Squaredle

Squaredle is a free daily word-search puzzle played on a small grid of letters, where the goal is to uncover every hidden word by linking tiles that touch. Words run four letters or longer and can bend in any of the eight directions, diagonals included, with the same tile reused across many answers. A counter tracks how many words remain, and a deep pool of optional bonus words rewards anyone who wants to keep digging.

What is Squaredle?

Squaredle is a daily word-search puzzle played in the browser at squaredle.app. Instead of revealing letters one row at a time, it hands you a compact grid of letters, often with a few blocked cells, and asks you to dig out every valid word hiding inside it. You spell a word by linking tiles that physically touch, moving in any of the eight directions including the diagonals, and a tile can be reused across many different words. Every word must be at least four letters long; three-letter strings and shorter do not count.

What sets Squaredle apart from the wider family of Wordle-style games is that it is a search rather than a single daily guess. There is no limit on attempts and no penalty for a wrong word: you simply keep finding answers until the remaining-word counter hits zero. Valid words are checked against the official NASPA word list, NWL2023, with capitalized and hyphenated entries generally excluded. Beyond the required words, the grid hides bonus words, described by the game as obscure, archaic, or slang terms. These do not lower the counter but are tracked with a plus-one tally beside the word count, and there are usually around twice as many bonus words as required ones, so completionists always have more to chase.

Squaredle was created by Michael Giuffrida, a software engineer who built the game while on medical leave from Google. It grew out of his frustration with a Boggle-style game called Wordhuntle: he wrote a solver in Kotlin, swapped in a stronger dictionary, and gradually turned that tool into a puzzle generator wrapped in a web interface. The game launched on March 5, 2022, and grew slowly until a collaboration with James Robinson, the creator of Waffle, sent daily players from a few thousand into the tens of thousands almost overnight. It remains an independent project supported by donations and an optional subscription.

A new puzzle drops every day at 3am Pacific time, and the week is paced by design: Monday grids are the gentlest, difficulty climbs toward a hard Friday, Saturday puzzles add playful twists, and Sunday boards pack in the most words. There is also a separate daily 3x3 Express puzzle for a quicker solve. As you progress through a board, star milestones unlock free help in stages: first you see how many words start on each tile, then how many words use each tile, and finally hints in the word list. Word reveals are handled separately; a free player gets one reveal per puzzle plus one more for finding the Bonus Word of the Day, while the optional Squared subscription adds four more reveals each day, each exposing a four-, five-, or six-letter answer. Leaderboards rank players on bonus words found, accuracy, and solve time. The vibe is relaxed but genuinely deep: casual solvers can clear an early-week grid in a few minutes, while word hunters can spend much longer mining every rare and bonus entry. It suits anyone who likes Boggle, crosswords, or simply the satisfaction of emptying a board.

How to play Squaredle

1. Open the day's grid and note any blocked or empty cells, since they break up which tiles can connect.
2. Spell a word by tapping or dragging across tiles that touch, moving up, down, sideways, or diagonally in any of the eight directions.
3. Submit words of four letters or more; three-letter strings and shorter are not accepted.
4. Watch the remaining-word counter drop with each required word, and keep going until it reaches zero to clear the puzzle.
5. Chase the bonus words shown by the plus-one tally for extra credit, even though they do not lower the main counter.
6. Earn star milestones as you progress to unlock free help, such as how many words start on each tile, how many words use each tile, and hints in the word list.
7. If you get truly stuck, spend a reveal to expose a four-, five-, or six-letter answer; free players get one per puzzle plus one for finding the Bonus Word of the Day, and Squared subscribers get four more.

Tips and strategy

• Because tiles are reusable, treat one strong letter cluster as a hub and spell several words off it before moving elsewhere on the grid.
• Mind the blocked cells: words cannot jump across an empty square, so plan paths that stay on touching tiles only.
• Sweep for common four-letter words first to drain the counter fast, then push into longer words for the harder remaining entries.
• Extend words you already found by dragging into a neighboring tile; a found four-letter word often hides a five- or six-letter answer.
• Lean into diagonals, which players overlook most; many answers only appear when you let a path cut across corners.
• Treat bonus words as a separate hunt: since there are roughly twice as many as required words, the obscure and archaic finds are where the real depth and leaderboard points live.
• Spend your one free reveal wisely, and remember that finding the Bonus Word of the Day earns you a second reveal at no cost.

Good to know

Resets

Daily at 3am Pacific

Cost

Free, with optional Squared subscription ($2.99/month intro for 12 months, then $3.99/month)

Attempts

Unlimited word entries, no penalty for misses

Word list

Official NASPA word list, NWL2023; 4-letter minimum

Reveals

Free players get 1 per puzzle plus 1 for the Bonus Word of the Day; Squared adds 4 more

Creator

Michael Giuffrida, launched March 5, 2022

Squaredle FAQ

Is Squaredle free?

Yes. The daily puzzle is free to play in any browser. An optional subscription called Squared (introductory $2.99 per month for the first 12 months, then $3.99 per month) adds extras like archive access and four extra word reveals per puzzle.

How many guesses do you get in Squaredle?

There is no guess limit. Squaredle is a word search, not a single daily guess, so you can submit as many words as you like with no penalty for invalid attempts until you clear the grid.

How many word reveals do you get?

A free player gets one reveal per puzzle, plus one more for finding the Bonus Word of the Day. The optional Squared subscription adds four more reveals each day. Each reveal exposes a four-, five-, or six-letter answer.

When does Squaredle reset?

A new puzzle is released every day at 3am Pacific time. Difficulty is paced across the week, with Monday the easiest and Friday the hardest.

Is Squaredle related to Wordle?

No. It borrows the daily-puzzle format popularized by Wordle but plays completely differently. Squaredle is a letter-grid word search closer to Boggle, created independently by Michael Giuffrida and launched in 2022.