A lot of us were disappointed when we found out that The New York Times was buying Wordle, the daily word game in which you guess a word by plugging in other words and seeing how many letters you get right. Would Wordle still be free? Would we still be able to share our scores on social media? Would the words get harder to guess? If you’re nervous, here are 6 of the best alternative word games that you can play every day.
Wordle Unlimited
If Wordle’s daily limit cramps your style, try Wordle Unlimited! It has the same rules and format as the original, helping you guess by turning the tiles of correct letters green and yellow. However, it doesn’t limit you to one puzzle a day. Just please remember to take breaks to eat.
Absurdle
Like Wordle, Absurdle tells you if you’ve gotten any letters right by changing the color of the tiles. However, unlike Wordle, Absurdle hates you and doesn’t want you to win. The game will actively try to stop you from winning by changing the word the closer you get! So if you’re gunning for a fight, you can go a few rounds with Absurdle instead of body checking someone on the street.
Quordle
Quordle has the same premise as Wordle and some of its closer variants: you plug in words and see which letters match until you have enough data to make an educated guess. The good news: you get nine guesses instead of six. The bad news? You have to guess four words at once.
Crosswordle
If you like word games, chances are you like crosswords as much as you like Wordle. As you can probably tell from the title, Crosswordle offers the best of both worlds! Like a traditional crossword, you guess words that intersect with each other. But like the original Wordle, the tiles change colors to help you guess.
Semantle
With Semantle, things get a little trickier. The object of the game is still to guess a word, but instead of correct letters serving as hints, you get a score that tells you how close your guess is in meaning to the correct answer. For example, if the word of the day is “tooth,” then guessing “mouth” will get you a higher score than “apple.” Be warned: this game is fiendishly difficult, and the scores don’t always make intuitive sense.
Globle
Globle isn’t technically a word game, but it uses the same logic as Wordle. Plus, it’ll give you a free geography lesson! Each day, players are given a mystery country. Plug in the names of random countries around the world, and the map will color code them to tell you how close you’re getting to the mystery country.
If you’re not playing the original Wordle anymore, or if one puzzle a day just isn’t enough, then hopefully these fun alternatives will get you your fix!
(image: Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
