How to play
- Type any three-letter word and press Enter.
- Read the tiles:
- Green: right letter, right spot.
- Yellow: the letter is in the word, in a different spot.
- Gray: the letter is not in the word.
- Find the word within six guesses.
Repeated letters follow one rule: each letter in the answer can only color one tile in your guess. If the answer has one G and you guess two, only one of them lights up.
Why three letters plays differently
Three letters is as short as this game gets, so the list of possible answers is small and a single guess can rule out a large share of it. That sounds easy, and often it is, but short words hide their own trap: a repeated letter, like the two Gs in EGG (an example only, never an answer here), is easy to miss when you only have three tiles to read.
The other change is pace. With so little to place, most three-letter puzzles are decided by your first two guesses, not your last two. There is less room to recover from a guess that teaches you nothing.
Tips for three-letter words
Open with a common, simple word. A word like CAT (an example only) covers three different letters without wasting a guess on anything unusual.
Check for a doubled letter right away. With only three tiles, a repeated letter shows up often enough that it is worth ruling in or out on your second guess, not your fifth.
Do not waste a guess on a long shot. In a longer game a scouting guess is cheap. Here it is not: with six tries and only three letters to place, every guess should still be a real candidate.
Keep the keyboard in view. Gray letters on the keyboard are your cheat sheet for what not to type, and at three letters, each one you rule out narrows things down fast.
Move fast on yellow. A yellow letter tells you where it is not. In a three-letter word there are only two other spots left to try it, so use that information on your very next guess.
Trust common patterns. Short English words lean on a handful of familiar shapes: consonant-vowel-consonant is the most common one. Start there before trying anything rarer.
A quick example
Say your first guess is CAT (an example only, never an answer here).
- C turns yellow: there is a C, but not in the first spot.
- A turns gray: there is no A in the word.
- T turns green: it belongs in the third spot.
Your next guess should keep T in spot three, place C somewhere other than spot one, and avoid A. One short guess has already ruled out a letter and placed another, which in a three-letter word is most of the puzzle.
Daily and unlimited
The Daily three-letter word is the same for everyone today and counts toward your streak. When you finish, you can share a grid of colors, with no letters in it.
Unlimited gives you a new three-letter word every time. It is the fastest round on the site, good for a quick break or for testing openers before the daily.
Try another length
- Five-letter daily for the classic length.
- 4 letters if three feels too tight.
- Kids if you are playing with a young reader: four letters, everyday words, no
timer.