Sortle

About Sortle

Sortle hides one 5-letter word a day, the same for everyone in the world from the UTC date, and numbers each puzzle (No. 280 fell on 7 October 2026). You have 8 guesses, and each must be a real 5-letter word.

The feedback is different from Wordle's. There are no positional colours. Instead each guess gives two signals: order and overlap. Order says whether your guess sits before the secret in the dictionary, so the answer is later, or after it, so the answer is earlier. Overlap counts how many of your letters appear in the secret in any position, with duplicates counted only as often as they appear in both, and the game names the shared letters. An alphabetical window at the top narrows as your guesses close in from both sides.

After your fifth guess the game reveals one letter of the secret, though not where it goes. Solve the 5-letter word and that day's 6- and 7-letter words open, each with 8 guesses of its own.

A hard mode forces each new guess to stay inside the window your earlier guesses set. There is also a practice mode, an archive of past days and a streak counter, and the result card you share leaves out the shared letters.

How to play Sortle

1. Open dailysortle.com and press Play today; the 5-letter daily is the one that loads.
2. Type a real 5-letter word and press Enter.
3. Read the result: BEFORE means the secret comes later in the dictionary, AFTER means it comes earlier, and the shared letters are listed.
4. Use the alphabetical window and the shared letters to choose the next guess, and solve within 8 guesses to open the 6- and 7-letter words.

Screenshots

Tips

• Open near the middle of the alphabet, with a word starting around M, so the first order clue halves the dictionary.
• Pick guesses with many different common letters early; overlap tells you which letters to keep.
• Once the window is narrow, check the shared letters against the words that fit between your two closest guesses.
• Hard mode keeps you inside the window, so turn it on only once you are comfortable reading the order clue.

Questions