Repeated letters

When a letter appears more than once, colors follow a precise rule. Learn it once and a whole class of “impossible” clues becomes easy.

The rule

Think of the answer as holding a fixed number of copies of each letter. Coloring happens in two passes:

1. Greens first. Every letter of the clue that matches the answer in the same position turns green, and uses up one copy of that letter.
2. Then yellows, left to right. Each remaining letter turns yellow if the answer still has an unused copy of it, which uses that copy up. Otherwise it's gray.

So a gray tile means “no more of this letter”, not always “none at all”.

Example: how many Es?

The last E matches, so it's green and uses one E. THEME has a second E, so the first E in EERIE turns yellow and uses it. The second E finds no copies left, so it's gray, even though the answer does contain E.

Against CRANE, the green E uses the only copy, so both other Es are gray. Compare the two boards: one yellow E plus one green E means the answer has at least two Es. A green E with only gray Es beside it means exactly one.

Example: two Ls, both elsewhere

Both Ls are yellow, which tells you the answer contains at least two Ls, and that neither is in the first or second position. The As and M are gray.

Example: green and yellow of the same letter

The middle P is in the right place and turns green. The answer has a second P, so the other P in APPLE turns yellow. Together they say: at least two Ps, one in position 3, and the other not in position 2.

How to read repeats in a clue

• Count the colored copies. The number of green plus yellow copies of a letter is the minimum number in the answer.
• A gray copy caps the count. If any copy of that letter is gray, the answer has exactly as many copies as were colored, and no more.
• All copies gray means the letter isn't in the answer at all.