Nine letters, one word, thirty seconds. Choose vowels and consonants one at a time, then race the clock to spell the longest word hidden in the letters you collected. A computer opponent plays the same letters, and after six rounds the higher total wins. There is a daily game with the same letters for everyone, and practice games whenever you like, in English or Turkish.
How to play
Collecting letters. In practice mode each round starts with nine empty slots. Press Vowel or Consonant nine times; a letter is drawn from the matching bag and placed in the next slot. Letters are weighted by how often they appear in real words, and a letter drawn once is less likely to come again. You must end up with at least three vowels and at least four consonants, so when only the minimum remains, the other button switches off.
Spelling a word. Once all nine letters are in place the timer starts. Tap tiles in order, or type on your keyboard, then press Enter. Every letter can be used at most as many times as it appears in your nine. The word has to be in the game’s list of common words. If it is rejected you can try another word while time remains, or press Pass.
Timer. The default is 30 seconds per word. The timer button switches to 60 seconds or off. When time runs out, a valid word on your line is submitted automatically; otherwise the round is passed.
Scoring. A word scores one point per letter: five letters, five points. A word that uses all nine letters scores 18. A pass scores nothing.
The computer. The opponent spells a word from the same nine letters. On Easy it aims for about 60% of the length of the best possible word, on Normal about 80% and on Hard about 90%, which usually means one letter short of the best word. To beat Hard you have to find the best word, or close to it, in most rounds. The level button changes the opponent for your next practice game.
Round results. After each round you see your word, the computer’s word and the best possible word with their points. Press Next round to continue. After six rounds the totals decide the winner; a tie is not a win.
Daily game. In daily mode the nine letters of every round are already drawn and are the same for everyone on the same UTC day, so scores are comparable. One of the six rounds always contains a nine-letter word. The level setting you had when you opened the day’s game applies to that game.
Hints. Twice per round you can watch a short rewarded ad for a clue: first the length of the best possible word, then its first letter. Hints do not cost points.
Giving up. Give up ends the game as a loss. In practice, starting a new game or changing the level also ends the current one.
Strategy
- Four vowels and five consonants is the balance that gives the most options; three vowels works when you already have an E and an A, five vowels rarely pays off.
- Think in endings. Common suffixes such as -ING, -ED, -ER, -EST and -TION (or Turkish -LER, -LIK, -MEK) turn a five-letter word into a seven- or eight-letter one.
- Set aside the awkward letters (Q, X, Z, J) and build the longest word from the rest; a six-letter word without the X beats a four-letter word that uses it.
- When the clock is low, enter any valid word rather than hunting for perfection: five points beat a pass, and you can still beat the computer on total.
- A word using all nine letters is rare. In measured random draws fewer than one set in a hundred allows one, and the average best word is six letters long. Celebrate when you see one; the daily game hides exactly one each day.
If you enjoy Nine Letters, try Word Grid or Word Ladder next.
