Borrowed Letters
Rate itFind the stolen letter in five clued words and pass them all clockwise at once.
Every day: One ring of five clued words a day, built from the date, so everyone playing on the same day gets the same five cards. Each word holds one letter that belongs to its clockwise neighbour. New puzzle: Midnight on your device's clock: the puzzle is picked from the local date..
Borrowed Letters is a free daily word puzzle from Bludle. Five clued words sit in a ring, and each one is holding a letter that belongs to the next card along. Pick the intruder in every word and pass them all clockwise in one move, using as few passes and hints as you can.
About Borrowed Letters
Borrowed Letters is a word puzzle on Bludle, a site of small free browser games. Each day it lays out five cards in a circle. Every card has a short clue, such as "A boundary made of posts" or "Exactly vertical", and a five-letter word that is one letter off the answer: FANCE for FENCE, PLOMB for PLUMB.
The twist is where the wrong letters came from. Each card's intruder is the letter its clockwise neighbour is missing, so no word can be fixed on its own. You select one letter on every card, then press a single button and all five selected letters move one card clockwise at the same time. If every choice was right, the ring is repaired in one pass.
You get four passes. A wrong pass leaves some words still broken, and the counters show how many of the five are repaired. Your score starts at 1,000 and falls with each extra pass and each hint; a hint reveals one borrowed letter for 100 points.
The interest lies in checking the ring as a whole. A letter that looks clearly wrong in one word has to be the exact letter the next word needs, so a confident guess on one card can break its neighbour. It suits players who like short clued puzzles with a bit of logic, and a round takes about five to eight minutes.
The game is free in the browser with no account. Your scores, streak and history are kept on your device, and a finished ring can be shared as a result.
How to play Borrowed Letters
- Read the clue on each of the five cards and work out the word it describes.
- Compare each shown word with its answer and find the one letter that does not belong.
- Tap that intruder on every card, one letter per card.
- Press Pass letters clockwise: each selected letter moves to the next card and fills the position you picked there.
- If some words are still wrong, adjust your choices and pass again; you have four passes in all.
- Use Reveal one borrowed letter if you are stuck, at a cost of 100 points, and share your result once every word is repaired.
Screenshots
Tips
- Check each choice against the next card: the letter you remove must be the one the clockwise neighbour is missing.
- Start with the clue you are surest of, then follow the ring in both directions from it.
- Mind the position you select on the receiving card, since the incoming letter lands exactly there.
- Save the hint for last: one revealed letter often settles two cards at once.
Questions
When does a new Borrowed Letters puzzle appear?
The game picks the day's ring from your device's date, so a new one appears at midnight on your own clock.
Is Borrowed Letters free?
Yes. It plays in the browser on bludle.com with no download and no account. The site shows ads.
How is the score worked out?
You start at 1,000 points. Extra passes and each revealed letter, which costs 100, lower the score you keep.
Ratings and reviews
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Games like Borrowed Letters
Waffle
Also repairs words by moving letters, with swaps across six crossing words instead of a ring.
Swapple
Rebuild a grid of words by swapping letters, counting every move as Borrowed Letters counts passes.
Align (Boston Globe)
Fix scrambled words by moving letters between them until every word reads true.
Broken Words
Clued answers rebuilt from loose letter pieces, with the same mix of clue solving and letter logic.
Cascadle
Five linked clued words where one answer feeds the next, much like the ring here.
Werdle
Another daily word game from Bludle, for a quick guess after the ring is repaired.
Fourbe
Four clues. One hidden subject.
Guess The Phrase
Unpick nested clues to reveal the day's hidden phrase.