How to play · Rules

How to play Five Letters

A complete guide: the goal, the colour clues, how to narrow it down, keyboard controls on muta.pro and tactics to guess the word in fewer tries.

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In brief

Goal
Guess a 5-letter word
Players
1
Game
3–10 min
Difficulty
Medium
Genre
Words

Goal of the game

«Five Letters» is a word puzzle of deduction. The computer picks a Russian word of exactly five letters, and your task is to uncover it in six tries. After each guess the cells take on a clue colour, and from those colours you work out which letters are in the word and exactly where they stand. The sooner you guess the word, the better the result; if you run out of tries, the word is revealed and the game is lost.

Setup

Before you is a board of six rows of five cells — that is six tries. Below is an on-screen Russian keyboard, and on the right is the game state: the attempt counter, your statistics and a colour reminder. The word is chosen at random from the built-in dictionary when the game starts; no setup is needed — just start typing letters.

How the game goes

Enter a word

Type any meaningful five-letter Russian word in the top empty row. The letters appear in the cells from left to right.

Check your guess

When all five cells are filled, press «Check» (Enter). The row must be complete — otherwise it just shakes and the guess does not count.

Read the colours

The cells flip and change colour: green — the letter is in the right place, yellow — the letter is in the word but in a different spot, grey — the word has no such letter.

Narrow it down

Combine the clues and build your next word so that green letters stay in place, yellow ones move, and grey ones are no longer used. The letter highlighting on the keyboard helps you remember what you have already tried.

Repeat until solved

You have only six rows. Each guess must be a complete five-letter word — spend them wisely and try to squeeze the most information out of each one.

How it looks: reading the guesses

The hidden word is КНИГА (Russian for "book"). Watch how the cell colours narrow it down step by step: green — the letter is in place, yellow — it is in the word, but not here, grey — the letter is not in the word.

В
Н
У
К
И
Read the hint. In the guess «ВНУКИ»: «Н» and «К» are green — placed correctly; «И» is yellow — present but elsewhere; «В» and «У» are grey — not in the word.
К
Н
Р
Т
И
Move the yellow. We try «КНРТИ»: «К» and «Н» move to the front and turn green, while the yellow «И» shifts nearer the end — it is still not in place.
К
Н
И
Г
А
Victory. The whole row is green — the word «КНИГА» is uncovered. The fewer tries you used, the better the result.

Winning and scoring

The game is won as soon as a guess turns entirely green — that means you have uncovered the hidden word. The fewer tries it took, the better: the game remembers your best result (for example, «3/6»), the total number of games, wins and your current streak of wins in a row. If all six rows are used up and the word is not guessed, it is shown in the «Hidden word» block, the winning streak resets to zero, and you can start over with the «New word» button.

Controls on muta.pro

⌨️
Entering letters
Click the keys of the on-screen keyboard or type on a physical one — the letters fill the active row.
Check
The «Enter» key on the keyboard, the «Check» button on the right or the Enter key confirm the guess.
Delete
The «⌫» key on the on-screen keyboard or Backspace deletes the last entered letter.
🔄
New word
The «New word» button picks another word and clears the board for a fresh game.

Tips for beginners

Start with vowels

A first word with various common letters and a couple of vowels quickly reveals the «backbone» of the hidden word.

Do not repeat greys

A letter that has turned grey is not in the word — do not use it again so you do not waste tries.

Move the yellows

A yellow letter is definitely in the word but not in this spot — in the next guess place it in a different cell.

Watch the keyboard

The colours on the keys accumulate the result of all guesses — a handy cheat sheet of the letters already played.

First-move strategy

You enter the first word blind — it shouldn't try to "guess" the answer, its job is to gather as much information as possible about the letters. A good opener contains frequent letters and several different vowels, so a single move lights up the skeleton of the hidden word. A poor start with rare or repeated letters wastes the attempt almost entirely.

All different letters

Don't repeat letters in your first attempt: five distinct symbols test five hypotheses, whereas words like "MAMMA" or "EERIE" test only three or four.

Two or three vowels

The vowels A, E, O, I appear in almost every word. Pin down their positions early and you sharply narrow the field of consonants.

Frequent consonants

Play N, T, S, R, L, C — the most common consonants in English. Save rare ones like J, Q, X, Z for later.

S
T
A
R
E

The word "STARE" is a strong opener: three frequent consonants, the vowels A and E, and not a single repeated letter.

Reading the clues

After the first attempt the game stops being a guessing game and becomes a logic puzzle. Every colour is a fact, and good play squeezes those facts dry before making the next move.

Lock in the greens

A green letter is placed correctly — carry it into the same cell on every following attempt, don't waste a move re-checking it.

Shift the yellows

A yellow letter is in the word but not here. In your next word put it in a different position — often a single shift is enough.

Read the keyboard

The key highlighting accumulates the result of all attempts. Before entering a word, check it — make sure you haven't wandered back into greyed-out letters.

C
R
A
N
E

"R" is highlighted (yellow — present, but not in position 2) and "C" is also yellow: in the next word we shift both into new cells.

The "probe word" technique

Sometimes you already know almost everything, but several candidates remain for one cell — for example the frame "_IGHT" could be LIGHT, NIGHT, SIGHT or FIGHT. Burning attempts by trying options one at a time is risky. Instead, play a probe word that tests all the disputed letters at once.

Pack the candidates into one word

If L, N and S all fit the cell, find a valid word that contains two or three of them at once — a single move eliminates the extras.

Trade an attempt for information

When you have plenty of attempts left, a probe beats a blind guess: it will almost certainly reveal the needed letter on the next move.

Save the probe for a time crunch

If only the last row remains, it's too late to probe. Play the most likely option based on letter frequency.

L
I
G
H
T

Knowing the frame "_IGHT", we test the disputed letters with the word "LIGHT" — the colours will point to the right combination.

Common mistakes

Most lost games aren't down to a "hard word" but to wasted attempts. Cut three or four typical mistakes and your average result improves noticeably.

  1. Reusing a grey letter. A grey letter is absent from the word — putting it in again guarantees a lost cell. Check the keyboard.
  2. Ignoring yellows. A yellow letter must not be dropped from the word and must not be placed in the same position — otherwise the attempt yields almost no information.
  3. Guessing too early. While the facts are few, don't try to "strike lucky" with a rare word. First collect letters, leave the guessing for later.
  4. Forgetting unusual letters. The hidden word may contain letters you tend to overlook — keep them on your candidate list rather than discarding them out of habit.

Double letters

One green and one grey copy of the same letter in an attempt means it appears just once in the word — don't duplicate it.

Don't rush Enter

Before submitting, reread the row: does it fit all the greens and yellows? One extra look saves a whole attempt.

Frequently asked questions

How many tries do I have?
Six. Each row of the board is one attempt to enter a complete five-letter word.
What do the cell colours mean?
Green — the letter is in the right place, yellow — the letter is in the word but in a different position, grey — the hidden word has no such letter.
Ain placeBnot hereCnot in word
Can I enter any word?
The word must consist of exactly five Russian letters. The game will not accept an incomplete row — enter all five characters and confirm.
What happens if I do not guess it?
After the sixth failed attempt the game reveals the hidden word and the winning streak resets. Press «New word» to play again.
Which word is best to enter first?
Take a word of five different letters with two or three vowels and frequent consonants, such as "STARE" or "CRANE". Its aim is not to guess but to light up as many letters as possible in a single move.
What do I do if a yellow letter comes up yellow again?
It means you placed it in the wrong cell once more. Move it to a position you haven't tried yet, and remember that the two or three cells already tested are ruled out for it.
How can I tell whether the word has a double letter?
If the same letter in an attempt lights up both in colour (green or yellow) and in grey, it appears exactly once in the word. If both cells are coloured, there are at least two of them.
Can the hidden word contain an unusual letter?
Yes. Every letter of the dictionary is fair game, and less common ones do turn up. Don't strike them off your candidate list just because they feel "rare".
What is a probe word and when should I use it?
It's a move that tests several disputed letters in one word instead of trying options one by one. Use it when the frame of the word is known but a few candidates remain and you still have attempts in hand.
Should I keep green letters in place on every attempt?
Yes, almost always. A green letter is placed correctly, and keeping it there locks in part of the word for free, letting you spend the other cells testing the unknown.
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