Wordle needs no introduction to those who are logophiles and love such online games. The hit word puzzle is a phenomenon around the world. No wonder there is a plethora of online games like Wordle on the internet, and perhaps more iterations are still being created.

Wordle started as a simple game in October 2021, when it was launched by software engineer Josh Wardl on his website powerlanguage.co.uk. It took off almost instantly, with celebrities such as Jimmy Fallon and Jennifer Beals sharing their scores with fans on social media. The game can now be played here.

The phenomenal popularity of Wordle and its alternatives

One of the major reasons behind Wordle’s success is, perhaps, its successful marrying of design simplicity with gameplay difficulty. The game requires players to guess a five-letter word of the day in six attempts. Players can draw hints from colour codes each time they enter a word — the correct placement of a letter turns the box green, while a correct letter in the wrong place is indicated in yellow.

The game became such a rage by January 2022 that it attracted the attention of The New York Times (NYT), which acquired it from Wardl.

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In July 2022, NYT and toy maker Hasbro announced their collaboration on a board game version of Wordle. Titled Wordle: The Party Game, it is designed for more than one player and ages 14 and up.

But board game aside, Wordle has inspired several programmers to give their own twist to the guessing game. As such, there are myriad Wordle alternatives where players are tasked with guessing five-letter words in unlimited attempts to 16 words at the same time. There are also game variations where they are already given a solution and have to work backwards. Besides guessing the words, there are versions where players have to guess the name of an artist from an artwork or the film from a movie still.

While all games can be played on web browsers, a handful are available on Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store.

Here are some fun games like Wordle to try

Heardle

There is no guessing-the-word in Heardle. Rather, it is all about guessing the right song from the intro of a piece of music. Only one second of the song is played and players have to guess the track. Each wrong guess unlocks more of the song. There are six tries in total to guess the song before the game is over. Once all six guesses are exhausted or the right song is guessed, a timer lets players know when they can expect the next puzzle.

Heardle was acquired by Spotify in July 2022. Similar to many other games like Wordle, Heardle can be played only on web browsers. But the game is not available in some countries.

Play the game here.

BTS Heardle

BTS, the world-famous South Korean Korean pop band, has its own version of the Wordle game. As the name suggests, BTS Heardle is like Heardle but is about guessing the right BTS song.

Players get seven tries in all. For the first attempt, a line of the lyrics is displayed as a hint. Thereafter, snippets of the song are played over the next six guesses. Once all tries are exhausted or the right song is guessed, a brief snippet is automatically played.

Attempts can be skipped, but it costs a try. Game statistics are displayed on the browser. Stats can also be uploaded from the note app. The game was created by fans managing a fan account called @BTSChartData.

Play the game here.

Artle

Artle is a creation of the Washington, D.C.-based National Gallery of Art (NGA) and is one of the best puzzle games available online.

All that players have to do is to guess the artist of a randomly generated work from NGA’s collections. There are four tries, which means players need to have a really good knowledge of art history.

With each unsuccessful try or skip, a different artwork of the same artist is displayed. Players can check their stats from the top right-hand corner of the game screen on the browser. A new puzzle is displayed every day.

Play the game here.

Nerdle

One of the best Wordle alternatives for brain exercise, Nerdle is for mathematics nerds. There are six tries in all and players have to guess the correct equation.

There are eight blocks, and each can be filled with a number from 0 to 9, signs of +, -, *, / (plus, minus, multiplication and division, respectively), and the symbol of = (equal). No other mathematical symbol or letter is accepted. Players can, however, choose which box to fill first.

A number or symbol in the right box makes the tile turn green. The tile turns violet if the number or symbol entered is part of the equation but not in the correct box; it turns black if they are not part of the equation. These hints are enough for anyone who loves maths to guess the right equation quickly.

According to the rules of the game, there must be an = sign in all entries, and there cannot be a calculation after the = sign. The equation always follows the BODMAS (or PEDMAS) rule, which means that the order of solving a problem is division, followed by multiplication, addition and subtraction.

Players also have the option to make the game more difficult by turning off the “commutative answers” option from the settings screen. When turned on, Nerdle accepts answers that follow a commutative property, which means that it treats both 2+3=5 and 3+2=5 as the right answers, as both orders result in the correct result of 5.

There is another game, Numberle, similar to Nerdle. But it does not have the option of commutative property. So, players must solve the equation in a certain order.

Nerdle is also one of the few online games like Wordle present on the Play Store, with a rating of 3.9 stars, and on the App Store.

Play the game here.

Sweardle and Lewdle

Both Sweardle and Lewdle are similar. Players have to guess an offensive word, which could be a cuss or a lewd word. Both give hints to players in almost the same way as in Wordle — green means the right letter is in the right place, yellow indicates the right letter in the wrong place, and grey means the letter isn’t part of the word.

However, there are minor differences. While Sweardle is a four-letter word game, Lewdle is a five- to six-letter word game. Additionally, there seems to be no way to save game statistics in Sweardle, which is a feature that is available in Lewdle.

The latter offers a more player-friendly gameplay. Clicking on a bulb-shaped button reveals one correct letter but reduces the score. A ‘ghost guess’ option lets players guess valid five-letter words when the Lewdle puzzles appear as six letters, but at the cost of points. There is also a ‘colour-blind mode’ option, which can be activated from the settings screen.

Play Sweardle here and Lewdle here.

Lordle of the Rings

Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic The Lord of the Rings would love to announce themselves as ‘Lordle of the Rings’ before their friends and followers on social media.

Gameplay and hints follow the Wordle style. Players have to guess a five-letter word from the original book in six tries. The word can be a name, like Arwen — an elf, who was played by Liv Tyler in The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) trilogy. So, Frodo, Smaug and places like Rohan, all qualify.

Play the game here.

Quordle

First things first: Quordle is a very difficult game because players have to guess four words of five letters, where each word gets populated in all four grids at the same time. Players get nine tries only.

The colour coding for right or wrong letters is the same. But a correct letter placed in the right box for one word may not be placed in the right box for the others. This means that all four correct words can only be guessed with a minimum of four tries. So, you will have to be a master wordsmith to win the game.

The game was inspired by Guilherme S. Töws’ Dordle, in which players have to guess two words at the same time.

And for those who would want to go for something even more challenging, there are Octordle and Sedecordle for eight- and sixteen-word puzzles, respectively.

Quordle is one of the trickiest games like Wordle, and is rated highly on both Play Store and App Store, where it enjoys 4.8 stars and 4.9 stars, respectively.

Play the game here.

Wordplay

When it comes to gameplay, Wordplay is one of the closest puzzle alternatives to Wordle. The only major difference is that players can play it any number of times. Every game has six chances of getting the right word. Once the game is over, players can click the ‘New Game’ tab on the website to start a new game.

There are also multiple types of games besides the default 5-letter Daily. The others include 5-letter Classic and 6-letter Game. There is also an option of joining the game of another player if the latter’s ID is known.

Besides the regular game, Wordplay also helps those who wish to improve their chances on the original Wordle game. Using a tool on Wordplay, players can check the percentile of their first-word guess if they enter that word on Wordle. It basically reveals how common or uncommon would be a word on Wordle out of 12,974 possible five-letter words.

Play the game here.

Speedle

The goal of this game is to find the right word as fast as possible. A timer records the fastest time taken by the player, including the most recent, the last 10 and the best time. However, the timer is activated only after some puzzles are solved.

Moreover, though it is one of the many games like Wordle, Speedle gives players the option to solve anything from a four-letter word to an 11-letter word by dragging a slider button just above the puzzle boxes.

The game can be made easier or harder from the settings screen.

Play the game here.

Hurdle

Hurdle’s developer describes it as a “slightly harder version of Wordle.” And it indeed is. While nearly all games have the same colour-coded hint style, Hurdle’s hint system is tough to decipher.

Players have to guess a five-letter word in eight attempts. When a word is entered, the tiles do not change colour to indicate the positioning of the letters. Instead, numbers appear in two separate boxes next to the entered word, indicating how many of the letters in the word are in order.

The first of the two boxes containing numbers is always coloured green. If the number in the box is 2, it indicates that the two letters of the word entered are in the right place. The second box is coloured orange and signifies the number of letters which are in the word but not placed in the correct order.

This system is hard, as it does not reveal which of the letters are correctly placed or are the ones which are part of the word. Unlike other games like Wordle, the virtual keyboard, too, does not change colour to indicate whether the letter entered is valid.

Play the game here.

Crosswordle

Crosswordle is unique because it is essentially Wordle in reverse. It starts with four rows of a five-letter word. The last row already has the correct word filled in green tiles. The other three grids are empty, but the boxes are highlighted in yellow, green and grey.

Players are tasked with guessing words for each of the three empty grids. The empty yellow boxes must be filled with a correct letter from the already revealed word, and the green ones are to be filled with any of the rightly placed letters that appear in the solved word.

Letters in the yellow boxes of the first row must be used in the second row. A letter entered in the grey box for any of the three words cannot be reused. Additionally, grey boxes cannot contain the letters from the word in green.

The system indicates mistakes by highlighting the corner of a box with a red triangle. An error message at the end of the grid reveals the nature of the mistake.

Players should note that the responses are not “wrong” in the sense that every word entered has to be a valid word.

There is a timer at the bottom of the grid, which can be hidden from the settings menu. Similarly, the autocheck option can also be removed. Besides the default Daily Puzzle mode, the game also has the Unlimited mode for playing an unlimited number of games and the Builder mode for constructing a grid of 3-6 letters for sharing with friends to test their mettle.

Play the game here.

Absurdle

The good thing about Absurdle is that there are unlimited guesses. But the hard part is that the algorithm does everything possible to keep players guessing until the programme runs out of combinations.

Players have to guess a five-letter word. But there is a 100 percent chance that all tiles will turn black — the colour in Absurdle which indicates a wrong letter. Even if new letters are used, subsequent tries might also end up with all-black tiles. This is because each time a word is entered, the algorithm calculates all possible five-letter words not containing any of the letters that have been entered. This process is repeated each time a word is entered till there is no other option left for the algorithm. Eventually, players will start seeing letters in orange or even green tiles.

Absurdle’s virtual keyboard also has the random guess button. Clicking on it generates a random but valid five-letter word. The button can be used as many times as a player wants.

The settings menu gives players options such as Hard mode, Challenge mode and Timed mode.

Play the game here.

Framed

If Wordle is for a wordsmith and Nerdle for maths lovers, Framed is the ideal puzzle game for cinephiles.

It is a simple game, in which players have to guess the name of a movie from its stills. There are six tries. The name of the film is entered in a box just below the frame. The game assists players with movie name suggestions as and when a word is typed in the box.

A new frame from the film is revealed with each wrong or skipped guess. A new movie is picked every day. According to the game developers, the frames have been sourced from Shotdeck, a website for high-resolution movie images.

Play the game here.

Antiwordle

The green colour has no place in Antiwordle. Instead, correct letters in the right place are highlighted in red. Though a Wordle-inspired game, it differs from the original in more ways than just colour.

In Antiwordle, players have to guess a five-letter word. There is no limit to tries. Each time a valid word is entered, letters that are correctly positioned are highlighted in red and locked in place. This means that the same letter must be used in the same position in all subsequent guesses.

If a letter is highlighted in yellow, it means that it is not in the correct box. The letter must be used in subsequent guesses until it is correctly placed. When a box turns grey, it means the letter is not part of the word. As such, it cannot be used in subsequent tries.

The hard mode of the game forces players to use a letter marked yellow in a different box in each new guess.

Play the game here.

Who Are Ya?

Designed for football fans, Who Are Ya? has unique gameplay. Players are supposed to guess the name of a footballer who plays in any of the five major European leagues — Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga.

There are two ways of playing it. The normal way is to guess the name of the player from a blurry photo. The difficult one has no photo.

Each time a guess is made in the normal mode, a bit more of the picture is revealed along with key inputs regarding the nationality, league, club, playing position and age of the player entered. The inputs serve as hints. For instance, if the playing position of both the player in the picture and the name entered is the same, the marker turns green. A maximum of eight guesses can be made before the correct answer is revealed.

The game refreshes every day, but players can choose to play an older level by clicking on the calendar button on the top left of the picture.

Play the game here.

(Main and Featured images: Screenshot/BTS-heardle.app; Screenshot/Crosswordle.vercel.app; Screenshot/Sweardle)