15 Wordle alternatives: puzzles, games and apps

It's almost three years since Wordle, the online word-guessing game, took the internet by storm, and it recently posted its 1,000th puzzle.

The word game was born out of the pandemic, when former Reddit software developer Josh Wardle designed the game for his partner Palak Shah, "who was absorbed by word games like the New York Times Spelling Bee and Crossword", said tech website The Street.

The five-letter puzzle, which appears simple but is often fiendishly difficult, grew from 90 players in November 2021 to more than two million.

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In January 2022, The New York Times bought Wordle for a “low-seven-figure” sum as part of its gaming division and the puzzle even helped rescue a pensioner held hostage in their basement.

But if you've tired of the original, here are some of the alternatives that have sprung up, including the new word-search-based option from the New York Times, home of Wordle. And should you get bored of any of these, try The Week's very own Quiz of The Week, crossword, codeword and sudoku.

Strands

The latest New York Times game, Strands, was released in beta form in March 2024. It's "a well-designed and unique puzzle that takes the familiarity of a word search and adds a thematic layer", said The Gamer. Words are hidden in a six-by-eight grid, but unlike a typical word search, they're not vertical, horizontal or diagonal. Instead, they're "in twisty-turny sequences that snake around and double back on themselves". This makes finding the words harder, so each puzzle has a theme, a "clue that connects all of the hidden words", and a "spangram", a word that spans across the entire puzzle from left to right or top to bottom that reveals what the entire puzzle is about".

Play Strands

Dordle

A "devious word game that doesn't let you off easy", Dordle challenges players to guess two five-letter words at once, "but you can only input one word guess at a time", said CNET. "Confused? Play it and you'll get it." And unlike Wordle, you can play new puzzles on the same day, so newbies can take multiple turns to get the hang of things. While Wordle is more of "a calm, breezy experience", the reviews site continued, Dordle "should give you some exciting moments. Or anxious moments. Or both." It's a "different beast", with "a bit of an attitude". But "that's what makes it fun and challenging".

Play Dordle

Quordle

Want even more of a challenge? Quordle presents players with four Wordle-style puzzles to solve. So while the principle is "the same", you have to guess "four five-letter words at the same time", said The Independent. You get nine attempts, "with each guess appearing in all four fields", and you can take a practice turn too. According to Quordle creator Freddie Meyer, his game has attracted more than 500,000 players daily, but he has insisted that there are no plans to monetise the puzzle.

Play Quordle

Octordle and Sedecordle

Each of these word games "requires you to simultaneously solve a different number of words at once", said CNET. Octordle is eight at once, and Sedecordle a "whopping" 16.

Play Octordle 

Play Sedecordle

Byrdle

While Heardle is perfect for pop lovers, Byrdle is designed for the classical crowd. Named from Renaissance composer William Byrd, the game follows the same principle and allows the same number of goes as Wordle, but the words are related to choral music. According to the game site, Byrdle gained 50,000 players within three weeks of launching. "Much like a delightfully dissonant English cadence, we're lost for words," said Classic FM.

Play Byrdle

Hello Wordl

As with Wordle, you get six tries to guess a word, using the familiar coloured blocks to track your progress. You can "play as many games as you want", said CNET, and you can also "change the number of letters in the word you're guessing" to between four and 11. But "no matter how long the word is, you still only get six guesses".

Play Hello Wordl

Waffle

All the words are in the crossword-like grid; "your job is to unjumble them" by swapping letters, said AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons. to guess the correct words. Like Wordle, the puzzle uses green to denote a letter in the correct spot, and yellow for those that appear, but in the wrong place. You can make 15 swaps to "guess the six words on the board". 

Play Waffle

Crosswordle

You have to "guess two words, which cross each other, in as few tries as possible", said the Independent. There's one puzzle each day, but no limits on the number of guesses. And "can guess as many times as you want – until you either win or give up. You can also create your own Crosswordle puzzle to share with friends, which is "something none of the other Wordle alternatives offer", said Pocket-lint.

Play Crosswordle

Absurdle

Described by The Guardian as a "much more confrontational, brain-burning" version of Wordle, Absurdle also revolves around trying to guess a five-letter word but "sharpens the original premise into a horrific machiavellian scheme". The key difference is that "the target word changes as you play", said Tom’s Guide. "Essentially, you're competing against a malevolent AI which uses your guesses to narrow down the possible answers, discounting anything that contains a letter you've used." And "the more guesses you make, the smaller the answer list gets", The Guardian explained, until "there is only one word in the dictionary that fits the algorithm that you and the game have created". "Voila, you've beaten Absurdle at its own game" – but in how many goes?

Play Absurdle

Sweardle

Billed as "the sweary" guessing game, Sweardle was invented as a "joke parody of Wordle", swapping five-letter words for four-letter expletives, with approximately 50 swear words used in rotation. You get only four chances, so "don't f*** it up", warns the site. A message on the game site explains that its creator "wishes to remain anonymous because this really isn't the sort of thing you want to have come up in a future job background check".

Play Sweardle

Semantle

Unlike Wordle, the game isn't about spelling, but about the semantics, or the word's meaning. Semantle challenges players to guess the word or short phrase of the day by guessing words that get "closer and closer to the right word's meaning", said the London Evening Standard. 

Play Semantle

SpellTower

Like Boggle mixed up with Tetris: players make words out of adjacent letter tiles to clear the play space. It tests vocabulary as well as spatial planning skills, with words used as tactical objects. "If the idea of making words under pressure lights a fire in your soul," said The Escapist, "then you're in luck. Effectively a mixture between a word search puzzle and Tetris, SpellTower prompts players to make as many words as possible while a rising stack of letters continues to rise.

Play SpellTower

Lewdle

Are you a fan of Wordle and an aficionado of vulgar vocabulary? Then Lewdle is an appropriately inappropriate option for you. "It gets explicit, wild, suggestive, and torrid at every turn, making it a big No-No in family-friendly or professional settings," said Nerds Chalk, which describes the game as a "grossly inappropriate and oddly engrossing Wordle variant". As a bonus, you can even suggest words to the team behind the game.

Free on iOS and Android. Play Lewdle

Antiwordle

"While Wordle wants you to guess a word in as few tries as possible, Antiwordle wants you to avoid the word by guessing as many times as possible," said CNET. With each guess, letters turn grey, yellow or red. Grey means it isn't in the word and can't be used again, yellow means it is in the word and "must be included in each subsequent guess" and red means the letter is in the correct position and "locked in place". Use every letter on the keyboard without finding the correct word, and you win. And you might find this "much harder than the original". 

Play Antiwordle