Free word games like Wordle you can play alone or together

Word games like Wordle at a glance

None of these is a copy of another game. Each one takes an idea word-puzzle fans already enjoy and lets you play it with friends in the same room. Player ranges and lengths are from each game page.

Multiplayer Wordle: Word Race

Wordle, the daily five-letter word puzzle from The New York Times, is a solo game: you play, then share your grid. Word Race is what happens when you play it together. Each round the whole room gets the same hidden five-letter word and six tries each. After every guess you see, privately, which letters are in the right spot, which are in the word somewhere else, and which are not in it at all.

Nobody can see anyone else’s letters. The room watches the race as a count of tries, and the reveal shows every board in colour only. Fewer tries scores more, and speed is not scored, so a careful player is never beaten by a fast typist. It takes 1 to 12 players and about eight minutes.

For a version with a local flavour, Naija word race gives a clue and five letters, drawn from food, places and street words from Nigerian life, with six tries and colour hints. Our full page on games like Wordle goes further.

• Word Race1–12 players · 8 minEveryone guesses the same hidden word. Six tries each, with letter-by-letter hints. Fewest tries wins.
• Naija word race1–12 players · 5 minA clue and five letters: food, places and street words from home. Six tries, with colour hints.

A Quordle-style race: Quad Race

If one word is too easy, Quad Race gives you four hidden words at once. You make one guess at a time, it counts against all four, and you have nine tries to find them all. Its own description puts it simply: Wordle, times four, together. See games like Quordle for more.

A grouping puzzle like Connections: Four Links

Four Links gives you sixteen words with four hidden groups of four. You find them all before your four mistakes run out. The fun is in the red herrings: a word that seems to fit two groups, or a group that only makes sense once you see the last link. Played as a room, everyone gets the same sixteen words, which makes the reveal a good argument about who saw what first. See games like Connections for more.

Making words from letters: Word Hive and Letter Web

Word Hive gives you seven letters, one of them in the middle, and two minutes. Make more words than anyone else and find the one that uses them all. If you play Spelling Bee every morning, this is the version you can race your friends on; our games like Spelling Bee page has more.

In the Arcade, Letter Web has you drag through touching letters to spell words before the clock runs out, much like the letter-grid hunt in Boggle. It is a solo score game, and you can compare your score with friends on the daily board. See games like Boggle.

Daily word games in the Arcade

If what you love about Wordle is the daily habit, the Arcade is built around it. Each game is a solo score game with a daily board, so you play, post a score and see how friends did. Five of them are letter games:

• Letter Trail: steer a snake through the letters to spell the day’s word.
• Letterfall: slide the tray to catch the falling letters in the order of the word.
• Word Stack: letters drop into columns, and lining up a word across a row bursts it.
• Letter Hop: hop from platform to platform, landing on the letters in the order of the word.
• Letter Web: drag through touching letters to spell words before the clock runs out.

• Letter TrailArcade · 1 player · daily boardSteer a snake through the letters to spell the day’s word.
• LetterfallArcade · 1 player · daily boardSlide the tray to catch the falling letters in the order of the word.
• Word StackArcade · 1 player · daily boardLetters drop into columns. Line up a word across a row and it bursts.
• Letter HopArcade · 1 player · daily boardHop from platform to platform, landing on the letters in the order of the word.
• Letter WebArcade · 1 player · daily boardDrag through touching letters to spell words before the clock runs out.

There is also the Daily, one question that changes each day. It is not a word puzzle and it is not scored, but everyone answers the same one and you can see how others answered.

Word games for a group

Some word games only work with other people. Category Clash gives one letter, six categories and ninety seconds, and only the answers nobody else thought of score. It plays a lot like Scattergories; see games like Scattergories. One Clue has everyone write a one-word clue for the guesser, but matching clues cancel out, so you have to be helpful without being obvious, much like the board game Just One. See games like Just One.

• Category Clash2–10 players · 10 minOne letter, six categories, ninety seconds. Only the answers nobody else thought of score.
• One Clue3–10 players · 12 minEveryone writes a one-word clue for the guesser. Matching clues cancel out, so be helpful, not obvious.
• Four Links1–12 players · 8 minSixteen words, four hidden groups of four. Find them all before your four mistakes run out.
• Quad Race1–12 players · 10 minFour hidden words, one guess at a time, nine tries to find them all. Wordle, times four, together.

More free word puzzles

• Real word or totally fake?: sort the real dictionary words from the made-up ones.
• Mind the Gap: old sayings with words missing, and a word bank full of almost-right decoys.
• Emoji word smash: two emoji, one word. Smash them together and guess it.
• Riddle Me: a riddle whose answer is a hidden word. Crack it outright, or let the letters give it away.

The Wordle-style games and word games pages list everything in one place.

How to play a word game with friends

1. Open a game such as Word Race or Four Links and choose to host a room.
2. Share the room code or link in your group chat.
3. Play live with countdowns, or run the room over several days so everyone solves it when they are free, like a shared daily puzzle.
4. Everyone sees the same puzzle on their own phone, and the reveal shows how each person did.

All of it is free, runs in the browser on any phone or computer and needs no account. Bored and on your own? See games to play when bored for more solo picks.

Play the games from this post

Free in your browser. Share the room code and everyone joins from their own phone, no signup.

• Word Race1–12 players · 8 minEveryone guesses the same hidden word. Six tries each, with letter-by-letter hints. Fewest tries wins.
• Quad Race1–12 players · 10 minFour hidden words, one guess at a time, nine tries to find them all. Wordle, times four, together.
• Four Links1–12 players · 8 minSixteen words, four hidden groups of four. Find them all before your four mistakes run out.
• Word Hive1–12 players · 6 minSeven letters, one in the middle, two minutes. Make more words than anyone else, and find the one that uses them all.
• Category Clash2–10 players · 10 minOne letter, six categories, ninety seconds. Only the answers nobody else thought of score.
• One Clue3–10 players · 12 minEveryone writes a one-word clue for the guesser. Matching clues cancel out, so be helpful, not obvious.
• Naija word race1–12 players · 5 minA clue and five letters: food, places and street words from home. Six tries, with colour hints.
• Real word or totally fake?1–12 players · 5 minSnollygoster. Flumtrosity. One’s in the dictionary. Sort the real words from the made-up ones.

More games like these

• Wordle-style games
• Word games
• Games to play alone