How to Play Wordle Hint

The short version

You have six rows and five letters. Type a word, press Enter, read the colours, and open a wordle hint only when the board stops talking to you. Green is the right letter in the right place, amber is the right letter in the wrong place, grey is a letter that is not in the word.

Rules in order

1. Every guess must be exactly five letters.
2. Guesses must come from this board's word list. A word outside the list is rejected and does not cost a row.
3. Green tiles stay green. Amber tiles move you closer without naming the position.
4. You have six rows. The seventh row does not exist.
5. The board switches to a new word at local midnight.

The hint ladder explained

A wordle hint on this site is not the answer. It is a narrowing step, and the order is fixed so that no hint collapses the puzzle.

Step	What it reveals	What it leaves open
1	The opening letter	The other four letters entirely
2	How many vowels the word has	Which vowels they are
3	Whether any letter repeats	Which letter, and where
4	The middle and last letters	The second and fourth letters

After the fourth step the ladder closes. The board stays open until you solve it or use all six rows.

Input on desktop and mobile

On a physical keyboard, letters type directly, Enter submits, and Backspace deletes. On a phone the on-screen keyboard sits under the grid, with Enter and Delete as the two wide keys. The grid never scrolls sideways, so you can play with one hand.

Saving and streaks

The board saves your rows per visitor, so a refresh does not wipe a half-finished puzzle. Streaks count consecutive local days with a solve. A miss on one day resets the count, and so does skipping a day.

Common mistakes

The three that lose the most rows:

• Guessing a double letter the board already ruled out. If one copy of a letter comes back amber and the other grey, the word holds exactly one of that letter.
• Burning rows on rare letters. Letters like J, Q, X and Z appear in very few five-letter words. Test common letters first.
• Opening every hint immediately. A hint on row two tells you almost nothing you could not have learned from a second guess. Save the ladder for row four and later.

What this site is not

This is an independent board with its own word list. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to The New York Times Company or any of its games. If you are looking for the official daily puzzle, play it on the publisher's own site.