Letter Trap

Letter Trap gives everyone the same puzzle each day: a 5x5 grid of letters, a one-line hint such as Winner's circle?, and a hidden five-letter target word. Rather than guessing the answer outright, you have to trap each of its letters on the board.

You do that by spelling words through adjacent letters so that the path closes around a letter of the target. Trapped letters turn green and fill the row of blanks under the hint. Three hearts mark your three chances at the day's puzzle, and a reuse area lets you drag a word back in. The puzzles are numbered from the game's start in August 2025, and the app tracks streaks, wins by attempt and scores.

The game is made by Matt Dominianni and launched on the App Store in August 2025. The website plays the same daily puzzle with no ads and no account needed; it can be installed to a phone's home screen as a web app, and on a computer it shows the game as a phone-width column with a QR code to move to a phone. New players are first offered a short tutorial, which can be skipped on a phone. The iPhone app is free, with ads and a $2.99 Premium Membership.

It suits people who like word searches and Boggle-style grids but want a puzzle where planning the shape of a word matters as much as finding it.