Yellow means the letter is in the answer but not in the position you guessed. Follow a complete board to see how that clue narrows the remaining options
Yellow means present, misplaced
In a five-letter word game, a yellow tile tells you that the letter is in the secret word, but not in the position you just tried. It rules out that one slot; it does not rule out the letter elsewhere. Keep it among your possible letters, move it to a different position, and use green clues to fix letters in place. Grey means the guess has no unused copy of that letter in the answer
Read the whole row
A yellow clue is most useful when you record its position as well as its letter. If A is yellow in slot one, A cannot go in slot one, but it may still fit in slots two through five. Then combine that restriction with every green and grey tile you already have. A guess is a set of clues, not just a near miss
Worked board: follow the yellow clues
| Guess | Clue to carry forward |
|---|---|
| light | All five letters are grey, so none has an unused copy in the answer |
| arose | A is yellow in slot one, while R is green in slot two |
| snake | N is yellow in slot two, A is green in slot three, and K is yellow in slot four |
| brand | R, A and N are green in slots two, three and four; B and D are grey |
| crane | C, R, A and N are green in the first four slots; E is grey |
How the yellow clues resolve
After arose, A must be somewhere other than slot one. The next useful clue comes from snake: N cannot be in slot two, and K cannot be in slot four. Those exclusions do not yet tell you exactly where N or K belong. They become powerful when brand confirms R, A and N in slots two, three and four. The yellow N is now accounted for in slot four, while the green A in slot three also satisfies its earlier yellow clue
Turn the clues into a next guess
Keep a position list
Write down each yellow letter and the slot it cannot occupy. For this board, A cannot be in slot one, N cannot be in slot two, and K cannot be in slot four
Lock in greens
Use green tiles to hold confirmed letters in place. The board fixes R, A and N in slots two through four, then confirms C in slot one
Test what remains
With C, R, A and N fixed, the final slot is the only open position. K is already known to be in the answer and cannot be in slot four, so it fits in slot five. The answer is crank
Notice what the yellow K did and did not tell you. On its own, it only said that K belonged somewhere other than slot four; it did not say that K belonged at the end. The later green clues left just one open slot, making that placement possible. Avoid turning a yellow clue into a guess about its destination before the other positions support it
In the guess snake, K is yellow in slot four. What does that tell you?
Reveal answer
The correct option is “K is in the answer, but not in slot four” because yellow confirms the letter is present while ruling out only the position where it was guessed