How to play Word Mastermind

Word Mastermind is a free word game for one or two players. Each player picks a secret 5-letter word, and you take turns guessing each other's. After each guess you're told how many different letters your guess shares with the secret word, but not which ones, and not where they are. The first to find the other's word wins. Play it now, in your browser, on any phone or computer.

The secret word

Your secret word must be:

• a single English word of exactly 5 letters, A to Z only;
• not a name or a place (no proper nouns);
• made of 5 different letters: no letter twice, so beach is fine but bunny isn't.

It never changes during the game.

Guessing

Players take turns, one guess each. A guess is also a 5-letter English word, but it may repeat letters: bunny is a fine guess. It can never be the answer, but it can still tell you a lot. Capitals don't matter, and a word you've already guessed isn't taken again.

The score

If your guess is the secret word, you win. Otherwise the game counts the letters that are in both words, counting each letter once, and tells you only that number, from 0 to 5. Where the letters sit doesn't matter.

beach vs. bunny – 1 (they share only the B)

A score of 5 that isn't a win means your guess uses exactly the secret word's letters in another order (an anagram): only the exact word wins. A score of 0 rules out every letter in that guess.

Who goes first, and draws

A coin toss decides who goes first. If the first player finds the word, the other gets one final guess: finding theirs too makes it a draw. If the second player finds it first, they win at once, since both have had the same number of turns. There's no limit on guesses.

Keeping track

The game keeps every guess and its score for you. How much more it helps depends on the difficulty you choose:

• Easy: after each guess, the game marks the letters that must be in the word, or can't be, from the scores alone.
• Medium: you mark letters in (green) or out (grey) yourself, and a mark shows on that letter in every guess.
• Hard: just your guesses and their scores.
• Extreme: your past words are hidden; only their scores are shown, so you have to remember what you guessed.

For how to work out the letters from the scores, see Strategy.

Ways to play

• Single player: find the computer's secret word in as few guesses as you can.
• Two player against the computer: race it to each other's word, at one of four strengths from Casual to Mastermind.
• Two player against a friend: send an invite link, live on a chess clock of 15, 10 or 5 minutes each, or a guess a day.
• Solo Rush: find 4 secret words in a row against a stopwatch.
• Daily Rush: the same 4 themed words for everyone each day, with a leaderboard.
• Rush with Friends: up to 5 players race to the same 4 words on one clock.

New players start with single player and a short tutorial; the other modes open up as you win.