Games Like Wordle: Free Word Puzzles to Play Online
Updated
Games like Wordle give you a hidden word and a few tries, with a clue after every guess, or a short word puzzle you can finish in minutes. Wordle itself is a daily web game with a site of its own. The original word games below, made by independent studios, each share a part of its formula, from colored letter hints to word ladders and word groups.
How Wordle works
Every day Wordle picks one five-letter word, the same for every player, and you get six tries to find it. After each guess, the letters change color.
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green | Right letter, right spot |
| Yellow | The letter is in the word, but in another spot |
| Gray | The letter is not in the word |
A hard mode makes you reuse every green and yellow letter in later guesses. Wikipedia's Wordle article says the game was inspired by the board game Mastermind, and it plays much like Jotto, a pen-and-paper game from 1955.
So a game like Wordle can mean three things: guessing a hidden word from clues, sorting words into groups, or simply a short word puzzle. The sections below follow that order.
Closest to Wordle: guess the hidden word
- Guess Word Game is the nearest match. You get six chances to guess a word, and the letters you guess change color to give you a hint. It has three modes and plays on a phone, a tablet or a computer.
- INCOWORD hides the word behind sound: you read a gibberish phrase out loud to work out the word, then type your guess. Flip the card for a hint, play solo through levels from 5 to 10 letters, or race friends in a multiplayer room.
- Hangman is the paper-and-pencil ancestor of the genre: guess letters one at a time before the stick figure is complete.
- Cat-A-Gory is a hangman-style puzzle with eight cats instead of a stick figure. Each wrong letter costs a cat, and each solved puzzle wins two back.
The letter strategy behind all four is in how to play hangman.
If you also like Connections: group the words
Connections, another daily word puzzle, asks you to split sixteen words into four groups of four. Two original games in the catalog work on the same idea.
- Unite Words asks you to find groups of four related words and place each group in its own row, swapping words between rows. Some sets reveal new words once complete, the clock is running, and a hint highlights one group.
- Word Jam Association Puzzle has you sort a board of words into their categories with click and drag.
Change one letter at a time
- Word Ladder turns one word into another by changing a single letter per step, and every step must be a valid word. Plan the path, because some routes end in a dead end.
- Word Slide Game gives you columns of letters to rearrange until they form real words, and every letter tile has to be used. Each of its six languages has 50 challenges, with a hint and a skip when you are stuck.
Make words from a handful of letters
These games give you a fixed set of letters and ask for the words hidden in them.
- SlovoLom shows one long word, and you make new words using only its letters. There is no timer.
- Hidden Words Challenge and Word Connect Train Brain ask you to connect letters to form hidden words.
- Word Up Challenge has you swipe letters to form hidden words on travel-themed backgrounds, starting with easy levels.
- Word Mosaic has you drag word fragments into a crossword-style board to complete hidden words.
More are in the word games collection.
If the daily habit is what you like
None of the games above describes a one-puzzle-a-day limit: they play in levels or rounds, so you can keep going after the first puzzle. If you miss the one-a-day rhythm, the site has its own: every day there is one game of the day for everyone, with a countdown to the next one, and playing any game once counts the day towards your streak. Daily game and streak explains how both work.
Card players get the same idea in Solitaire 8 Collection: a new daily challenge every day, the same deal for every player, with a streak to keep alive.
Wordle habits that carry over
- Open with common letters. Counted across English dictionary words, E, A, R, I, O, T, N and S are the most frequent.
- Test vowels early. Almost every English word has at least one, so finding them narrows the field fast.
- Never reuse a letter the game has ruled out. Each guess should test something new.
- Use the pattern, not just the letters. Pairs such as TH, HE, ER and IN, and doubles such as LL, EE, SS and OO, are among the most common in English.
- When two or three words still fit, a guess that tells them apart can be worth more than a lucky shot at one of them.
Games like Wordle FAQ
Can I play Wordle on Jumpcade?
No. Wordle has a site of its own and is not in the catalog. The catalog has original word games by independent studios, and the closest in feel is Guess Word Game.
Are there games like Wordle without a daily limit?
Yes. None of the games on this page describes a daily limit, so you can play as many puzzles as you like in one sitting.
What are some word games like Wordle and Connections?
For hidden words with letter hints, try Guess Word Game, INCOWORD or Hangman. For sorting words into groups, try Unite Words or Word Jam Association Puzzle.
Can I play these on my phone?
The site works in the browser of a phone, a tablet and a computer. Guess Word Game says it plays on all three, and INCOWORD has an on-screen keyboard for mobile.
Pick the part of Wordle you enjoy most, the guessing, the grouping or the quick daily puzzle, and start with the matching section above.
