14 of the Top Wordle Variations You Should Check Out

I was torn between giving the geographical spot on the list to Flagle, which incorporates country flags, or Worldle, which shows the silhouette of a country. Ultimately, I chose Flagle because it offers two ways to win: Not only can you narrow down the country’s location, but you can also uncover sections of its flag.

This is likely the last easy-going, simple game on this list, so savor it while you can. Hurdle gives you five Wordle-style puzzles daily. You need to solve each puzzle to unlock the next, with the fifth puzzle pre-filled with the solutions from the first four, giving you only two chances to crack the final round.

Absurdle lives up to its name because its concept is completely ridiculous—and it truly delivers. The secret word you're attempting to guess changes in order to dodge your attempts. The game’s only act of fairness is that it sticks to its prior clues—so if it reveals that the word starts with an R, the answer will have an R, but the rest of the letters are up for grabs. Winning at this game involves cornering the algorithm until only one possibility remains; only then will it admit your victory.

Heardle is the contemporary take on Name That Tune!, the classic game show where contestants had to guess a song from just the first few notes. The tracks featured in Heardle are pulled from popular Spotify charts, making it a great way to gauge your own knowledge of current pop culture.

In Squabble, we encounter the first competitive Wordle. (We’ll see another soon.) If you believe you're skilled at word guessing, now's your chance to compete against friends or strangers in real-time. Incorrect guesses drain health from your meter, while correct guesses replenish it. The game goes on, with multiple rounds if necessary, until only one player remains.

If you enjoy Squabble, give the massively multiplayer Mordle a try. Games can host up to 100 players, but the gameplay is simpler since you don’t need to observe others' game boards or compete against them directly. Just race to solve the puzzle on your own and see how many players reached the correct solution before or after you.

When Dordle (the double Wordle) was first introduced, it seemed terrifying—solve two Wordles with the same guesses?! But after some practice, it’s not so difficult. From there, the challenge grew. In my opinion, Quordle hits the sweet spot; solving four puzzles at once feels just right. However, Octordle is also enjoyable, as are Sedecordle and Duotrigordle. Multi-Wordles can feel overwhelming initially, but with so many grids, nearly every guess will provide you with a helpful clue somewhere.

Antiwordle is perhaps the most grueling of all the games on this list, and that’s saying a lot. The rules mirror those of regular Wordle in hard mode (where you have to reuse the correct letters in your guesses). However, the twist is that you’re trying to avoid guessing the word. If you guess it correctly, you lose.

Word games, for the most part, cater to skilled spellers. If you can spot the patterns in which letters typically appear, you’re already ahead. But if you've ever wondered why word games don’t challenge you to guess the approximate meaning of a word, Semantle is the game for you. It’s difficult to even begin narrowing down the possibilities, but once you do, focus on words with similar meanings to find the solution.

Whenever you receive your green and yellow squares after a guess, what the game is really doing is narrowing down and refining a pool of possible words where the solution must fit. (For example, all the words that have an E in the second position and a T elsewhere, but not in the third.) WordAll presents you with a partially completed game, freezes it at that point, and challenges you to list all the words in that pool. It’s a great mental workout and could improve your Wordle strategy.

For a change of pace from words, this one takes on an art theme. It shows you fragments of works, all from the same artist. The game is called Artle, and it’s bound to teach you things about your favorite artists that you didn’t know—while introducing you to new ones as well.

If you found Waffle charming, then Squardle is its mischievous counterpart. It’s another crossword-style guessing game, but this time you must manually enter all of your guesses. It doesn’t seem too bad at first, until you start trying to interpret the hints. Each square gives color-coded feedback on how your guess fits within the words of the puzzle. It’s like Microsoft's Clippy—intended to be helpful, but quickly becoming confusing and irritating. To win, you’ll need to navigate these hints without letting their overwhelming nature sidetrack you.

Who needs one word at a time or six when Redactle throws the entire Wikipedia article at you, with most of the words hidden like classified government files? Your task is to guess words, and as you get them right, they’re revealed in the article. The challenge here is to figure out the title of the article—whether it’s about a historical figure, a scientific principle, or something else entirely—by guessing its words correctly.