How to play
Star Words is a free, account-free daily word game. Everyone gets the same puzzle each day: a nine-by-nine grid, 22 letter tiles, three stars, and a stopwatch that records your solving time.
Build your grid
- Choose Play daily to start your puzzle, or Practice to learn on a different puzzle. A skippable six-step walkthrough plays a complete example on the real nine-by-nine grid, using all 22 demo tiles and exactly seven unique letters before the stopwatch begins.
- Select a square and choose an across or down direction, then use the on-screen letter keys or a physical keyboard. The highlighted lane shows where typing will go; tap the selected square again to turn it. Each available letter tile can be used only once.
- Typing skips over letters already on the grid so intersections stay intact. Select an occupied square directly when you want to replace its letter.
- Your first word must pass through the center START square. You can begin elsewhere and build toward it, but the grid is not valid until it reaches START.
- Blocked squares cannot be used and separate words, just like black squares in a crossword.
Make valid words
Every complete across or down run must contain at least two letters, be an accepted word, and be used only once in the grid. Each tile must belong to at least one valid word. Crossing words share the letter where they meet. Two-letter runs use the 107 words in the North American Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary.
You can erase, replace, or clear letters while the stopwatch is running. Reorder changes the order of the seven keyboard keys without changing the grid. If a covered star is uncovered, it no longer counts until a valid grid reaches it again.
Reach the stars
A star counts when it is covered by a valid connected word grid. Reaching all three does not stop the stopwatch or end the round; the stars are progress checkpoints on the way to solving the puzzle.
After reaching all three stars, keep playing and use every remaining letter tile in a valid connected grid to Solve the puzzle. Every published puzzle has a verified answer that uses all 22 tiles, with at least three independently replayable ways to build it.
There is no time limit. The round ends when you solve the puzzle or choose End Game. This works the same way in daily and practice rounds.
Review or keep exploring
Daily and practice rounds each keep their own score. When either round ends, its score and submitted grid are locked. Keep building opens Yours, an editable, unscored copy of your grid, without revealing the answer. You can keep building without changing the completed round’s score, and those exploration edits remain available when you switch views during the session.
View a Solution shows one verified grid that uses all 22 tiles, and Result returns to the locked round score. Other valid solutions can exist.
Share your result
After a daily round, choose Share Score to open your device’s sharing options, or use the adjacent copy control. The spoiler-free result shows the date, stars reached, and either the solving time or the time at which you ended the round. The share never includes the day’s letters, words, or played grid.
A new puzzle every day
Star Words uses the date in America/New_York so every player receives the same standardized daily puzzle. Each daily puzzle can be played once. Every practice round randomly selects a past daily puzzle, keeps its own round score without affecting today’s result, and can be replayed as many times as you like.