What practice mode is for
Practice mode draws a random word from the same thousand-word answer list the daily puzzle uses, and you can play as many as you like. Nothing here touches the daily puzzle or your streak, which is the point: this is where you can afford to be wrong.
That matters more than it sounds. The daily puzzle gives you one attempt, so every habit you have is untested. You cannot tell whether your usual opener is genuinely good or whether you have had a lucky fortnight, because a sample of one proves nothing either way. Practice is the only place on the site where you can generate enough attempts to actually know.
The trade is that nothing here counts. No streak, no shared grid, no guess distribution. That is deliberate. A practice run you can repeat until it goes well is not worth recording, and pretending otherwise would make the daily number meaningless.
Practice against the daily
| Practice | Daily | |
|---|---|---|
| Puzzles per day | Unlimited | One |
| Word chosen | At random | Same for everyone |
| Counts to your streak | No | Yes |
| Result shareable | No | Yes, as a grid |
| Word length | Five letters | Four, five or six |
How to use it well
- Test one opener twenty times, not twenty openers once. The whole value of unlimited attempts is sample size. Playing the same first word across twenty puzzles tells you its real average; playing twenty different ones tells you nothing except which puzzles happened to be easy.
- Count guesses, not wins. Almost any reasonable opener wins eventually inside six tries. The number that separates a good opener from a mediocre one is the average guesses needed, and you can only see that over a run.
- Deliberately play a bad second guess. Practice is free, so use it to find out what happens when you spend guess two purely on new letters instead of trying to solve. Most people find it costs nothing and often saves a guess.
- Work on repeated letters specifically. Words with a doubled letter cause most failed dailies. Play until you recognise the shape of a position where four known letters will not fit, because that is usually a double.
- Stop before it becomes the main event. Practice sharpens the daily; it is not a replacement for it. If you are playing thirty practice rounds a day, the puzzle has stopped being a puzzle.
Frequently asked questions
Does practice mode affect my streak?
No. Only the daily puzzle counts toward your streak, at any word length. You can play practice as much as you like without risking it.
Does practice use the same words as the daily puzzle?
The same thousand-word answer list, drawn at random rather than by date. So the vocabulary is identical, but you will never be practising on the word that is live that day.
Why can I not share a practice result?
A result you can retry until it looks good is not worth posting, and mixing those in with daily grids would make the daily number meaningless. Only the daily produces a shareable grid.
How many practice rounds does it take to judge an opener?
Around twenty before the average settles enough to trust. Under ten and you are mostly measuring which puzzles came up.
Is practice available at four and six letters?
Practice runs at five letters. The four and six letter puzzles are daily only, so their answer lists stay unspoiled.