10 Daily Word Games to Play After Wordle and Connections
Wordle takes a few minutes. Connections takes a few more. Then, if you are the sort of person who enjoys having a small puzzle waiting for you every day, there is an obvious question: what do you play next?
There are now plenty of daily word games that do something genuinely different. Some are about spelling. Some test vocabulary. Others are closer to logic puzzles, asking you to spot relationships, follow clues or work out how words are connected.
This list is not ranked. The best choice depends on which part of Wordle or Connections you actually enjoy. If you like deduction, there are games for that. If you like hunting through letters, there are games for that too.
And, for transparency, one of the games below is ours: Clume. We made it because we wanted a daily word game that's a little bit different.
1. Clume
Best for: deduction and clue-solving
Clume gives everyone the same hidden word each day, but instead of showing you correct letters, it gives you clues one at a time.
You can make a guess whenever you think you know the answer. If you are wrong, another clue becomes available. The challenge is not simply to find the word, but to find it using as few clues as possible.
That changes the way you think compared with Wordle. You are not asking which letters fit. You are trying to work out what several different ideas have in common and which word best explains all of them.
If that sounds closer to the part of Connections you enjoy, you may also like our explanation of what a deduction puzzle is and why connecting clues can matter more than simply knowing lots of words.
Clume has one puzzle each day and is designed to be a short daily challenge rather than something you need to sit with for an hour.
2. NYT Strands
Best for: themed word searching
Strands combines a word search with a daily theme. Words are hidden across a grid of letters, but unlike a traditional word search they can bend through adjoining squares rather than running only in straight lines.
The interesting part is working out the theme. Once one or two words become clear, the rest of the grid often starts to make more sense.
That makes Strands a good follow-on from Connections because solving it involves more than simply spotting valid words. You are also trying to identify the relationship that binds the answers together.
3. Waffle
Best for: people who like Wordle's letter feedback
Waffle starts with the letters already on the board. Your job is to rearrange them into the correct horizontal and vertical words using a limited number of swaps.
The familiar coloured feedback makes it immediately understandable to Wordle players, but the puzzle feels quite different because several words interact at once.
A letter that looks useful in one row might actually belong in a column, so solving the puzzle becomes a small piece of optimisation rather than a sequence of independent guesses.
4. Quordle
Best for: Wordle players who want more of a challenge
Quordle takes the basic Wordle idea and makes you solve four words at the same time.
Every guess is applied to all four boards, which means a word that gives excellent information for one puzzle might tell you very little about another. You therefore have to think more carefully about how much information each guess is likely to reveal.
If ordinary Wordle has become something you can routinely finish without much trouble, Quordle is an obvious way to make the same style of puzzle harder without learning a completely new set of rules.
5. Contexto
Best for: thinking about meaning rather than spelling
Contexto hides a word and lets you make guesses with no obvious letter clues. Instead, each guess is ranked according to how close it is in meaning to the answer.
A guess that is conceptually close sends you in the right direction. A distant one tells you that you may be exploring the wrong subject entirely.
That creates a very different kind of search. Instead of moving from letters to a word, you move from broad ideas towards a precise concept.
It is particularly satisfying if you enjoy word association games, because progress comes from exploring relationships between meanings rather than manipulating spelling.
6. Squaredle
Best for: finding lots of words rather than one answer
Squaredle gives you a grid of letters and asks you to find words by joining neighbouring tiles. Letters can connect horizontally, vertically and diagonally, so words can twist around the board.
Unlike Wordle, there is not one answer you are trying to uncover. The aim is to find more and more of the words hidden in the same set of letters.
That makes it a good choice when you want something that can be played for a couple of minutes or kept open for longer. You can find a few obvious words, come back later, and discover that the same grid still has plenty left in it.
7. NYT Spelling Bee
Best for: vocabulary
Spelling Bee gives you seven letters arranged around a central letter. You make as many words as possible, with every accepted word required to include the letter in the middle.
The goal is therefore very different from Wordle. You are not trying to identify one secret word; you are trying to see how much vocabulary you can extract from a tightly limited set of letters.
Longer words score more highly, and finding a word that uses all seven letters is particularly satisfying.
If the vocabulary side of word games is what appeals to you most, we have also looked at how word games can build vocabulary.
8. Semantle
Best for: a seriously difficult semantic puzzle
Semantle is another game based on meaning rather than letter position, but it can be much less forgiving than a typical five-minute word puzzle.
You guess words and receive a similarity score telling you how closely they relate to the hidden answer. The challenge is then to work out which direction to travel through the huge web of possible meanings.
A promising word can still leave you a long way from the answer, so solving Semantle often involves trying related concepts, opposites, categories and associations until something suddenly clicks.
It is an excellent choice when you want the daily puzzle to put up more of a fight.
9. Minute Cryptic
Best for: learning cryptic clues without doing a whole crossword
Cryptic crosswords can be intimidating because there is a lot to learn at once. Minute Cryptic takes a friendlier approach by concentrating on an individual cryptic clue rather than an entire grid.
That makes it useful both as a quick daily puzzle and as a way of gradually learning how cryptic clue setters think.
The skill is not simply vocabulary. You have to recognise wordplay, hidden instructions and the deliberate misdirection built into the clue.
If you enjoy the moment when an apparently confusing clue suddenly becomes obvious, this is an easy one to add to a daily routine.
10. NYT Letter Boxed
Best for: word chaining and planning ahead
Letter Boxed places letters around four sides of a square. You create words by moving between the sides, and the final letter of one word becomes the first letter of the next.
The real challenge is using every letter while keeping the number of words as low as possible.
That means a perfectly valid word is not necessarily a good move. You have to think about which letters it leaves available and where the next word can go.
It sits somewhere between a vocabulary game and a planning puzzle, which makes it particularly appealing if you like finding elegant solutions rather than simply reaching the answer any way you can.
Which daily word game should you try next?
If you mainly enjoy Wordle's letter logic, start with Waffle or Quordle.
If Connections is more your thing, Clume, Contexto and Semantle put much more emphasis on relationships between words and ideas.
If you enjoy searching through letters and building vocabulary, Squaredle and Spelling Bee are better choices. For something more traditional but still quick, Minute Cryptic gives you a small daily dose of cryptic crossword thinking.
The good news is that you do not really have to choose one. Part of the appeal of daily word games is that most are short enough to become a sequence: Wordle, Connections, then whatever comes next.
If you want that next game to be based on clues and deduction rather than another letter grid, today's Clume puzzle is waiting.
More daily word game ideas
If you are still looking, you might also like our guides to games like Wordle and games like NYT Connections. For a broader mix of puzzles, see our guide to brain games for adults.