Wordle

Wordle gives you one hidden five-letter word and six guesses to crack it, and everyone in the world plays the same word each day. Colored tiles tell you how close each guess is, then a shareable grid of squares lets you post your result without spoiling the answer. It is short, smart, and built to be played once a day and then put down.

What is Wordle?

Wordle is a daily word game built around a single rule: there is one hidden five-letter English word, and you have six tries to find it. Every player in the world gets the exact same word on the same day, so the puzzle becomes a shared event rather than an endless private feed. Type a real five-letter word, press enter, and the board reacts with color. That one-puzzle-a-day limit is the whole point: you cannot grind it, you cannot rush ahead, and once you solve it you are done until the next reset.

The feedback system is what makes the game tick. After each guess, every tile turns one of three colors. Green means the letter is correct and in the right position. Yellow means the letter is in the answer but sitting in the wrong spot. Gray means the letter is not in the word at all. With six rows to work through, you are constantly narrowing a shrinking pool of possibilities, balancing guesses that confirm a letter against guesses that test new ones. An optional Hard Mode forces you to reuse every revealed green and yellow clue, removing the option to play scattershot probing words.

Wordle was created by Josh Wardle, a Welsh software engineer, who built it in 2021 as a private game for his partner. He named it as a play on his own surname. It spread quickly through 2021 and early 2022, helped by a now-famous share button that turns your solved grid into a spoiler-free pattern of colored squares that you can post without revealing the answer. In January 2022 The New York Times acquired the game, and it now lives inside the NYT Games lineup alongside puzzles like the Spelling Bee and Connections.

The vibe is calm and quick. A round usually takes a few minutes, the difficulty sits in a friendly middle ground, and the daily cap keeps it from eating your time. If you sign in, the game tracks your win streak and guess distribution, and the NYT also offers WordleBot, an analysis tool that scores how efficient and how lucky your guesses were after you finish. It rewards a decent vocabulary and a bit of letter logic without demanding either, which is why it appeals to casual players and word nerds alike.

How to play Wordle

1. Open the game and type any valid five-letter English word as your first guess, then press enter.
2. Read the tile colors: green means the right letter in the right spot, yellow means the right letter in the wrong spot, and gray means the letter is not in the word.
3. Use those clues to choose a second word that keeps the green letters in place and moves or drops the others.
4. Keep guessing, narrowing the possibilities each turn, until you reveal the word or use all six attempts.
5. Solve the word to lock in your result for the day, then tap share to copy the spoiler-free emoji grid.
6. Come back after midnight in your local time for the next day's single new puzzle.

Tips and strategy

• Open with a word rich in common vowels and frequent consonants, such as one containing A, E, R, S, and T, to light up the board fast.
• Spend your first two guesses testing as many new letters as possible instead of chasing one early green too soon.
• Watch for repeated letters: a yellow or green does not rule out the same letter appearing twice in the answer.
• When several words fit the remaining greens, guess a word that contains the leftover candidate letters even if it cannot be the answer, to eliminate options quickly.
• Reposition your yellow letters deliberately, since yellow tells you the letter is present but specifically not where you just placed it.
• Turn on Hard Mode once you are comfortable, because forcing yourself to reuse every clue builds sharper deduction habits.

Good to know

Guesses

6 attempts at one five-letter word

Resets

Daily at midnight local time

Cost

Free to play, no account required

Creator

Josh Wardle (2021)

Publisher

The New York Times (acquired 2022)

Archive

Past puzzles via NYT Games subscription

Wordle FAQ

Is Wordle free?

Yes. The daily Wordle is free to play on the New York Times Games website and you do not need a subscription or an account, though signing in lets you save your streak and stats.

How many guesses do you get in Wordle?

You get six guesses to find the hidden five-letter word. Each guess must be a real word, and the tile colors after each one tell you which letters are correct, present but misplaced, or absent.

When does Wordle reset?

Wordle resets at midnight in your own local time zone, not Eastern time. That means players in different regions get the same day's word at different real-world moments.

Is there a Wordle archive?

Yes. The New York Times offers an official Wordle Archive of past puzzles, but full access to it requires a paid NYT Games or All Access subscription.

Who created Wordle?

Wordle was created by Josh Wardle, a Welsh software engineer, who first built it in 2021 for his partner. The New York Times bought the game in January 2022 and runs it today.