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Love Wordle? Try These 23 Other Games
Similar free puzzles focus on language, geography and math — there’s even one for foodies!
7-minute read
Sarah Rogers
If you start your day by plugging five-letter words into a grid and waiting for green, gray and yellow boxes to pop up, you’re not alone. Wordle, the free viral word game, has hooked millions of users, each trying to guess the daily word and then often sharing their results on social media.
“Puzzles feel like productive play,” says Kelli Dunlap, a clinical psychologist and professor with the American University Game Lab. She isn’t surprised that Wordle became a global phenomenon, noting that the game’s digital format allows you to play anywhere.
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Plus, posting results on social media creates a feeling of connectedness, and some studies have found that word games can help with your overall well-being. Not surprisingly, Wordle’s popularity has spawned a number of similar games designed to test your knowledge of words and more, such as geography, numbers and history.
Consider adding some of these 23 free web-based games to your daily routine.
1. Absurdle: Unlike Wordle, which has one correct answer (and all players are trying to guess the same word each day), Absurdle is designed to make it almost impossible to solve the puzzle. How? The algorithm chooses words that are as dissimilar from the user’s first guess as possible, and the correct answer changes with each subsequent guess until there is only one possible word left.
2. Artle: From the National Gallery of Art, this game gives players four tries to identify a mystery artist by looking at pictures of four different works. The pieces shown come from the museum’s collection of paintings, sculptures, photos and more.
3. Crosswordle: Like Wordle, this game uses green, yellow and gray boxes to guide you toward the solution. But instead of a single word, Crosswordle serves up related words that cross over each other (similar to a crossword puzzle).
4. Dordle: Think Wordle is too easy? Double your fun with Dordle. The game features two side-by-side word boards (using the same green/yellow/gray letter blocks to indicate when guesses are correct), and players have six chances to guess both words. There are two options: Daily Dordle, which offers one new game each day, and Free Dordle, which allows unlimited play.
5. Flagle: Guess national flags based on snippets of the graphic and geographic clues. With each guess, more information is revealed, including flag colors and the distance and direction of the correct nation from the current (incorrect) guess.
6. Hello Wordl: What sets Hello Wordl apart from the original game is that players can choose the length of the secret word. Use a slider to increase the number of letters — ranging from four to 11 — in your daily puzzle.
7. Hogwartle: Head over to MuggleNet to access a Harry Potter version of the game — wizarding Wordle, if you will. There’s a new puzzle every day, and each one features a five-letter Potter-related word like “squib,” “filch,” “cloak” or “broom.”
8. Nerdle: Numbers people, this one’s for you. Nerdle offers six chances to guess a math equation and solution, using colored boxes to provide feedback on your guesses. Green indicates the number or symbol is both in the puzzle and in the right place, purple means the number or symbol is in the puzzle but not in the right place, and black means your guess is all-around incorrect.
9. Octordle: If Wordle wraps up too quickly for you, perhaps it’s time to level up. Octordle gives you 13 chances to guess eight different five-letter words concurrently. Like Wordle, the puzzle uses yellow squares to indicate a letter is in the word and green squares when it’s in the right spot in the puzzle; the rest is, well, a puzzle.
10. Phoodle: It’s Wordle for foodies. Like the original, players enter letters and get five chances to solve the puzzle. Once you use the hints from the green and yellow squares to determine the food-related word of the day, the game offers up a “Phoodle fact” with some culinary insight related to the word.
11. Phrazle: This game builds on the Wordle concept, inviting players to guess a phrase made up of several words. You get six guesses to solve the puzzle, and color-coded boxes offer clues about the correct letters (and letter placement) within the puzzle. Need a hint? Just hit the “hint” key. There is a new puzzle daily.
12. Queerdle: Billing itself as a “yassification of Wordle,” Queerdle puzzles range from four to eight characters and may include two words or proper nouns. All are related to LGBTQ+ culture and community. A pop-up message on the website warns that some Queerdle words are NSFW (not suitable for work), so be warned before you start playing.
13. Quordle: Logophiles, unite! (That means “lovers of words,” if you didn’t already know.) Think of Quordle as extreme Wordle. Players enter letters in an attempt to guess five-letter words on four different boards at the same time. Each guess reveals the correct (and incorrect) letters on the boards, and players have nine tries to solve all four puzzles. New puzzles are released once a day.
14. Reversle: In a twist on Wordle, the game provides the solution word. The goal is to guess the previous four words based on feedback — the same green, yellow and gray boxes as the original Wordle. Warning: It can take a minute to get your brain working in reverse.
15. Root It Out: In this AARP game, you’re provided a variety of two-letter roots. The challenge: Repeatedly fill in the remaining two letters to create multiple common nouns. This puzzle is timed, which adds an extra challenge, though you can choose your difficulty level from easy (more time) to hard (less time).
16. Semantle: Try to identify a random word of the day with unlimited guesses. After each attempt, the game gives you information on how semantically similar your word is to the secret word. It’s not about the spelling, but rather the meaning of the word and how closely your guess relates to the secret word. Words can be any length or part of speech.
17. Sweardle: If you appreciate a specific type of four-letter word, this one’s for you. It’s the same concept as Wordle, but the answers consist of curse words and expletives. Colorful, to say the least, and definitely not suitable for playing at work, in public or around the grandkids!
18. Tradle: This one comes from the Observatory of Economic Complexity, which compiles international trade data. Guess a country based on what it exports — like gold, cloth or nuts. To start, the game provides a tree map featuring exports, represented by rectangles of different sizes to show the share of a given product proportional to the country’s exports. With each guess, the game tells you how close you are to the target country by kilometers and in what direction it’s located.
19. Waffle: All the letters to solve the puzzle are in the grid; your job is to unjumble them to guess the correct words. The letters in the green boxes are in the correct spot, and the letters in the yellow boxes are in the puzzle but not in the correct position. You can make 15 swaps to guess the six words on the board. Once you’ve mastered this basic version, solve the Deluxe Waffle puzzle, with 25 swaps to guess eight words.
20. Words With Friends: The original online word game has been a fan favorite since it was introduced in 2009. It’s essentially a two-player virtual game of Scrabble. Invite a friend or connect with another player on the platform, and use the letters provided to make words on the board. The player who racks up the most points wins. This game is also accessible by app.
21. Worldle: This puzzle tests your knowledge of world geography. Players are shown a shaded cutout of a map and asked to identify the country or territory. With each guess, players learn how far away (and in which direction) the correct country is located. You get six chances to correctly identify the country.
22. Writing in the Stars: In this AARP game, connect words correctly in overlapping patterns to create a star. Here’s the catch: Just six of the nine words provided are part of the solution. You can choose your difficulty level, which affects both time given and hints offered.
23. Yeardle: Calling all history buffs! Using three historical facts, guess in which year the events occurred. With each incorrect guess, the game offers hints about how close your guess is to the correct year. The aim is to solve the puzzle in eight tries, max.
Bonus: If you’re looking for more games that will keep your brain active, check out AARP’s full menu of online games, including Mahjongg, FreeCell, arcade games and more.
Contributing: Berit Thorkelson, AARP.
Editor’s note: This story was last published in July of 2025. It has been updated to include the latest available games.
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