Sqword

Sqword is a word game of placement and nerve. The day's deck deals one card at a time, and you choose a square for it on a 5 by 5 board; once a letter is down it cannot move. Rows read left to right and columns top to bottom, and the aim is to have them spell 3, 4 or 5-letter words when the last card lands.

The deck is not only plain letters. A few cards show two rarer letters, such as K or Q, J or V, W or Z and X or Y, and you pick which one to play. Jokers let you enter any letter you like, which makes them the best rescue for a row that is one letter short of a word.

Scoring is by length: each line scores its longest word, so a five-letter word across a row is worth 5, and a perfect board scores 50. Everyone gets the same deck on the same day, so the Sqworboard counts the day's scores and shows the average. Your streak counts consecutive days played, a Deck button shows the cards in the deck, and you can share your score when you finish. A practice mode lets you replay the day's deck without changing your place on the board.

Sqword is made by Games for All, LLC, and is free in the browser with no account and no ads, with a dark mode. It suits players who like the risk-taking of a dice or card placement game as much as finding words, and fans of the 5 by 5 grid puzzles in this list.