How to Play
The goal
Every day Lettra gives you one category — Breakfast Foods, say, or Things in a Toolbox — and a board of all 26 letters. Your job is to name a word that fits the category for as many of those letters as you can before your time runs out.
One puzzle a day, the same puzzle for everyone, and a result you can share as a grid of coloured squares without spoiling the answers.
Your word's first letter is the one you claim
You never pick a letter separately. Type tiger and you have answered T. Type cat, apple and tiger and you have claimed three letters — C, A and T.
Capitals and spaces are ignored.
What counts as a valid answer
A word is rejected unless all three of these are true:
- Its first letter is still open on the board.
- It is a real word.
- It is on the day’s answer list.
The clock is elastic
Lettra does not give you a fixed countdown. You start with a small buffer of time that drains continuously, and every accepted answer adds 3 seconds back. Keep answering and the round keeps going; stall and it ends.
Difficulty changes only how much time you start with: 60s on Relaxed, 45s on Standard, and 35s on Hard. The round ends when the buffer drains, or whenever you choose to press Finish.
Scoring
- 100 points for every letter you lock.
- +25 points for each rare letter you lock.
- +12 points per second still on the clock when you finish, so banking time is worth something.
Rare letters
Each day the 3 letters with the fewest possible answers are marked with a coloured dot from the very start of the round — you are told which ones are hard before you spend time on them. Locking one pays +25.
Struck-through letters
A letter shown struck through has no valid answer at all that day. It costs you nothing and it leaves your score’s denominator — if three letters are struck, the board is scored out of 23 rather than 26.
Why was my word rejected?
Every category has a long list of answers, and anything on it locks in instantly. Plurals count too (cherries works as well as cherry), and capitals, accents, hyphens and spaces don’t matter.
If your word isn’t on the list, Lettra checks whether it fits the category before deciding. You’ll see “Checking…” for a moment; keep playing, and the letter locks if it’s a fit. Everyone gets the same answer for the same word that day. (Offline, only the list is used.)
A word is turned down when it doesn’t belong in the category (tiger on a Breakfast Foods day), when it isn’t a word (usually a typo), or when its letter is already locked or struck through. Numbers need spelling out: seven up, not 7 up.
We review turned-down words to keep the lists fair, so good answers keep being added over time.
Do replays count?
You can replay a puzzle as often as you like, but the first attempt is the one that feeds your streak and your stats. Replays are kept as your best-ever score, so practising never costs you anything.
Still stuck?
If something is not working, or a word you are sure about keeps being turned down, email support@lettra.app and tell us the date and the word. Answer lists are hand-built, so genuine misses do get added.