23 Words

About 23 Words

23 Words is a timed anagram game with a fixed list for each day. The letters of a word appear shuffled, and you drag or tap them into the slots to spell a word that uses every one of them. Each word has its own 30-second timer. Solve it or run out of time and the next word comes up, until all 23 have gone by.

The day's words get longer as you go. In the set we looked at, the first few were four letters, the middle ones five and six, and the last three were seven-letter words, so the hardest part of the run comes at the end when you are already counting. A shuffle button rearranges the tiles if you are stuck on one order, and the result screen shows how many you found, your days played, streak and average score.

The game is part of Word Nerd, a small site of daily word games that has been running since 2024, alongside Secret Word, Word Hunt, Word Chain and others. It is free in the browser with no account, and progress is saved on your device. Past days can be played from the archive, numbered from the game's first puzzle in March 2024. It suits players who like quick anagrams and a bit of time pressure more than slow deduction.

How to play 23 Words

1. Open the day's puzzle; the letters of the first word appear shuffled.
2. Tap or drag the letters into the slots to spell a word that uses all of them.
3. Solve it within 30 seconds to score it; when the timer runs out the next word appears anyway.
4. Use Shuffle to rearrange the tiles if you cannot see the word.
5. Work through all 23 words, then share your score or open the archive for earlier days.

Tips

• Look for common endings such as -ED, -ER, -ING and -LY first on the longer words.
• Shuffle early rather than staring at one arrangement for half the timer.
• Put a likely first letter in place and test what follows; consonant pairs like CH, SH and TR are often at the start.
• Do not spend all 30 seconds on one word you feel sure of; the next one may be easier.

Questions