day?
Yes. The daily word changes every day and is the same for everyone on the same date. A daily word will not come round again for several years.
Do hints stop my word counting?
No. A word you find with hints still counts as found, including for the weekly leaderboard. The result simply shows how many hints you used.
Can I play more than one word a day?
Yes. After the daily word, choose New game and then Practice for as many random words as you like.
Where it comes from
Guessing a hidden word from clues is an old idea. Pencil-and-paper games in which one player picks a secret word and the other learns which letters match after each guess, sometimes called Jotto, have been played for many decades, and the colour-peg code-breaking board games of the 1970s used the same kind of clue. Five-letter word guessing games of this sort became hugely popular online in the early 2020s, and many versions are now played around the world every day.
