How to Play Daily Word

What it is

Daily Word is the word puzzle in the KaeIce Games Arcade. Each day there is one secret five-letter word, and everyone who plays gets the same one. You have six guesses to find it. A fresh puzzle appears each day, following the calendar date on your own device, so it’s a nice little habit to pair with your morning coffee.

How to play (rules)

Type a five-letter word and submit it. Each tile then changes color to give you a clue:

Green means the letter is in the word and in the right spot.
Yellow means the letter is in the word but in a different spot.
Gray means the letter isn’t in the word at all.

Your guess has to be a real word from the game’s list. If it isn’t, you’ll see “Not in word list”, and if you submit fewer than five letters you’ll see “Not enough letters”. Neither one uses up a guess. The on-screen keyboard also changes color as you play, so you can see at a glance which letters are still possible.

Solve the word within six guesses and you win. If you run out, the game shows you the answer. Your progress is saved, so if you come back later the same day you’ll see your board and an “Already played today” message.

Controls (desktop and mobile)

Desktop: type letters on your keyboard, press Enter to submit and Backspace to delete. Since letter keys are for typing, press Esc (or the pause button in the toolbar) to pause.
Mobile: tap the large on-screen keys, including ENTER and the ⌫ delete key.
Two toolbar buttons control sound and motion. Mute sound (Shift+M) turns the sound effects off, and its label changes to “Unmute sound (Shift+M)” so you can switch them back on. Because letter keys type in Daily Word, pressing M on its own types an M while you’re playing, so use Shift+M or the button. (Plain M still mutes on the start, pause and end screens.) Reduce motion stops the row from shaking when a guess isn’t accepted, shows each guess’s colors at once instead of flipping the tiles over one by one, skips the letter pop and the win sparkles, and shortens the pause before the end screen. It starts out matching your device’s reduce-motion setting. Each button has a short text label next to or under its icon. Your choices are remembered on your device and shared by every game in the Arcade.

Scoring and high scores

Instead of points, Daily Word tracks your streak: the number of days in a row you’ve solved the puzzle. Losing a day’s puzzle, or skipping a day, resets the streak. Your best streak is saved in your browser, and the end screen shows your current streak next to your best, with ”★ New best!” when you set a new record.

When you finish, you can press Share result to copy a spoiler-free grid of colored squares with the puzzle number, ready to paste anywhere.

Daily Word also has its own top-10 board for each day. It ranks players by the fewest guesses, and if two players tie, the earlier submission ranks higher. If your win makes the list, the end screen tells you where you’d rank today and lets you enter a name and press Submit. Only a puzzle you actually solved during that session can be submitted.

When Daily Word is the Arcade’s featured daily challenge, the goal is to solve the word in four guesses or fewer.

Tips to beat your best

Open with a word that uses five different, common letters to uncover as much as possible.
Use your second guess to test new letters rather than reusing grays.
Remember that letters can repeat. A single yellow doesn’t rule out a double.
When you’re down to a few options, pick a guess that splits them apart instead of guessing each one in turn.
Play every day to keep your streak going.