What the 5-letter word finder does
Daily five-letter word puzzles give you three kinds of clue after each guess: letters that are in the right place, letters that are in the word but somewhere else, and letters that are not in the word at all. This finder takes those three kinds of clue and returns every five-letter word that satisfies all of them. Common words are listed first because the answer to a daily puzzle is almost always a common word, and a suggested next guess is offered when it would help you split the remaining candidates.
How to use it
- In the row of five boxes, type any letters you know are in the correct position. Leave the others empty.
- In the "in the word, but not here" box, add each letter you know is in the word but was in the wrong place, then press the position numbers you have already tried it in.
- In the "not in the word" box, type every letter your guesses have ruled out.
- The list updates as you type. Read the common words at the top; the count tells you how many candidates remain.
- Press Reset to start a new puzzle. Your clues are also stored in the address bar, so you can share or bookmark the state.
Example
Suppose your first guess was CRANE and the puzzle showed E in the right place, A and R in the word but wrong, and C and N absent. Put E in the fifth box, add A with position 3 marked and R with position 2 marked, and exclude CN. The finder returns the words that fit, such as GRAPE and BRAVE and TRADE, with the common ones first. The suggested next guess is the candidate that tests the most still-unknown letters.
Tips
- Mark every position you have tried for a misplaced letter. Each extra position removes candidates.
- A letter can appear twice in the answer. If a guess showed one copy as correct and another as absent, exclude nothing for that letter; the finder handles the correct-position clue on its own.
- When many candidates remain, guess a common word that uses new letters rather than one that could be the answer; the suggestion line does that calculation for you.
- Browse the five-letter word lists for position and letter-pair pages if you prefer to scan a full list.
Questions
Which puzzles does this work for?
Any five-letter word puzzle with correct, misplaced and excluded letter clues. The finder is generic and is not affiliated with any particular game.
Why is the answer not in the list?
Either a clue was entered incorrectly, which is the usual cause, or the puzzle uses a word outside the ENABLE dictionary. Check the positions you marked for misplaced letters first.
What does the suggested guess mean?
It is the common candidate that contains the most letters you have not yet tested, weighted by how often those letters appear across the remaining candidates. It is a heuristic, not a guarantee, but it usually shortens the puzzle by a guess.