Word Duel: the five-letter word game for two

Guess the word, beat your friend

If you like daily word puzzles in the style of Wordle, Word Duel turns them into a head-to-head game. You and your friend get exactly the same secret word. Type a five-letter guess and every letter changes colour: green if it is in the right place, yellow if it is in the word but somewhere else, grey if it is not in the word at all. Six tries to find it.

On BeatMe you play it with a link. Solve your word, send the link, and your friend tries the same word, live or whenever they like. While you play you only see the colours of each other’s guesses, never the letters, and the word stays on our server until you are done. Fewer guesses wins, and a tie goes to the faster solver.

Tips for five-letter word games

• Start with common letters. A first guess with E, A, R, T, S, O or L tells you the most, whatever the word is.
• Use new letters on guess two. If the first guess was mostly grey, try five completely different letters before you aim for the answer.
• Remember double letters. Words like APPLE or GEESE have a letter twice. A green or yellow letter can still appear a second time.
• Move the yellows. A yellow letter is in the word, just not there. Try it in a new place on the next guess.
• Think of the endings. In English, many five-letter words end in E, Y, S, ER or ED. Fill the start once the end is clear.

Fair for both

The secret word is chosen on our server and sent to nobody until they have finished: not to the page, not to the other player, not to spectators. Each guess is checked and coloured there too, and the time is measured on the server from your first guess to the solving one.