Best Wordle alternatives

(Image credit: Wordle)

I of the great things almost the world's favorite new word game Wordle is that you lot can only play once each twenty-four hours, thus keeping the experience fresh. (You lot tin can, however, now play the Wordle archives.) But that's as well one of the worst things almost Wordle: you lot therefore have to wait a whole twenty-four hour period for your adjacent ready.

I solution is to play another word game while that Wordle timer counts down, only where to outset? After all, in that location are approximately lxx bazillion word games on the Google Play and Apple App Stores — and sadly most of them are not corking.

The problem isn't necessarily the games themselves (although it sometimes is), but more the fact that most are drowning within a murky bounding main of in-app purchases and ads. Yes, nosotros get it — developers need to pay the bills too. Just I'd ever rather pay a flat fee for a game I can just enjoy without all that nonsense.

Anyway, at that place are some great Wordle alternatives out there that either don't have ads or that aren't spoiled past the feel and we've rounded up our 8 favorites beneath.

The 8 best Wordle alternatives

Absurdle

If y'all love the idea of Wordle just find it a scrap like shooting fish in a barrel (maybe yous're really brainy), give Absurdle a try instead. It's an unashamed clone that challenges you to approximate a 5-letter of the alphabet discussion, merely the deviation here is that the target discussion changes as you lot play. Essentially, y'all're competing against a malevolent AI which uses your guesses to narrow down the possible answers, discounting anything that contains a letter of the alphabet you've used. It requires an entirely different strategy and is well worth a look.

Play Absurdle online

SpellTower (Costless with in-app purchases)

Take a niggling Wordl, mix in a little Jenga, and you get SpellTower, an addictive game from mobile gaming cracking Zach Gage (Flipflip Solitaire, Really Bad Chess, Ridiculous Line-fishing). The premise is easy enough: build words by tracing your finger around side by side letter tiles. Strategy, though, comes in when your tower of letters comes crashing downward a picayune with each discussion you pick out. How many of the words volition you find? Will you place on the day's rankings? That'south on y'all. — Henry T. Casey

Download SpellTower: Android / iOS

Kitty Letter (Gratis)

Almost certainly the just discussion game that involves detonating (virtual) cats, Kitty Alphabetic character stems from the inspired mind of Matthew Inman (aka The Oatmeal). If you've always played his superb carte du jour game Exploding Kittens, you'll know what to expect: a clever concept intertwined with very funny gags.

The objective is to form equally many words as y'all can from a given set up of letters while your opponent does the aforementioned; the twist is that your words are carried by exploding kittens who gradually overwhelm your opponent's defenses if your word is longer. In that location's a one-player manner with a free Oatmeal comic, plus online multiplayer confronting friends or strangers, and it'south entirely gratis to play and free of ads. — Marc McLaren

Download Kitty Alphabetic character: Android / iOS

Letterpress (Gratuitous with IAP)

Letterpress app — (Image credit: Letterpress)

Half word game, half Risk-style strategy, Letterpress is a deceptively simple thing that draws you lot in and proves maddeningly addictive. You play confronting either a bot or some other human online, with the objective being to command as much of a 5x5 lath as possible past using letters close to the other person's pick. Information technology rewards long words, and so you'll need to bring your mental lexicography game, and there'southward a real ebb and flow to it that makes every contest a existent challenge. In that location are ads, but they're minimal and can be removed for $4.99. — Marc McLaren

Download LetterPress: Android / iOS

Spelling Bee (Free with NYTimes digital subscription)

The New York Times' Spelling Bee game — (Image credit: New York Times)

Before Wordle, the New York Times' Spelling Bee was the primary fashion wordsmiths would brag nearly their prowess on Twitter. Each twenty-four hours, Spelling Bee presents you with a hexagon of 6 letters arrayed around 1 center letter; it'south upwards to you to discover as many words as possible that utilize the centre letter. In that location'south simply one game per mean solar day, but it typically takes longer than Wordle to complete. If yous get stuck, in that location are some handy hints bachelor, which makes it easier — but not too easy — to figure out the remaining words. If you guess all the words, you get a Queen Bee badge, which yous tin show off to your friends.

You can play for complimentary up to certain point, merely y'all'll need a $39.95/yr subscription to all of the games (which includes the NY Times crossword) to consummate information technology. If you want to read the Times online, you'll have to pony up for an all-access subscription, which costs $325 per yr. — Mike Prospero

Play Spelling Bee online

Typeshift (Costless with IAP)

Typeshift on Android — (Image credit: Typeshift)

Another game by the makers of SpellTower, Typeshift challenges you to make specific — but unknown — words from a pre-generated option. Like Wordle, it's a very uncomplicated game to pick up: y'all just swipe letters up and down in the various columns to form words, which turn green if they're correct. But it doesn't take long before the permutations mount upwardly and y'all'll soon be wracking your brain for all the possible words that could terminate Every bit or whatever. Besides like Wordle, at that place'southward i principal puzzle daily, but yous can play a pick of others in various sub categories or buy more than and get rid of ads for between $0.99 and $3.99.

Download Typeshift: Android / iOS

Hello Wordl (Complimentary)

Hello Wordl web app — (Paradigm credit: Hello Wordl)

Role of Wordle's appeal (for me at least) is that you lot can only play information technology in one case a day. But if yous're craving a more regular fix, Hello Wordl is essentially exactly the aforementioned game except that yous can play it as ofttimes equally yous like. Oh, and you can also choose to solve puzzles with annihilation betwixt four and eleven letters, rather than the v in the original game. In one sense it loses some of the real affair's appeal, but information technology'south free and is certainly a good fashion to get in some practice. — Marc McLaren

Play Hello Wordl online

Mathler (Free)

Screenshot from the web game Mathler — (Image credit: Mathler)

Bandy Wordle'southward letters for numbers and you get Mathler — an unashamed clone of everyone'due south favorite discussion game that instead tests your math skills. The mechanics are almost identical, from the blueprint to the mode yous share results on social media to the fact that information technology'southward free to play and without adverts. Just unlike Wordle, you're given the answer upwards front and instead have to piece of work out what equation leads to it. It's catchy, merely proficient fun if you're practiced with figures.

Play Mathler online

Every bit U.K. Editor in Chief on Tom'due south Guide, Marc is responsible for the site's U.K.-focused output besides every bit overseeing all gaming, streaming, sound, Tv set, amusement, how-to and cameras coverage. He previously edited the tech website Stuff and has tested and written nigh phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, games and much more. He also spent years on a music mag, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people's fun, and on a auto magazine. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). When he gets time, he also enjoys gaming (console and mobile), cycling and attempting to sentinel as much sport as whatever homo can (particularly cricket).