How to play Five-Letter Guess: tips and starting words

Six guesses sounds like plenty until you’re on your fifth. A good opening word and a clear plan for using the colours make all the difference.

The rules

There’s a hidden five-letter word. Type any real five-letter word as a guess. Each letter turns gold if it’s in the word and in the right place, red if it’s in the word but somewhere else, and dark if it isn’t in the word at all. Find the word within six guesses.

Pick a strong first word

Your first guess should test the most common letters. Words such as RAISE, STARE, CRANE, SLATE and TRACE cover E, A, R, S and T, which together appear in most five-letter words.

Use a second word to cover new letters

If your first guess comes back mostly dark, don’t try to use its letters again. A second word with five fresh letters, like COUNT after RAISE, rules out much more of the alphabet.

Read the colours carefully

• Gold letters stay put. Keep them in the same place in every guess.
• Red letters must move. They’re in the word but not there, so try them in another spot.
• Dark letters are out. The keyboard dims them so you don’t use them again.

Repeated letters

The answer can have the same letter twice, like SPEED or LLAMA. If you guess a word with two Es and only one lights up, the word has just one E. If you’re stuck with few options left, consider a double letter.

Think about word shapes

Many five-letter words end in -ER, -LY, -CH, -SH or -ED, or start with blends like ST, CR, BR or SH. When three letters are fixed, run through these patterns before guessing at random.