How to play WordDots
Guess a five-letter word in up to five rows by drawing one letter on each dotted card.
The board
- Five cards form a row and each row is one word attempt.
- Only the active row is playable.
- A row ends when all five cards are completed or locked.
- Correctly placed completed letters carry into the following row.
Drawing letters
- A tap selects one dot; a slide can visit several dots.
- Revisited dots count once within the same gesture.
- Blue is the live trace, green is accepted progress, orange is a tolerated mixed path, and red is a failed gesture.
- A fully recognized letter drawn in one gesture may be evaluated as that letter rather than only as progress on the card's current target.
Correct, near, and wrong
- A recognized letter in the correct word position is correct.
- A recognized letter that belongs elsewhere in the word can receive the near/yellow treatment.
- An unavailable letter or a failed card is wrong/red.
- Wrong, Near, and Correct totals are not points, accuracy percentages, or a ranking.
Difficulty
- A mixed path contains both correct and incorrect dots.
- Only distinct wrong dots count.
- Easy fails at 5; Medium at 3; Hard at 1.
- A wholly wrong tap or slide fails immediately at every level.
- A complete recognized letter below the selected wrong-dot limit may be accepted.
- The selected difficulty is locked for a game and a settings change applies to the next game.
Easy selected: a mixed path fails at five distinct wrong dots.
Mixed path with 5 wrong dots fails
Daily and Wordstream
- Daily is the shared worldwide puzzle and resets for everyone at 00:00 UTC.
- Wordstream starts additional puzzles; availability depends on the current plan.
When a game ends
- A win occurs when all five letters are correct in one row.
- The game ends after the fifth unsuccessful row.
- After a loss, the solution can be revealed. In Daily, Try Again is available only before revealing the solution.
- Completed Daily results can be opened as a share card, and that share card does not reveal the answer or solution.
Glyph cheatsheet
- The W control opens the letter shapes.
- Alphabet practice is also available from settings.