Over the past few weeks a word puzzle called Wordle has become popular on social media, or at least on Twitter/X, the only social media forum in which I have any kind of active presence.
For those not familiar with the game, the goal is to determine the 5-letter target word by making guesses at that word and being told which of those letters appear in the target and of those letters which are in the same place as the guess. Sounds simlpe? There’s a limit of 6 guesses. It’s not just a case of being lucky.
I played several variants before I tried the original. In this post, I’ll share a few variants that I’ve encountered. They mostly have the same gameplay as the original but I’ll point out some differences where relevant.
Lewdle
Like the original, but the target 5-letter word is in some way rude, lewd or offensive. N.B. Some of the words are slurs.
Sweardle
As above, but 4-letter words.
Hello Wordl
Play the original game but with a word length of anywhere between 4 and 11 letters.
Worldle
Try to identify the country based on its shape. The clue given is the distance and direction to the target.
Mathler
Find the hidden calculation that equals the target number. Uses digits 0-9 and
the operators +, -, / and *.
If you can solve this then there’s a harder version to try.
Nerdle
A harder version of Mathler - find the mathematical equation. You don’t even know how many digits are to be found in the answer.
Dordle
Like the original but try to solve two words at once.
Quordle
Like Dordle but try to find four words at once.
Passwordle
A much harder version of the game. The possible characters a not limited to letters but include numbers and symbols too. At least the letters are case-insensitive!
Passwordle (a different one)
The first one I consider to be genuinely infeasible for a human to solve. Enter the password and be shown its SHA256 hash. You’re then shown which of those hash digits are found in the target word’s hash. (A hash, amongst other things, can be used to store passwords securely). More details can be found in the Wikipedia article on hashing but for a simple explanation: A tiny change in the input (the guess made) results in a huge change in the output (the ‘clues’ given).
Vortjo
Perhaps the most obvious adaptation is to have a foreign language dictionary. This variant has an Esperanto wordlist. Small disclaimer: Vortlo is written by a friend of mine.
A version in Google Docs, compatible with Excel
Made by Twitter user akshathkilla.
Numble
A version made in the Geometry modelling software Geogebra.
Absurdle
The first variant I found. This is a contrarian version of the game; it continually changes the target word to avoid your guesses (whilst still giving non-contradictory clues). This one doesn’t have a fixed word on a given day so you can replay it to your heart’s content.
Chordle
Try to determine the correct form of a musical chord. It’ll be some kind of 7th and the challenge is to work out the notes and what inversion the chord is in.
Any more?
Have you encountered any that I’ve not mentioned here? Foreign language variants are equally welcome as gameplay variants.
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