Wordle spinoffs and other word games to try if you can’t get enough

Wordle has taken over social media. You can’t open Twitter or Facebook without seeing someone posting a set of gray, yellow and green blocks, a meme about the game or their thoughts on the best starter word (or its recent acquisition by The New York Times).

Wordle asks players to figure out a five-letter word in six or fewer guesses. After each guess the game shows gray blocks for wrong letters, yellow blocks for right letters in the wrong spot and green blocks for letters in the right space. It’s addictive, but after you solve the daily puzzle or use up all your guesses, you have to wait until the next day to play again.

Here are 12 word games to play while you wait for your next Wordle.

Word Master

This Wordle remake gives you six tries to guess a five-letter word but with a slight tweak. Word Master uses gray, yellow and green blocks in the same way as the original. How is it different from Wordle? Word Master offers unlimited games so you don’t have to wait 24 hours.

You can play Word Master on any web browser.

Hello Wordl

Hello Wordl — another Wordle remake — gives you six tries to guess a word and uses the same colored blocks to track your progress. In addition to unlimited games, Hello Wordl also lets you change the number of letters in the word you’re guessing. Guess a four-letter word or use the in-game slider to go all the way up to an 11-letter word. You still get six chances to guess no matter how long a word is, though.

You can play Hello Wordl on any web browser.

Lewdle

Before you play Lewdle, the game’s content advisory reads, “Lewdle is a game about rude words. If you’re likely to be offended by the use of profanity, vulgarity or obscenity, go play Wordle instead!” Translation: It’s Wordle, but with bad words. The words range from mild — like poopy — to words that would make a sailor blush. However, despite the numerous bad words the game pulls from, slurs are not included. Like Wordle, you get six tries to guess a five letter word, gray, yellow and green blocks are used in the same way and there’s only one puzzle per day. Go forth and let the bad words flow!

You can play Lewdle on any web browser.

Absurdle

Absurdle bills itself as the “adversarial version” of Wordle. While Wordle nudges you in the right direction with each guess, Absurdle “is actively trying to avoid giving you the answer,” according to the game’s website. Absurdle doesn’t pick a word at the beginning of the game for the player to guess. Instead it uses the player’s guesses to narrow its list of words down in an effort to make the game go as long as possible. The final word might not even include a yellow letter from one of your earlier guesses either. You can guess as many times as you want, which is helpful, and the best score you can get is four guesses. Have fun!

You can play Absurdle on any web browser.

Crosswordle

Sure, Wordle is fun, but what if there was a crossword element to it? Enter Crosswordle. In this Wordle-inspired game, you have to figure out two words of varying lengths that intersect with each other like a crossword puzzle. The gray, yellow and green color blocks are the same, and there’s one puzzle a day. However, it looks like you can guess as many times as you want until you either get the words or give up. Unlike other Wordle-based games, Crosswordle lets you create your own custom Crosswordle puzzle to share with your friends. Here’s one I made. If Crosswordle wasn’t hard enough, the Settings page shows the developers are working on a Hard Mode.

You can play Crosswordle on any web browser.

Lordle of the Rings

Lordle of the Rings is for the Tolkien fan who wants to get in on the Wordle fun. The gray, yellow and green blocks are here, and players have six tries to guess a five-letter word from the main Lord of the Rings text. Possible guesses include places like Rohan, well-known characters like Frodo and Smaug and lesser known characters like Turin, Hurin and Idril. There’s only one puzzle a day, but you can play that puzzle more than once in the same day if you want.

You can play Lordle of the Rings on any web browser.

Primel

If you are more of a numbers person, Primel is for you. In this game, you get six tries to guess a five-digit prime number. The gray, yellow and green color blocks are back, and you only get one puzzle a day. What makes this game even more frustrating though is the game only accepts prime numbers as guesses, so that alone is difficult. Throw in the Wordle aspect and you’re sure to be scratching your head.

You can play Primel on any web browser.

Words With Friends

What kind of list of word games would this be without this classic? Words With Friends plays like a virtual game of Scrabble and is still popular more than a decade after its original launch. You and your opponent, either another person or the computer, get letters and make words on the board for points and whoever has the most points at the end wins. 

You can download Words With Friends from the App Store, Play Store or play it in any web browser.

Word Forward

Word Forward is like Boggle but with power-ups and tools to help you. You play on a five-by-five board of letters and try to make words with those letters. When you make a word, the used letters vanish. You keep going until you clear the board. If you get stuck, you can use your power-ups and tools to eliminate some letters or jumble the board to replace the letters with new ones.

You can buy Word Forward in Apple’s App Store, the Google Play Store, the Nintendo Game Store for the Nintendo Switch or on Steam.

Wordscapes

Wordscapes is a mix between Boggle and a crossword puzzle. You are given a bank of letters at the bottom of your screen and there’s a crossword puzzle at the top. You make words with the letters in your bank and fill out the crossword with them. Once you complete the puzzle, you’re rewarded with a nice landscape picture.

You can download Wordscapes from the App Store or the Play Store.

Kitty Letter

Kitty Letter is a word game from the creators behind The Oatmeal and Exploding Kittens. In the game, you unscramble letters to make words which then turn into armies of cats. What do the cats do? They attack either the player or computer you are playing against, as well as defend your home. It’s an absurd tower defense game where your words create legions of cats willing to fight on your behalf.

You can download Kitty Letter from the App Store or the Play Store.

SpellTower

In SpellTower, letters rise from the bottom of the screen and you have to assemble words as quickly as possible. Each word you make eliminates the used letters, and if any letter reaches the top of your screen the game ends. It’s like Tetris in that regard. There are also 10 other game modes, including Search Mode, where you try to find the longest word using specific letters. 

You can download SpellTower from the App Store or the Play Store. You can also get it on Apple Arcade — there’s a subscription fee for the service, but you’ll get this and other games ad-free and with in-app purchases already unlocked.

For more word game fun, check out CNET’s Wordle tips, the best Wordle jokes and how to play past Wordle puzzles.