30 Wordle Variants You Should Try (Daily ‘Dle’ Games)

Wordle hit in late 2021 and within months the internet had cloned the daily-puzzle format across every imaginable subject. There are wordles for movies, math equations, geography, music, chess openings, and one specifically for guessing prime numbers. If you’ve burned through the official Wordle and want to know what else is out there, here are thirty of the different types of wordles worth a daily slot — sorted by genre, all free, none requiring an account.

Word-based variants (closest to the original)

1. Wordle (NYT)

The original, now at the New York Times. Five letters, six guesses, one puzzle a day. The reference standard against which every other variant compares itself. Free without an account; archive access is paywalled.

2. Quordle

Four Wordles at once. You enter a single guess and it scores against four secret words simultaneously, displayed in four quadrants. Nine guesses total. Significantly harder than standard Wordle — you can’t optimize for any one board.

3. Octordle

Eight Wordles at once. Thirteen guesses. The natural escalation of Quordle. Best played casually because the cognitive load is intense.

4. Sedecordle

Sixteen Wordles at once. Twenty-one guesses. We’re not sure who this is for, but somebody is doing it daily.

5. Wordle Unlimited

The “play as many as you want” version. Same five-letter mechanics, no daily limit. Helpful for practice; loses the social pressure of the once-a-day puzzle.

6. Hello Wordl

Wordle with variable letter counts — play 4-letter through 11-letter words. The longer words add tactical depth because the search space explodes.

7. Squabble

Multiplayer Wordle. You and opponents race the same puzzle in real time. Speed Wordle, essentially. Free, no account required.

8. Absurdle

Wordle’s evil twin. Absurdle changes the answer dynamically based on your guesses, always choosing the worst-case scenario from the remaining valid words. You’re not solving — you’re cornering.

9. Semantle

You guess words; the feedback is “how semantically close was that to the answer” via word embeddings. There’s no letter overlap to exploit — only meaning. Notoriously hard.

10. Crosswordle

A two-dimensional Wordle. You’re given a partial crossword grid and have to fill it in with five-letter words, each scored Wordle-style. The intersections create cross-constraints.

Knowledge-based variants

11. Worldle

Guess the country from its outline. Each guess gives you distance and direction to the answer. Beloved by geography fans.

12. Heardle

Guess the song from a one-second clip, extending the clip by another second each wrong guess. Originally beloved, the original creator’s site was acquired by Spotify in 2022 and then sunset. Several clones (Heardle Decades, Heardle 70s, etc.) continue the format.

13. Framed

Guess the movie from screenshots. One frame to start; new frames revealed each wrong guess. Cult favorite among film fans.

14. Posterdle

Guess the movie from its progressively revealed poster.

15. Movie to Movie

Connect two random movies through actors who appeared in both. Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon as a daily puzzle.

16. Actorle

Guess the actor from a redacted filmography and clue stats.

17. Plotwords

Guess the movie from its Wikipedia plot summary with key words redacted.

18. Globle

Like Worldle but you click the world map directly. Each guess shows you how hot or cold (how close to the answer country) you are.

19. Citydle

Guess the city from progressive geographic and demographic clues.

20. Flagle

Guess the country from a partially revealed flag.

Math and logic variants

21. Nerdle

Wordle for equations. The answer is a math expression like 12+34=46; you guess equations and get cell-by-cell feedback. There’s a strategy in setting up your second guess to test multiple operators.

22. Primel

Wordle but the answer is always a five-digit prime number. Niche but devoted following.

23. Mathler

Same idea as Nerdle but the target equation result is given upfront and you reconstruct the expression.

24. Numberle

Pure number-guessing version with Wordle-style positional feedback.

25. Equatle

Another equation-guessing variant with slightly different operator rules.

Pop culture and niche variants

26. Lewdle

Wordle’s adults-only sibling. The word list is rude on purpose. Surprisingly well-curated.

27. Sweardle

Four-letter Wordle where every answer is a swear word. The brevity makes it weirdly elegant.

28. Bandle

Guess the band from a one-instrument clip, with new instruments added each wrong guess. Like Heardle but musically deeper.

29. Chessguessr

Guess a famous chess opening from a position. Targets chess players specifically.

30. Cloudle

Guess a city’s five-day weather forecast pattern. Surprisingly fun.

What makes a great Wordle variant

Most variants follow the same blueprint, and the good ones stand out on three properties:

1. One puzzle a day, same for everyone. This is the Wordle innovation — the social pressure of comparing scores with the same constraints. Variants that abandon the daily limit (Wordle Unlimited) lose the genre’s defining feature.
2. Feedback that’s information, not luck. Wordle’s green/yellow/grey is perfectly tuned — each guess reduces the search space. Bad variants give you feedback you can’t act on.
3. Tight scope. The best variants pick a single domain and commit to it. Heardle is just songs. Worldle is just countries. Multi-mode variants (Wordle Plus, Wordle Pro, etc.) almost always feel worse than the focused originals.

The Wordle origin story

For context: Wordle was created by Josh Wardle in 2021 as a one-puzzle-a-day gift for his partner. He published it free on his personal site in October 2021, and by January 2022 it had millions of daily players. The New York Times acquired it later that year for an undisclosed seven-figure sum. The mechanics — six guesses, green/yellow/grey feedback — are now genre conventions, and the daily-puzzle format has been borrowed by an entire generation of small browser games.

The success spawned the variants above because the format is uniquely cloneable. The whole game is roughly 100 lines of JavaScript. Anyone with an idea for a themed twist can ship a variant in a weekend. The dozens that have stuck around have done so by picking a tight subject and executing it well.

For the full game’s documented history, the Wordle Wikipedia article is exhaustive.

Frequently asked questions

How many Wordle variants exist?

Hundreds. The thirty above are the ones that have built sustained communities. New variants launch monthly; most fade in weeks. The core “stuck-around” set has been stable since mid-2022.

Is the original Wordle still free?

Yes. The New York Times keeps the daily puzzle free at nytimes.com/games/wordle. Access to the archive (older puzzles) is paywalled behind NYT Games subscription.

Which Wordle variant is hardest?

Semantle is widely considered the hardest because letter-overlap strategy doesn’t apply. Sedecordle (sixteen simultaneous puzzles) is the hardest by sheer cognitive load. Absurdle is the hardest in the sense that it actively works against you.

Are there multiplayer Wordles?

Yes — Squabble is the leading real-time multiplayer Wordle. You can also share the standard Wordle result grid (the colored squares) with friends, which is the original game’s asynchronous “social” feature.

Can I play these on mobile?

All thirty variants work in mobile browsers. Some have dedicated apps (Wordle is in the NYT Games app), but the web is usually fine.

One game a day, plus one game a minute

The Wordle ecosystem has matured into a genre — a “daily” you do over morning coffee, then move on. If your variants run out before lunch and you want something requiring zero thought and ten seconds of focus, the T-Rex Runner on this homepage is the opposite shape of the same game: no waiting, no daily limit, just a cactus and a reflex test.

Related guides

• Every Type of Wordle Game: 15 Variants to Play Free