Word games for kids
Guess Word for kids: the word-guessing game, age-banded and ad-light
Free word games for kids, age-banded from 5 to 13 with three, four and five-letter words — Wordle unlimited for kids, as many rounds as they like. No account, no sign-up, and nothing to buy.
Playing with a Younger Child
-
Choose the Age Band First
Five to seven, eight to ten, or eleven to thirteen. The band sets which words can come up — not how hard the board is — so a younger child gets words they have actually met before.
C A TThree letters for the youngest band. -
Then Choose How Many Letters
Three, four or five. Three-letter words suit a child who is still sounding words out; five is the standard game and works well once reading is comfortable.
-
Read the Colours Together
Every tile carries a symbol as well as a colour, so a child who cannot yet tell two colours apart is not stuck. A filled circle means the letter is in the right place, a half circle means it is in the word somewhere else, and an empty circle means it is not in the word.
C A TC O TC is right, A is not in it, T is in the word. -
Talk about the word at the end
The best part is after the last guess. Ask what the word means, whether they can use it in a sentence, and what else rhymes with it. That is where the reading practice actually happens.
More word games for kids
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.
Questions from Parents and Teachers
What age is this suitable for?
Five to thirteen, split into three bands. The bands change which words appear rather than making the puzzle easier or harder, so an older child is not given a babyish game and a younger one is not given a word they have never seen.
How are the words chosen for each age?
From a graded vocabulary list, checked against how common each word actually is in ordinary writing. Words draw only from the chosen band — a thin band is never topped up from the adult pool, because that is exactly how a seven-year-old ends up with a word meant for an adult.
Are the words safe for children?
Yes. Every word in the pool is checked before it can appear, and proper nouns, slang, archaic words and anything crude are removed. The word list a child sees is not the same list the adult game accepts guesses from.
Does my child need an account?
No, and we would rather they did not have one. Nothing on this page asks a child to sign in or to give an email address.
Can we play it on a tablet or a phone?
Yes. The board resizes to the screen and has its own on-screen keyboard, so it works the same on a tablet in a classroom as it does on a laptop.
Can I use this in a classroom?
Yes. There is nothing to install, nothing to sign up for and no limit on how many puzzles a class can play. Pick the band that matches the year group and the words follow.