A short glossary for word-game players

Word-game vocabulary is small, and most of it describes three things: what a clue means, how you choose a guess, and how the game keeps score. This glossary defines the terms in plain words, using the names Puzzico shows on screen and noting the other names you will see in guides elsewhere. For a first walkthrough of the rules, start with how to play.

Reading the board

Tile, square, slot. Each guess has five positions. A “tile” is one lettered square, and “slot 3” means the third position, counted from the left.
Correct (✓). The letter is in the answer and in this exact slot. Puzzico shows it as a blue ✓; guides for other word games often call the same signal “green.”
Present (↔). The letter is in the answer, but in a different slot. Puzzico shows a copper ↔; elsewhere you will see “yellow.” Our guide to misplaced letters covers how to use it.
Absent (−). There is no remaining match for this letter. Puzzico shows a gray dash; elsewhere, “gray” or “grey.” It can mean the letter is not in the word, or that you used more copies of it than the answer holds.
Repeated letter. A letter that appears twice or more in a word, like the P’s in APPLE. Each ✓ or ↔ uses up one copy of that letter in the answer. Exact positions are matched first, then the remaining copies from left to right, which is why a second L in a guess can get a − when the answer has only one.
Clue, feedback. Everything a guess tells you: the three symbols across all five tiles, taken together.

Choosing guesses

Opener, starting word. Your first guess, chosen before you have any clues. A good one tests common letters; see the starting-word comparison.
Follow-up, second guess. The guess that uses what the opener revealed. It matters more than most players expect; see the second-guess guide.
Burner guess, probe. An informal term for a guess played mainly to test letters, even though it is unlikely to be the answer. It trades a chance of winning on this turn for information.
Elimination. Ruling letters, positions or whole words out because a clue says they cannot fit. Most progress in a game is elimination, not inspiration.
Hard mode. An optional rule in some games that forces every later guess to reuse the clues you have found. Puzzico does not enforce it, so every key stays available. The hard-mode guide explains how to play that way by choice.
Word shape, pattern. What your clues leave of the word, written with blanks, such as _ L A N _. Matching a shape against what you know is the core move of every guess.

Words and word lists

Answer pool. The list of words a game can pick as the answer. Puzzico draws its daily word from a curated list of 1,402 answers.
Accepted guesses. The larger list of words the game lets you type. Puzzico accepts 12,653 five-letter words, so most valid guesses will never be the answer.
“Not in our word list.” The message you see when a guess is not an accepted word. The word stays in the row and no guess is used.
Double-letter word. A word that repeats a letter in adjacent or separate slots. They are a common reason a board stalls; see five-letter words with double letters.
Rare letters. Letters such as J, Q, X and Z, which appear in far fewer words than common letters. See words with rare letters.
Word finder, solver. A tool that lists the words still consistent with your clues. Puzzico’s Word Solver does this from the clues you enter.

Modes and scores

Daily. One shared puzzle per day, the same for everyone, with its own streak and stats.
Unlimited. Practice rounds with a fresh word each time you finish one, scored separately from the Daily.
UTC reset. The Daily changes at 00:00 UTC, a fixed world time, so the moment it flips depends on your time zone. How daily word games work explains the details.
Streak, best streak. The number of Daily puzzles you have won in a row, and the longest run you have had. A loss or a missed day ends a streak, and today’s puzzle does not break it while it is still open.
Win rate, average, guess distribution. On the stats page, win rate is the share of finished games you won, average is your mean number of guesses across wins, and the distribution shows how many wins came on guess 1 through 6.
Sharing a result. A shareable summary of your score and clue counts that does not reveal the word, so friends can compare without spoilers.

Where to go next

If a term here still feels abstract, try it on a real board: play today’s Daily or a round of Unlimited, then open the result review to see what each row meant. If you get stuck, this guide to breaking a stuck board is the next stop, and the FAQ answers the most common rule questions.

Keep exploring

Play today’s Puzzico or browse all guides & strategy.