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Letters

A handful of letters and four words: exactly one can be spelled from them. Spot it before the clock — the words grow longer.

  • Words
  • Timed
  • Endless levels

How it plays

Each wrong option needs exactly one letter that is not in the set, so a glance is not enough: check every letter.

Levels lengthen the words and add spare letters.

Keys

Space starts and skips ahead · 1–9 pick · Enter submits · Esc stops. On a phone, tap.

What it trains

This practises checking letters against a set quickly. It claims nothing about vocabulary or reading.

Learn

How to get better at letters: the method, the techniques, what each new level asks of you, and the traps the wrong answers are made of.

Your approach to each question

  1. Read the letter set once and note which letters are there, and which appear twice.
  2. Take the options one at a time. For each, look for a letter the set does not have — the rarest letters of the word first.
  3. Count repeats: a word that needs two E’s needs two E’s in the set.
  4. The option with every letter there is the answer. Every wrong one needs one letter that is missing.

Techniques and tricks

  • Hunt the missing letter

    Do not try to spell each option. Ask of each one: which of its letters is not in the set? Every wrong option has exactly one such letter.

    e.g. O E S N A L — angle needs G, once needs C, banana needs B. So ones.

  • J, Q, V, W, X, Y and Z are tells

    The spare letters are only ever A E I O U and B C D F G H K L M N P R S T. So if an option needs J, Q, V, W, X, Y or Z, it can be the answer only if that letter is in the set — and any such letter in the set came from the answer.

    e.g. F E D I E T — wife needs W, and there is no W. Out at once.

  • Check the doubles

    Count the repeated letters of the word against the set. The answer may use a letter twice if the set has it twice.

    e.g. helicopter needs two E’s; C M E A R L E P U H T E I O L O T H has three. lighthouse needs two H’s.

  • Cross off as you go

    Each letter of the set can be used once. As you check a word, take each letter you use out of the set in your head.

    e.g. edit from F E D I E T: E, D, I, T are crossed off; F and E are left over, which is fine.

As the levels climb

  • You start with four-letter words and two spare letters. The words then grow by a letter and the spares by one, in turn, up to ten-letter words among eight spare letters. That is where it stops growing.
  • More spare letters mean more wrong options look possible at a glance, so the missing-letter hunt matters more than ever.
  • The clock is eight seconds plus one for each letter of the word, and it never tightens: the longer words and fuller sets are the whole climb.

Traps to avoid

  • One letter short. Every wrong option needs just one missing letter, so the rest of it fits and a glance says yes. Check every letter.
  • The near twin. Options can share all but one letter with the answer — once beside ones, with C the difference. Find what separates them.
  • Rejecting the answer over a repeat. A word can use a letter twice when the set has it twice; count before you rule it out.

How to practise

  • Raise “Options shown” to 6 for more words to check; lower it to 2 while you build the habit of checking every letter.
  • Before you answer, name the missing letter of each wrong option; the working names them afterwards, so you can check yourself.
  • Read the set once and do not reread it except to confirm one letter; holding the set in mind is what speeds you up.

Levels

Each question has a clock that comes from the work it asks for. There is no last level: at least one dial turns without end. Your level is judged on your last ten answers, every ten: 90% moves you up, below 80% moves you down, which holds most people near four in five right.

All of it is in the settings beside Start — how many answers a judgement looks at and how often it recalibrates, the thresholds, the time, which questions, how many options, and whether you see each verdict at once or review them together at the judgement. You can also jump to any level.

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