Wordle
Find the five-letter word in six guesses, one coloured clue at a time.
Every day: One hidden five-letter word a day, numbered and the same for every player, to find in six guesses. New puzzle: Midnight local time.
Play on NYT GamesNYT Games on the App StoreNYT Games on Google Play
Wordle hides one five-letter word a day and gives you six guesses to find it. After each guess the tiles turn green, yellow or grey to show which letters are right, misplaced or absent. Everyone gets the same word, which is why the grids of coloured squares turn up in group chats every morning.
About Wordle
Wordle was made by Josh Wardle, a software engineer who built it for his partner and released it on the web in October 2021. It spread late that year once players could share their results as a grid of coloured squares without giving the answer away. The New York Times bought it in January 2022, and it now sits in the NYT Games app and website, still free to play.
A round is short. You type a real five-letter word and press Enter. Each letter turns green if it is in the word and in that spot, yellow if it is in the word but somewhere else, and grey if it is not in the word at all. You use what you learn to make your next guess, and you have six tries.
The answers come from a list of common English words, picked by an editor, so you will not need anything obscure. Hard mode makes you reuse every green and yellow letter you have found, and there are dark and high-contrast colour options. After you finish, WordleBot will go through your guesses and show how a computer would have played.
Wordle owes something to the old pencil game Jotto and the television show Lingo, but its one-word-a-day format is what made it a habit. It suits anyone who wants a few minutes of thinking and a streak to protect.
How to play Wordle
- Type any real five-letter word and press Enter.
- Read the colours: green means right letter, right spot; yellow means the letter is in the word somewhere else; grey means it is not in the word.
- Make your next guess using what the colours told you.
- Keep guessing until every tile is green or you have used all six tries.
- Share your grid of squares if you like; it shows your path without the letters.
Tips
- Start with a word that has common, different letters, such as SLATE, CRANE or TRACE.
- Do not forget that letters can repeat; the answer can have two of the same letter.
- If you have four greens and many words fit, use a guess that tests several of the possible missing letters at once instead of trying them one by one.
- A letter appearing twice in your guess may show one yellow and one grey; that means the answer has it only once.
- Turn on hard mode once the normal game feels easy; it removes the throwaway probing guess.
Questions
Is Wordle still free?
Yes. The daily Wordle is free on the NYT website and in the NYT Games app. A free account keeps your stats across devices.
What time does a new Wordle come out?
At midnight in your local time.
Who made Wordle?
Josh Wardle created it and released it in October 2021. The New York Times bought it in January 2022.
What is hard mode?
In hard mode any letter you have found green or yellow must be used in every later guess.
Can I play past Wordles?
The NYT offers an archive of past puzzles to Games subscribers.
Games like Wordle
Quordle
Four Wordles at once, solved with the same guesses
Dordle
Two words side by side with seven guesses
Octordle
Eight grids for when one is too quick
Waffle
The same green and yellow clues, but you swap letters in a grid
Connections
The other Times daily most Wordle players do next
Nerdle
Wordle rules applied to a maths equation
Crosswordle
Works backwards from a finished Wordle grid
Wordle auf Deutsch (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
The official German edition, licensed from The New York Times, with the same rules