Wordle, 1972 edition
Word Mastermind replaces coloured pegs with letters of the alphabet and reframes the puzzle as guessing a hidden 5-letter word. Feedback after each guess:
- A green letter is correct and in the right position.
- A yellow letter is in the word but in a different position.
- A grey letter is not in the word at all.
If this sounds like Wordle, that's because Wordle is Word Mastermind with a fixed word list and one-puzzle-per-day pacing. The deduction engine is identical.
Why play it as Mastermind
Wordle gives you exactly one puzzle per day. Word Mastermind — played as a real puzzle, not a daily ritual — lets you:
- Practise rapidly. Play 20 boards in a session; pattern recognition develops fast.
- Choose difficulty. Shorter words are easier; longer words with repeated letters are harder.
- Skip the social layer. No streaks, no sharing — just deduction.
For learners, Word Mastermind is the training-wheels version of Wordle: same skills, faster feedback, no pressure.
How to play
- The codemaker picks a hidden 5-letter English word.
- The codebreaker submits 5-letter word guesses (must themselves be valid words).
- After each guess, feedback per letter:
- Green: correct letter, correct position.
- Yellow: correct letter, wrong position.
- Grey: letter is not in the word.
- Crack the word in 6 guesses (standard) to win.
- Repeated letters are handled by frequency — if the word has two E's and your guess has one E, only one peg's worth of feedback applies.
Strategy tips
- Open with high-vowel, common-letter words like "AROSE" or "RAISE" to maximise information.
- Don't waste guesses on letters you've greyed out. Once a letter is grey, it's gone — drop it from your mental alphabet.
- Use letter-frequency tables. E, T, A, O, I, N, S, R, H, D dominate English; favour them early.
- For yellow letters, reposition, don't repeat. A yellow 'A' in slot 1 means 'A' exists but not in slot 1 — try slots 2–5.
- Watch out for repeated letters. Words like "LEVEL" or "BOOKS" can stump solvers who assume single occurrence.