The two-pass rule
- Greens first. Every letter that matches the answer in the same position turns green, and that copy of the letter is used up.
- Then yellows, left to right. For each remaining letter, if the answer still has an unused copy, the tile turns yellow and that copy is used up.
- Everything else is gray.
The order explains every surprising case.
Worked examples
| Guess | Answer | Colours | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPEED | ABIDE | gray, gray, yellow, gray, yellow | ABIDE has one E. The first E (position 3) takes it, so the second E is gray. D is in the word but not 5th. |
| GEESE | THOSE | gray, gray, gray, green, green | The final E is green and uses the only E, so the Es in positions 2 and 3 are gray even though they come first. |
| EERIE | BREED | yellow, yellow, yellow, gray, gray | BREED has two Es; the first two Es of EERIE take them. R is yellow. The third E finds no copy left. |
| EERIE | BERET | yellow, green, green, gray, gray | E in position 2 is green, the first E takes BERET’s other E (yellow), the last E is gray: exactly two Es. |
What to conclude
- Any gray copy of a letter → the answer has exactly as many copies as that letter’s green and yellow tiles together. EERIE against BERET gives yellow, green, green, gray, gray: one green E + one yellow E = exactly two Es.
- Where they are: a green copy is fixed in its position; the letter is not in any of its yellow or gray positions.
- Two yellows (or green + yellow) and no gray → at least that many copies, possibly more.
The 5-letter word solver applies these rules for you: it keeps only words that would produce exactly your colours, and its summary shows conclusions like “exactly 1× E”. These cases are part of its automated tests.