There are two types of people in this world: those who recognize Wordle grids of yellow, green, and gray/black blocks and those who do not. No matter which category you fall in, there's a Wordle-inspired game that's perfect for you.
The viral success of Wordle, the daily five-letter word guessing game, not only led to a corporate takeover but also spawned spinoffs of varying degrees of difficulty and enjoyment. There's something for everyone, from thematic twists on the word puzzle format to multimedia diversions playing out within six turns.
Some of the best Wordle spinoffs are listed below for you to incorporate into your daily routine. Just one of the games has Android and iOS apps, but you can easily bookmark any of the web apps on your home screen for quicker access. Some you may even be able to install to your home screen as offline games.
1. Antiwordle
This one could have also been called Bizarro Wordle because it's essentially the exact opposite in premise. Instead of trying to guess the daily word in six or fewer guesses, your goal is to try and get the most incorrect guesses possible until you're forced to enter the correct five-digit word.
Like Wordle, Antiwordle colors a block yellow when that letter is in the word, but it uses red instead of green to indicate a correctly placed letter. What makes it so hard is that all your subsequent guesses must include those letters and cannot include ones marked as excluded (the grayed-out ones).
Red tiles need to be in the same position on future guesses, and you can use the yellow-tiled letters in the same spot as many times as you want. However, you can toggle on the "Hard Mode" setting, which makes you put a letter marked as yellow in different positions on future guesses.
- Play Antiwordle: Web (free)
2. Lewdle
Created by video game journalist and screenwriter Gary Whitta, whose credits include "Star Wars: Rebels," "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," and "The Book of Eli," Lewdle follows the same premise as Wordle, except its "dicktionary" is limited to dirty words and euphemisms, and it occasionally serves up six-letter word puzzles.
It's harder to guess just dirty words, so Lewdle has some helper tools. Just the Tip reveals one letter per round should you need it, Ghost Guesses let you spell a five-letter word instead, and Sheltered Mode allows non-lewd English words alongside the lewd "dicktionary." All aides add a penalty to your lewdness score. As a bonus, you get the word's definition and an amusing example sentence after the game.
Lewdle started as a web app but migrated to an Android/iOS mobile app. Since the move, Lewdle has also expanded beyond the daily game to a continuous mode.
Because this is a family site, I didn't use my usual six-letter starter word.
Because this is a family site, I didn't use my usual six-letter starter word.
3. Heardle
Heardle is essentially a Wordle twist on the classic "Name That Tune" conceit. Tap the play button to hear a one-second clip of the song's intro. Start typing to find the artist and title, then submit your guess. An incorrect guess or skip uncovers more of the intro, giving you a longer clip to make another guess.
For music fans, it can be easier (and arguably more satisfying) to score a first-guess win than Wordle. But if you don't listen to a lot of what's popular today, you could be scratching your head to the very end.
After each game, you can listen to the song on Spotify, which acquired Heardle from its indie developer in July 2022.
- Play Heardle: Web (free)
4. Framed
While it doesn't leverage the -le suffix like the others on the list, it does follow the general format. You start with a random frame from a movie. Start typing to narrow the game's library of titles down to your selected guess. Each incorrect film guess or skip unveils another frame, with each frame revealing key actors and scenes, making it progressively easier to figure out.
If you like Framed, you can also try the weekly Episode for TV shows, which gives you ten guesses to identify the television series from the images. The web developer behind Frames and Episode also has Plotwords, where you guess the movie name from words related to the movie, and Numble, where you build math equations from the given numbers and operators to reach the target solution.
- Play Framed: Web (free)
5. Worldle
If you excelled more at geography bees than spelling bees, Worldle is the game for you. Just don't try to say "Worldle" out loud.
Every day, Worldle reveals a silhouette of a country or territory that you need to identify in six tries or less. Each guess is scored with a percentage based on its proximity to the answer, and it gives you directional and distance hints to help you get closer with each future guess. You can switch units in the settings if you prefer miles over kilometers for distance measurements.
When the game ends, you can view the country on Google Maps, learn more about the location from Wikipedia, and continue to the bonus round, where you guess the country's neighbors.
If you find Worldle too easy, you can make it more difficult in the settings. One replaces the proximity percent with a size percent, while another hides the country's image. The third randomly rotates the country's silhouette throughout the game. If you change any of these preferences, it won't apply until your next game.
- Play Worldle: Web (free)
6. Phoodle
Phoodle is Wordle for food! The answers can include utensils, flavors, famous chefs, kitchen appliances, and other related culinary and foodie-centric words — not just actual food names.
As with Wordle, you get six tries to guess the five-letter term, and the tile-coloring scheme is the same gray/yellow/green. You can also track your historical results via a key lime pie graph and use the chef's hat button to get a fun fact about the answer.
- Play Phoodle: Web (free)
7. CFBordle
Brought to you by Reddit's popular r/cfb subreddit, this is Wordle for college football. Correct answers can include sports mascots, school nicknames, etc.
Like Wordle and its many offshoots, you have a maximum of six tries to guess the five-letter term, and the tile-coloring scheme is the same gray/yellow/green. If you find the game too easy, try switching to Hard Mode via the birthday cake button.
Despite being a college football fan, I'm frustratingly bad at this game.
- Play CFBordle: Web (free)
8. Emovi
Like Framed, Emovi is a guessing game for film fanatics; only it's created by the same developer behind the geography-geared Worldle. Instead of frames from a movie, Emovi rewrites movie titles with emoji characters and challenges you to decode them. You only get three tries to guess the correct film, but hints are available after each failed attempt or turn skip.
Emovi also allows you to submit your own emoji interpretations of random movies. If you don't want to try and emoji-encode one film, you can pick another random movie.
- Play Emovi: Web (free)
Cover photo and screenshots by Tommy Palladino/Gadget Hacks
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