Guess the Word, the Wordle-Style Game – Play Online for Free

Guess the Word plays like Wordle®: you hunt for a five-letter word with six tries, and after each one colors tell you which letters are right. The puzzle was dreamed up by Josh Wardle, a software engineer from Wales, at first only for his partner Palak Shah, who picked the familiar words out of a long list of English ones. The name is a pun on his last name. Wardle put Wordle online for everyone in October 2021, and when he added a way to share your result as a grid of colored squares that December, the game went around the world. At the end of January 2022 The New York Times bought it for a low seven-figure sum, and the newspaper owns the trademark today.

The idea behind it was not brand new: on the TV game show Lingo, contestants were already guessing five-letter words in the late 1980s. Our Guess the Word stands on its own, with no ties to The New York Times. Anyone after a free Wordle-style game will find the same puzzle here with no sign-up and as many rounds as you like, and if you prefer shorter or longer words, you can switch to four, six or seven letters.

Green, Blue, Gray: How to Play Guess the Word

The hidden word is always a familiar English word in its base form, usually a singular noun, a verb or an adjective. It starts out at five letters, just like the classic, on a grid of six rows. You type a guess into the top empty row and confirm it with Enter. Then the tiles flip over one by one and show their colors:

• Green: this letter sits in exactly this spot in the answer.
• Blue: the letter is in the word, but in a different spot.
• Gray: the letter is not in the word, or it appears there fewer times than you typed it.
• Double letters: if you type a letter twice and the answer has it only once, only one of them lights up. A hit in the right spot takes priority, otherwise the one further left counts.
• Valid guesses: every guess has to be a real word, and plurals and verb forms like HOUSES or JUMPED count too. With too few letters or an unknown word the row shakes, a message appears, and the guess does not count.
• Keyboard: the keys under the grid take on the colors of your guesses, so you always see which letters are still in play. On a computer you can type on your own keyboard as well.
• Word length: the buttons next to "letters" switch between words of four, five, six and seven letters. Each length keeps its own round, so if you switch and come back later, your guesses are still there.
• New Word: once a round is over, Enter or the "New Word" button brings up the next word of that length, and a word only comes back after all the others of its length have had their turn. If you have already made a guess, the button asks once more, because giving up then counts as a lost round.
• Stats: above the grid you see your rounds played and won across all lengths, plus your current winning streak. Everything stays saved in your browser, unfinished rounds included.

With luck one guess is enough; with a little method you will usually get there before the sixth row:

• Open with common letters: in English, E, A, R, I, O, T, N and S turn up most often. A starting word like STARE or CRANE tests several of them at once.
• Try fresh letters second: instead of building around a blue tile right away, play a word made of new letters. With five letters you will have tested ten different ones after two rows.
• Blue rules out a spot: a blue letter does not belong where it just stood. Next time, put it somewhere else.
• Think about endings: many answers end in E, Y, ER or LE. If the last tiles stay gray, look at less common endings like CH, TH or ST.
• Break long words apart: with six or seven letters, familiar pieces often hide inside the word, such as RE or UN at the front and ER or ION at the back. Once a piece like that fits, only a few tiles are left to fill.
• Remember double letters: if you are stuck despite plenty of hits, a letter may appear twice, as in APPLE, SLEEP or BALLOON.

Keep Puzzling with Letters, Grids and Hits

If you like working your way from a few clues to the answer, your next challenge is right here:

• Hangman: another hidden word, but here you ask for single letters, and every miss adds a piece to the gallows. Against the computer a category points you in the right direction on the easier levels.
• Crossword: clues lead the way, and every word you fill in hands you letters for the ones that cross it. "Check" shows your mistakes, and "Hint" reveals a single square.
• Word Search: this time the words are given, tucked away in a field full of letters. Look closely and you spot one after another.
• Battleship: a duel of shots and feedback. Every hit and every miss narrows down where your opponent's fleet lies at anchor, much like the colors in Guess the Word.
• Minesweeper: the numbers on the board tell you how many mines lie around each square. Careful logic clears every safe square without stepping on a single mine.