How the Daily Word Challenge Works

1. Look at today's scrambled letters, the category and letter count shown above them, and the hint text beneath them.
2. The 90-second clock starts as soon as the challenge opens. It keeps running if you refresh the page or close and reopen your browser, as long as your browser allows this site to store data.
3. Type your answer into the box and submit it, or press Enter. You can submit as many guesses as you like while time remains; a wrong guess does not end the challenge.
4. Clear Answer only empties the box and the feedback message. It does not restart the timer, forget your earlier guesses or unlock a finished challenge.
5. A correct answer ends the challenge straight away and shows your score and the time you took.
6. If the timer runs out before you solve it, the challenge ends for the day with no score.
7. Once finished - solved or not - come back after midnight (Europe/London time, the same moment for everyone) for a brand new puzzle. If this page is still open when the new day starts, refresh it to load the new puzzle.

What Makes It Different

Unlike Word Scrambler, where you can play round after round, the Daily Word Challenge gives everyone the exact same single puzzle for the day. There's no difficulty to choose, but every puzzle shows its category and letter count as a clue. The word is picked from our word bank by calendar date, in a fixed order that visits every word once before any word comes round again (a cycle of 398 days), so there is nothing random about it and nothing to look up in advance. You get one timed challenge per day, with unlimited guesses while time remains. Once you've solved it or run out of time, that's it until the next one appears.

Your progress and result are remembered in your own browser only (local storage). That keeps refreshes and reopened tabs honest on the same browser, but it is a convenience, not a security measure: it does not follow you to another device or browser, and clearing your site data or using private browsing resets it.

Scoring and Basic Strategy

A correct answer earns 100 base points. On top of that you get up to 50 time-bonus points: the full 50 if you solve it immediately, shrinking steadily to 0 as the clock runs down. If your very first submitted guess is right, you also earn a 25-point first-attempt bonus. The most you can score is 175 (100 + 50 + 25). A wrong guess costs you the first-attempt bonus, and the seconds it takes, but nothing more - extra wrong guesses do not reduce your score further. In practice it pays to read the hint carefully and think before typing: a confident first guess that turns out right is worth more than several fast but wrong ones.

Frequently Asked Questions