How to play Wordle

The Rules in Full

1. 1

   Any real word of the right length will do

   You are not guessing letters one at a time. Every guess is a whole word, and it has to be a word in the dictionary you have chosen. A guess that is not in the list is refused on the spot and does not cost you a turn — so trying something you are unsure of is free.

   C R A N E

2. 2

   Each tile answers one question about one letter

   Not about the word. Blue with a filled circle means this letter is here. Amber with a half circle means this letter is in the word but not here. Grey with an empty circle means this letter is not in the word at all. Read them one at a time and they never contradict each other.

   C ○ R ◐ A ○ N ○ E ●

3. 3

   A repeated letter is marked as many times as the answer holds it

   This is the rule that catches everyone. Guess SPEED against SPEND and the first E is marked but the second comes back grey — SPEND holds one E and it has already been accounted for. Grey does not mean "this letter is not in the word", it means "there are no more of this letter". Against a word that really does hold two, like ERASE, both of your Es show.

   S ● P ● E ● E ○ D ●

   S ◐ P ○ E ◐ E ◐ D ○

4. 4

   The keyboard remembers so you do not have to

   Every letter you have used takes the colour of the best result it has had. A letter that came back grey stays grey on the keyboard for the rest of the game, which is the fastest way to see what is still worth trying.

5. 5

   Hard mode makes the board hold you to what you know

   With hard mode on, any letter you have placed must stay in that position, and any letter shown to be in the word must appear somewhere in your next guess. It stops you spending a turn on pure information. It is a harder game and an entirely optional one.

6. 6

   Six guesses, then the word

   Miss on the last guess and the answer is shown immediately. There is no waiting until midnight to find out and no reason to go looking for it somewhere that will spoil tomorrow as well.

   C ○ R ○ A ○ N ● E ●

   S ● P ○ I ● K ○ E ●

   S ● H ● I ● N ● E ●

More free word games and tools

Wordle Unlimited Play wordle unlimited free, as many rounds as you like, at four to eleven letters. The practice mode the daily game never gave you, with no one-a-day limit and nothing to sign up to. Wordle Archive Every past wordle puzzle, still playable and still free. Catch up on the ones you missed, or play old wordle puzzles from the very beginning, with no account and no subscription. Mini Crossword A free online crossword in five by five, with real clues written from a dictionary rather than trivia. An easy crossword you can finish in a couple of minutes, new every day. Word Search Word search online at four difficulties, on a grid generated fresh every time so you never meet the same puzzle twice. There are printable word search sheets too if you would rather use a pen. Spelling Bee The spelling bee game with your spelling, not ours: seven letters, one in the middle, and every word you can build from them. A daily spelling bee puzzle plus every hive we have set before it. Boggle Play boggle free on a four by four tray: trace every word you can find through touching letters before the clock runs out. A word grid game that scores longer finds higher. Text Twist Text twist online and free: six letters, and every word they can make, against the clock. A word scramble game where finding the six-letter word opens the next round. Word Ladder A word ladder puzzle: change one letter at a time to get from the first word to the last, and every rung has to be a real word. Solve it in as few steps as you can. Cryptogram Cryptogram puzzles in a letter substitution cipher, in the cryptoquote style. Crack a single letter and it fills in everywhere at once, until the whole quote reads. Hangman The hangman game online, at three to eleven letters. Free hangman with a word list long enough that it will not repeat on you, and the one game everybody already knows how to play. Sight Word Games Sight word bingo on a four by four card: a word is called and your child finds it. Built on the Dolch sight words schools have set since 1936, for the words that cannot be sounded out. Phonics Games Phonics games for children learning to read: sound out CVC words one letter at a time, with the missing sound to find. Phonics practice for kids that speaks the word aloud. Wordle for Kids Wordle for kids, age-banded for five to thirteen at three to five letters. Word games for kids that stay inside vocabulary a child that age actually meets, with no ads during play. Wordle Solver A free wordle solver and wordle helper: enter the letters you have found and where they sit, and see every word still possible. No account, and it never shows you the answer unasked. Word Unscrambler Unscramble words instantly: type your letters and get every word they make, longest first. A letter unscrambler that works on anything from three letters to a full rack. Anagram Solver An anagram solver that uses every letter you give it, not just some of them. Rearrange a word or a name into the real words hiding inside it. Word Finder Find words with letters you already hold, and say where they sit. A word finder tool for a board you are part way through rather than a blank rack. Scrabble Word Finder Every playable word from your Scrabble rack, scored on official tile values and sorted highest first. A scrabble helper for the word you cannot quite see. Words With Friends Finder Your rack scored on Words With Friends tile values, which are not the Scrabble ones, against the dictionary that game actually accepts. A words with friends cheat that knows the difference. Crossword Solver A crossword clue solver for a half-filled grid: give it the letters you have and a question mark for the rest, and see every answer that fits.

Rules questions, answered