WORDLE | is played on a website (not APP)

Let's begin by saying, the fabulous word game WORDLE is played on the web (not an APP).

There is no official Wordle "app". Yes, you will find scam apps on Apple but they are NOT the official Wordle game played by over 2.7 million users every day.

The browser-based daily word game 'Wordle' was launched in October 2021 by Josh Wardle, who has pledged to keep the game free and ad-free.

How to play Wordle

The rules of the game are simple - players get six chances each day to guess a five-letter word.

The official Wordle game is not available on any app store, but can be played for free.

Play WORDLE

Like Wordle? Try these APPS

One of the great things about Wordle is that it demands just five minutes a day of your attention (even less if you're one of those selfprofessed geniuses who gets it in two and insists on sharing it).

But for some, that's also Wordle's biggest problem. What are you meant to do with the other 23 hours 55 minutes before midnight rolls around and another game goes live?

Enter a whole host of Wordle-like brain teasers, spin-offs , rip-offs , inspired-by or just plain havinga-lend games to fill the hours.

These things are proliferating and mutating with all the speed of the you-know-what virus, so we can't claim this list is comprehensive . But it's a good place to start.

WORLDLE (out of five)

You have to guess the country from its shape. Type in a name and you'll get an indicator of distance from the centre of the country you've nominated to the centre of the correct answer, and an arrow telling you which direction you need to head. There's really only one flaw with this game: with around 200 countries in the world, it has an inherently limited life span.

DORDLE

Dordle is two Wordle games played simultaneously, and you get seven attempts rather than six. It should be twice as much fun, but it isn't . It's not as straightforward as Wordle, but not as challenging as some other variants. Let's move on.

QUORDLE

Now we're talking. This four-grid Wordle variant hits the sweet spot. It's challenging to work your way through four words simultaneously, even with nine guesses at your disposal, but manageable.

OCTORDLE

In a leap from difficult to infuriating, Kenneth Crawford's iteration gives you 13 tries to solve eight grids. Seriously, who has the time?

SWEARDLE

You have four guesses to land on the day's four-letter word. It's harder than it sounds.

SEMANTLE

This one's a vocabulary tester, in which your guesses (unlimited) are scored by their " similarity' ' to the target word. It falls down on the algorithm that determines similarity . Tweak that and it'd be brilliant.

JEWDLE

This Jewish version, with six guesses at a six-letter word, is truly niche. If your Yiddish (or Hebrew or Aramaic) isn't up to scratch, you'll need to be pretty mazldik (that's Yiddish for lucky, you nebbishes).

TAYLORDLE

for the Swifties for everyone else

If you can place the Jonas brothers in the Taylorverse this one is for you; if not, you'll draw a blank slate.

HOGWARTLE

for Harry Potter fans for everyone else

You'll need to know your way around J.K. Rowling's Potterverse to stand much chance. Strangely, neither TRANS nor TERFS is accepted as a valid word ...

ABSURDLE Rating: Fish

If Luigi Pirandello and the Monty Python crew had downed a bottle of absinthe while brainstorming their own spin on Wordle, they'd have come up with this.

" Each time you guess, Absurdle prunes its internal list as little as possible, attempting to intentionally prolong the game as much as possible,'' the creator explains. BSTARD.

NERDLE

The only thing nerdier than Absurdle is Nerdle, a maths puzzle game in which you have to try to guess the problem and the solution within six tries. It's like the numbers part of the TV show Words and Numbers, but without the gags.

This article by Karl Quinn is from the February 25, 2022 issue of The Age Digital Edition.
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