werdel
Wordle by sound: guess the day's word spelled in IPA symbols.
Every day: One hidden word a day, written in the International Phonetic Alphabet, the same for everyone, to find in eight guesses; hourly and infinite modes sit beside it. New puzzle: Midnight in your local time zone.
werdel (written wɜːdəl) is a Wordle variant where you guess a word by its pronunciation. Each guess must be an English word whose IPA transcription is five symbols long, and the coloured tiles score the sounds rather than the letters. You get eight tries, and the daily word keeps a streak, with hourly and infinite modes for extra play.
About werdel
werdel takes the Wordle board and swaps letters for sounds. The hidden answer is a word shown in the International Phonetic Alphabet, five IPA symbols long, and every guess must be a real English word whose pronunciation is also five symbols. You type ordinary English spelling on the keyboard, and the game turns it into IPA on the board, so 'harbours' becomes hɑːbəz and 'scream' becomes skriːm.
After each guess, tiles turn green for a sound in the right place, yellow for a sound that is in the word somewhere else, and stay grey otherwise. A few rules make it its own puzzle: the game uses British Received Pronunciation, which is non-rhotic (no 'r' after vowels), long vowels such as iː or ɑː count as a single symbol different from their short partners, and the affricates tʃ and dʒ count as two symbols. That means the English spelling can be much longer or shorter than five letters.
You have eight guesses, two more than Wordle, to allow for the extra difficulty. Besides the daily word, which keeps a streak, there is an Hourly mode with a new word every hour and an Infinite mode for unlimited play. The game is credited as based on Josh Wardle's Wordle, with code from MikhaD's Wordle+.
It suits linguistics students, language teachers and word game players who want to think about how words sound rather than how they are spelled.
How to play werdel
- Open werdel and read the How to play examples.
- Type an English word whose pronunciation has five IPA symbols and press Enter.
- Read the tiles: green is the right sound in the right place, yellow is in the word elsewhere, grey is not in it.
- Remember the rules: British RP, long vowels count as one symbol, tʃ and dʒ count as two.
- Find the word within eight guesses, or switch to Hourly or Infinite for more.
Tips
- Think in sounds: 'charge' is tʃɑːdʒ, five symbols from six letters.
- Because the game is non-rhotic, words spelled with 'ar', 'er' or 'or' often lose the r sound.
- Short words with long vowels or diphthongs can still fill five symbols, so do not count letters.
- Try Infinite mode to get used to the IPA symbols before the daily word.
Questions
How many guesses do I get?
Eight.
Which accent does werdel use?
British Received Pronunciation, which is non-rhotic.
Do I have to type IPA symbols?
No. You type normal English spelling, and the game shows its IPA transcription.
Are there other modes?
Yes, Hourly (a new word each hour) and Infinite (unlimited words).
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