The Daily Word

Common questions

Frequently Asked Questions

When does the daily puzzle reset?

A new puzzle arrives every day at midnight UTC. Everyone around the world plays the same word on the same day.

How many guesses do I get?

You have six attempts to identify the five-letter word. Use each guess strategically to narrow down the possibilities.

Does my progress save if I close the browser?

Yes. Your current guess state and all completed game results are stored locally in your browser on this device, so you can return and pick up exactly where you left off.

Can I play yesterday's puzzle?

No — only today's puzzle is available. A new word replaces the previous one at midnight UTC and the old one is not accessible.

What do the tile colors mean after I submit a guess?

A green tile means the letter is correct and in the right position. Yellow means the letter is in the word but in a different spot. Gray means the letter does not appear in the word at all.

Is there a time limit for solving the puzzle?

No. You can take as long as you need within the same calendar day. There is no clock counting down against you.

Is this similar to Wordle?

Yes — like Wordle, you get six guesses to find a secret five-letter word, with green, yellow, and gray feedback after each guess. If you enjoy word games like Wordle, this is a fresh daily version of that same core mechanic.

How many words could today's answer be?

Today's word is deterministically chosen from a pool of 109 five-letter words, so it's the same puzzle for every player worldwide. Guessing isn't limited to that pool, though — I accept 590 five-letter words in total as valid entries (the 109 possible answers plus 481 additional common words), so a guess doesn't have to be a word that could ever be today's answer.

Is there a hint button or clue system?

Not currently. The only feedback is the green/yellow/gray tile coloring after each guess — there's no separate button that reveals a letter for you.

Can I play a shorter or easier daily word puzzle?

The daily puzzle is always a five-letter word with six guesses — there isn't currently an easier or shorter mode, but every player gets the same word each day so difficulty stays consistent and fair.

How does today's word get picked from the pool of 109 answers?

The 109-word pool is split into two halves, and which half today draws from depends on whether the UTC day count is even or odd — even days pull from the first half, odd days from the second. Within that half, the exact word is picked by hashing today's date and this game's slug into an index. So consecutive days practically always come from opposite halves of the list, not from a single sequential or fully unrestricted random draw.

How does the game handle repeated letters in a guess?

It resolves them in two passes, the same way Wordle does: every letter in the exact right spot is marked green first, and only whatever target letters are left over after that get consumed by yellow matches elsewhere in your guess. So if you guess a letter twice but it only appears once in the target — and that one instance is already green somewhere else in your guess — the second occurrence comes back gray, not yellow.

Is there a hard mode that forces me to reuse revealed clues?

No — this build is adapted from an open-source Wordle clone that included a hard-mode option, and I deliberately left that out along with its random/practice and sharing modes. Every guess is checked only against the 590-word allowed list, not against your previous clues, so you're free to guess anything valid regardless of what you've already learned.

Next on the desk

More daily puzzles to play after The Daily Word

Or browse all word games on the site and the full daily game list.