Wordle is a daily word game that is owned and hosted by the New York Times newspaper. Similar to the word game called Connections, players can head to the site once a day and challenge themselves to a short puzzle to get themselves warmed up for the day or to relax at night. These puzzles are designed to be quick, but they aren't always easy. In order to play this viral word puzzle game, players will first have to learn the rules of how to play this browser-based word puzzle game.
Where to Play the Official Version of Wordle
The first thing players will want to make sure is that they are headed to the correct version of Wordle. There have been a lot of Wordle clones and copycats over the years, but the original version is owned and operated by the New York Times Games page. Players can access the NYT version in one of two ways:
Wordle: The Best Strategy For The Game
Fans new to Wordle may get a little frustrated over the difficulty. However, these tips should help make things a bit easier.
- Head directly to the New York Times Games Wordle website and play it through the browser.
- Download the New York Times Games Crossword app for either iOS or Android and find the Wordle section.
As stated above, there are plenty of copycats and clones that players can also pick up; some of these clones are themed, like the clone that's all about Pokemon called Squirdle or the dirty Wordle clone called Lewdle. While many of these will have very similar rules to the original, many rules will be different from what is listed here in this article.
The Rules of How to Play the New York Times Wordle
First and foremost, players will need to choose a starting word. The beginning of Wordle doesn't give any hints at all to what the puzzle's answer might be, so players will have to choose their own starting point. The best starting Wordle words:
- Are not words that have been used before in the history of Wordle.
- While they can be used as guesses, the answers will never be plural nouns ending in S, like NOSES or FLEAS.
- The best starters have five different letters in them to give players a good spread to start with.
- All Wordle answers and guesses must be real words.
- Wordle answers and guesses cannot be offensive words, so avoid using slurs or similar when playing.
- Proper nouns will never be the answer to a puzzle.
After a good starter has been chosen, type it into the first line of the Wordle grid and press enter. This will trigger the letters to change colors. Here is what each of those colors means:
- Gray-colored letters are incorrect; they will not be in the puzzle at all today.
- Yellow letters are correct, but they are in the wrong spot or spots.
- Green letters are both correct and in the right spot of the puzzle.
Given these clues, players have just six total tries to guess the five-letter word of the day. There is also a Hard Version of Wordle which requires that all revealed hints must be used in subsequent guesses; this can be toggled on an off in the settings.
OpenCritic Reviews
- Released
- October 1, 2021
- ESRB
- E for Everyone
- Developer(s)
- Josh Wardle
- Publisher(s)
- The New York Times Company
- Cross-Platform Play
- ios, android
- Cross Save
- yes
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- no
WHERE TO PLAY
Wordle is a daily puzzle that can be accessed via a web browser. To play, puzzle solvers must attempt to crack a specific 5-letter word in only six guesses. After each guess, players are given a look at what letters they have correctly identified and if they are in the right place or not.
- Platform(s)
- Web Browser
- Genre(s)
- Puzzle
