Wordle is a free daily game that challenges users to guess the hidden phrase from a grid of letters. If you’re looking for more games like Wordle to play, I’ve got plenty of recommendations below.
The daily puzzle game has gone from unknown to one of the most popular free games on the web in just a few months. But it still only allows you to play once a day and gives you just four hours to solve each puzzle before your score resets.
While playing Wordle once a day is a plenty for some people, it’s not enough for others. Fortunately, dozens of other games follow the same basic formula: drop letters into a grid and try to guess the hidden word or phrase.
I’ve assembled this list of Wordle-like games so you can keep playing long after your time runs out on the official game.
Nerdle
Nerdle is an addictive little puzzle that doesn’t require any reading, just math. It’s the latest from the makers of Wordle, and it’s just as smartly designed.
Nerdle is an addictive little puzzle that doesn’t require any reading, just math. It’s the latest from the makers of Wordle, and it’s just as smartly designed.
How does Nerdle work? It’s simple. Each day the game will present a new calculation that it wants you to solve using just numbers, symbols, and operations (plus, minus, multiply, divide). You have to put each character in the correct order to solve the puzzle in as few moves as possible. Just like Wordle, it’s not always just about doing the math; you have to read clues and work out what they mean first.
For instance, if an equals sign appears in a particular slot, that means the answer is only one digit long. If a pair of parentheses appear in slot two, then you know one of your numbers has to be squared or cubed or something; you have to figure out which one.
Nerdle is as fun as Wordle but with fewer words and more numbers. So what’s not to like?
Quordle
If you’re already addicted to playing Wordle, you’ll love playing 3rd games like Wordle quordle. The game is simple: You are given six tries to guess a single word, with each guess revealing a few more letters of that word’s definition. It’s a daily dose of language trivia that I can’t get enough of.
Quordle is a new twist on the same gameplay, but with an added layer of difficulty. Instead of one word to guess, there are four. Furthermore, each guess you make appears in all four puzzles, so focusing on a single word means you’re still burning through your guesses in the other puzzles. It’s tricky, but it gives you a more significant and challenging dose of the same daily gameplay if you love Wordle.
Waffle
Waffle is a game that helps you improve your spelling, vocabulary, and general word knowledge. There are three levels of difficulty: easy, medium, and complex, so that Waffle can be a challenging exercise for wordsmiths of all ages.
Each Waffle has six words that you need to solve. You can either do the three horizontal words or the three vertical ones first. Most of the letters are already there, though they’re out of order. To solve the word, you swap letters with the letter bank at the bottom of the screen by dragging them up to the word. If a green letter is in place, it will turn yellow if you swap it with another letter (but not vice versa). Once all letters are in place, you’ll see a message that says “Way to go!” or “You got it!”
You have 15 swaps to use throughout the whole game, and each level has 30 Waffles for you to solve. So if, for some reason, you find yourself stuck on one level, don’t worry — you can continually advance to the next level without having solved all 30 Waffles in that level. [Those who want an extra challenge should try to solve each Waffle in no more than 10 swaps.]
Crosswordle
Crosswordle is a new web-based game that’s a cross between a crossword and a word search, with just a bit of Scrabble thrown in. It’s challenging, it’s fun, and it has an intelligent design that makes it easy to play even if you’re not familiar with the rules.
It starts with a completed puzzle (with the answers visible underneath) that you must fill in. The twist here is that the answers are all wrong, so you need to put the correct letters in the right places.
To play, drag a letter from the bottom row to any square above it. If there’s already a letter in that square, it will be bumped to the row below. If there’s no space, it’ll stay at the bottom.
You can also click any letter in the bottom row to remove all copies of it from your puzzle.
Squareword
Squareword is a word game that takes a little inspiration from crossword puzzles. Instead of solving for just one word, you get to solve for 10, which sounds like a lot, but the game does have a trick or two to make it somewhat manageable.
You see, Squareword has 15 guesses you can use. But the letters you guess don’t appear in just one word: they’re applied to all of them. So, for example, if your first guess is “H,” and none of the words start with an H, it’ll still place an H in any of the words where it belongs—even if none of those words starts with an H. That’s because Squareword runs both across and down, so if you’ve guessed K and L correctly, they’ll be placed in all words that contain them (and not just at the start).
Not only that, but each time you guess an incorrect letter, it will appear in the list on the right. You can use this to your advantage as a hint to narrow down your next guess or even skip a letter entirely if you know where it should go. This means that even without getting any letters correct, you can sometimes solve for a word by guessing all letters except for one.
Conclusion
It’s easy to get sucked into Wordle for hours as you try your hardest to beat each level. I recommend playing for about 20 minutes or less at a time, though, just because it can be frustrating if you start running out of moves and getting stuck on one level for too long (don’t worry – it happens!).
