Technologies

10 Puzzle Games Like Wordle You Can Play Now

Puzzle and word games are everywhere, and these are some of the most fun.

Wordle has grown to be one of the most popular words games since Josh Wardle launched it in 2021. The game asks players to figure out a five-letter word in six or fewer guesses (we have a two-step strategy to help you solve the puzzle every time). After each guess, the game shows gray blocks for the wrong letters, yellow blocks for the right letters in the wrong spot and green blocks for the right letters in the correct spot.

CNET’s Gael Cooper has loads of tips and tricks to tackle each NY Times Wordle puzzle but there’s only one Wordle puzzle a day. So if you’ve completed today’s game — or just love puzzle games — you should try these other games until the next Wordle puzzle comes out.

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Here are 10 other puzzle games you’ll probably enjoy if you like Wordle.

Connections

Another New York Times-owned puzzle, Connections is a tricky word game. “Players must select four groups of four words without making more than four mistakes,” the New York Times wrote on X. There are also four color-coded difficulty levels for each game; yellow is the easiest, then green, then blue and finally purple. The game is also similar to the BBC quiz show Only Connect, and the show’s host took to X to point out the connection. See what I did there?

You can play Connections on any web browser but you need a New York Times subscription (which starts at $1 a week) to play.

Strands

Strands is another New York Times-owned puzzle but this game resembles a word search more so than Wordle and Connections. This game presents a theme every day to help you find words in a grid. In Strands words can appear forward, backward, top-to-bottom or any number of ways in a traditional word search, and words can also form in the shape of an “L” or have a zigzag in them. When you find a word, tap the first letter and drag your finger to the other letters. Every letter in the puzzle is used, so if you still have letters that aren’t connected to words, you aren’t finished yet.

You can play Strands on any web browser but you need a New York Times subscription (again, $1 a week) to play.

Quartiles

Quartiles is a new word game Apple News Plus subscribers can access on their iPhone or iPad that’s running iOS 17.5 or later. In this word game, you’re given 20 tiles with letters on them and you’re trying to put them together to form different words. The longest words are four tiles long, and these are called Quartiles. The game can be tough but finding just one of the Quartiles is as satisfying as remembering something that was just on the tip of your tongue.

You can play Quartiles on an iPhone or iPad but you need an Apple News subscription (which starts at $13 a month) to play.

Multiple Wordle spinoffs: Dordle, Quordle, Octordle and Sedecordle

Are you up for a challenge? If you love Wordle and want puzzle games that take more brain power, you’ll want to check out either Dordle, Quordle, Octordle or Sedecordle. Each of these word games resembles Wordle, but they add more rows, columns and words to solve. Each game requires you to simultaneously solve a different number of words at once: Dordle has you solving two words, Quordle four at once, Octordle eight at once and Sedecordle a whopping 16. Good luck.

You can play Dordle, Quordle, Octordle or Sedecordle on any web browser.

Lewdle

“Lewdle is a game about rude words,” this game’s content advisory reads. “If you’re likely to be offended by the use of profanity, vulgarity or obscenity, it likely isn’t for you.” Translation: It’s Wordle but with bad words. The words range from mild — like poopy — to words that would make a sailor blush. Thankfully, despite this game’s content warning, slurs are not included. Like Wordle, gray, yellow and green blocks are used in the same way and there’s only one puzzle per day. So go forth and let the bad words flow!

You can play Lewdle on any web browser. You can also download this game from Apple’s App Store or the Google Play store.

Antiwordle

Tired of seeing those grey, yellow and green blocks plastered all over your social media feed? Give Antiwordle a try. While Wordle wants you to guess a word in as few tries as possible, Antiwordle wants you to avoid the word by guessing as many times as possible. When you guess, letters will turn gray, yellow or red. Gray means the letter isn’t in the word and can’t be used again, yellow means the letter is in the word and must be included in each subsequent guess and red means the letter is in the exact position within the word and is locked in place. If you can use every letter on the keyboard without getting the word correct, you win. Honestly, I’ve found this version of Wordle to be much harder than the original.

You can play Antiwordle on any web browser.

Absurdle

Absurdle bills itself as the “adversarial version” of Wordle. While Wordle nudges you in the right direction with each guess, Absurdle is trying to avoid giving you the correct answer. According to the game’s website, “With each guess, Absurdle reveals as little information as possible, changing the secret word if need be.” Absurdle doesn’t pick a word at the beginning of the game for the player to guess. Instead, it uses the player’s guesses to narrow its list of words down in an effort to make the game go as long as possible. The final word might not even include a yellow letter from one of your earlier guesses either. You can guess as many times as you want, which is helpful, and the best score you can get is four. Have fun!

You can play Absurdle on any web browser.

For more word game fun, check out CNET’s Wordle tips, the best Wordle jokes and everything you need to know about the word game. You can also check out what to know about the other New York Times-owned games, Connections and Strands.

Technologies

Bessent reportedly tells Russia it won’t get economic relief until it ends Ukraine war

The meeting underscored Washington’s willingness to reopen diplomatic talks with Moscow, as Europe intends to isolate the nation while the war continues.

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Technologies

Venezuela awards 100-year concessions across 17 oil fields to U.S.-backed company NABEP, according to the White House

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Data collected under this category through Cookies and SDKs can also be used to select and deliver personalized content, such as news articles and videos.

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Tehan Calls for Return to June Agreement, Crude Climbs as Trump Pledges to Strike Iran Forcefully

Oil prices climbed Tuesday amid fears of escalation after fresh U.S.-Iran military strikes and unrest in the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran urged Washington to return to the June interim deal and Trump promised to hit Iran hard.

Oil prices extended gains Tuesday as traders mulled the threat of escalation, following the resumption of U.S.-Iran military strikes and more turmoil in the Strait of Hormuz.

A tanker was struck by three unknown projectiles while transiting Hormuz on Monday, according to an incident report from the the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Centre.

Brent

The tanker was sailing in the southern shipping lane close to the Omani coast, the UKMTO said, adding that no casualties were reported.

Iran launched an attack on two American bases in Jordan on Monday in retaliation for the U.S. strike on its Larak Island. American forces targeted two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island on Sunday, reportedly killing three, saying that Tehran intended to launch rockets carrying sea mines into the Hormuz Strait.

The small island, located in the strait, has been a critical military and shipping control point for Iranian forces, helping them keep a firm grip on vessel traffic through one of the world’s most critical maritime routes.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit on Tuesday that Tehran would immediately reciprocate if Washington agreed to return to its commitments under the interim deal signed in June, according to the Iranian Student News Agency.

The back-and-forth hostilities marked the first time that the U.S. and Iran traded strikes in over a month.

While neither side appeared to be seeking a return to full-scale war, both signaled they were prepared to respond to further attacks. “We are going to hit them hard,” President Donald Trump told Fox News on Monday, saying that “there will be a response” to Iran’s attacks on U.S. military bases in the region.

Analysts largely view the U.S. strike on Larak Island as an attempt to break a deadlock rather than a shift in strategy. “By hitting the launchers rather than broader Iranian military infrastructure, the U.S. appears to be punishing a specific behaviour rather than, at least for now, broadening its war aims,” said Ali Vaez, deputy program director at International Crisis Group.

“It is enforcing the blockade,” said Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, adding that the Trump administration’s goal was to further degrade Tehran’s capabilities to mine the Strait of Hormuz, while focusing on economic coercive measures as the midterm elections approach.

Washington has ramped up pressure to squeeze Iran’s already-torn economy with “secondary sanctions” that punish nations and businesses buying Iranian crude oil. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 finance ministers gathering, that Iran was “lashing out kinetically” because the new sanctions were taking a toll on its economy.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Monday, Trump reportedly said Iran’s financial systems, armed forces, and governing body have been largely degraded. “It doesn’t mean we won’t smack them to see what happens,” the president said.

The war, now stretching into its seventh month, has disrupted global energy supplies and sent shock waves through global financial markets.

“This is fundamentally an endurance contest,” said Brodsky, as Trump has demonstrated an “unpredictability” that should concern the Iranians, and Tehran may lash out more aggressively militarily as the economic pressure mounts.