How we choose the daily word at Mooot

One of the questions we get most often through the in-game Feedback button is: how is the daily word chosen at Mooot? It's a fair question, especially on days when the answer turns out to be unexpectedly tough. In this article we explain the whole process, no fluff, so you can see exactly what happens between the moment a word enters the dictionary and the moment it shows up as the daily word in your browser.

1. Where the words come from

The base of the game is a master word list of 5-letter words drawn from standard English dictionaries (Collins English Dictionary, Oxford 3000+, and a frequency list derived from the BNC — British National Corpus). Working from multiple sources lets us include words that one dictionary alone might miss while still keeping coverage normative.

From this raw list, we run several successive filters:

1. Normative filter. We require that each word appear in at least two of our reference sources. This drops extreme archaisms or very rare regional variants. The aim is that the daily word should never be something nobody has ever heard of.
2. Type filter. We exclude proper nouns (place names, personal names), acronyms, abbreviations and symbols.
3. Lexical filter. We exclude words with offensive, derogatory or sensitive connotations. This filter is more subjective but necessary: Mooot is played by everyone from kids to grandparents.
4. Difficulty filter. We exclude words with three or more rare letters (Q, X, Z, J, K) as required daily words. They can still come up sometimes, but they don't appear as the answer often, so partidas don't become unwinnable.

2. British vs. American spellings

English has two big written standards. We've chosen to accept both spellings as valid guesses (so COLOR and COLOUR would both be accepted as a 5- or 6-letter guess where applicable), but for the daily answer we tend to favour the more widely recognised spelling — usually the one that matches both standards (e.g. PIZZA) or the British one (we are based in Europe, after all).

If a word's spelling differs only by a single letter and one variant fits five letters and the other doesn't, we'll use the version that does. We try not to make the game unfair to people on either side of the Atlantic.

3. The daily word queue

One thing that surprises people is that the daily word isn't picked on the day. When you open Mooot at 00:01, that day's word has been fixed for weeks — sometimes months.

Here's how it works:

1. Every time we start a new "season" (every 6-12 months, give or take), we select a subset of valid words from the master list. This selection balances difficulty: there are "popular" (high-frequency, easy), "intermediate", and "rare" (low-frequency, demanding) words.
2. This subset is ordered into a daily sequence: word 1, word 2, word 3... with a certain rhythm. For example, we don't put two very tough words back-to-back. We spread out words with rare letters, words with four vowels, and words with double letters across the season.
3. That sequence is locked in. Each day, the system pulls the word that matches the calendar.

The practical consequence: the daily word doesn't depend on who's playing or what time it is. No clever algorithm decides anything based on your behaviour. Every player in the world gets the same word on the same date.

4. Why the word sometimes seems "weird"

This is the most common feedback: "what a weird word today". Almost always, one of three things is happening:

• It's a word you know but don't use. A lot of words are part of our recognition vocabulary but not our active vocabulary. The brain finds them, but reluctantly, and that resistance feels like "weirdness".
• It's an inflected form. If the answer is DRIED (past tense of "dry"), it can feel less natural than DRYER would. We try to keep inflected forms in the rotation because excluding them would make the game too narrow.
• You found it late. If you reach the sixth attempt with barely any green letters, the word will feel "unfair". Often the issue is your opening word, not the answer.

Even so, we listen. If a particular word gets a lot of legitimate complaints (because it's ambiguous, very dialect-specific, or has multiple meanings that confuse), we mark it to be removed from future seasons. We keep an internal log of excluded words and review it every quarter.

5. Validating words you type (not just the answer)

There's a difference between the daily answer and the words you can type as a guess. The list of valid guesses is much larger: any word in our broader corpus. That way you don't get frustrated because the game won't accept a real word.

If you find a word that exists but isn't accepted, you can report it through the in-game Feedback button or by email. We integrate it into the list within a couple of days.

6. Mistakes we've made (and fixed)

Not everything has been perfect. In the early months of this project, we made some mistakes:

• Camouflaged proper noun. A daily word turned out to also be a small town's name that some dictionaries listed as a common noun. We retired it after getting a flurry of messages.
• Highly regional variant. A daily word was a regional usage uncommon outside one country. We kept it but added a note in the definition explaining the geography of use.
• Repeat. A scripting bug caused a September word to repeat in December. No real harm done, but exactly the kind of mistake we want to avoid.

7. Our promise

With all of that said, here are commitments we feel comfortable making:

• We will never use a proper noun, an acronym or an abbreviation as the daily word.
• Every answer is a word found in at least two recognised dictionaries.
• The daily word is the same for everyone — it doesn't change per user.
• If a word is problematic, we retire it.
• Player feedback is read in full. Most of our adjustments come from there.

Conclusion

Being transparent about how the daily word is chosen is part of our commitment to the quality of the game. There are no hidden algorithms, no A/B tests, no "Mooot gave you a hard word because you won twice in a row". Mooot is a simple game with simple rules, and the more clearly we explain them, the more you can trust them. If you have questions or find a bug, get in touch at gesteve.12@gmail.com or via Telegram at @mooot_en_bot.