How to Play Wordels

A game of hidden words, careful guesses, and letter deduction

The Goal

You and the computer each have a secret five-letter word. Take turns guessing valid five-letter words. The first player to guess the opponent's exact secret word wins.

After each guess, you are told only how many letters from the guessed word occur in the secret word. You are not told which letters match, and letter positions do not matter.

Starting and Playing a Game

  1. Enter your secret five-letter word.
  2. Choose Easy, Medium, or Hard.
  3. Start the game. Wordels randomly decides who goes first.
  4. On your turn, enter a valid five-letter guess.
  5. On the computer's turn, Wordels shows its guess. Select the number of matching letters from 0 through 5.
  6. Continue taking turns until someone guesses the exact secret word.

Words used by Wordels contain five different letters, so each letter can be considered separately during deduction.

The One-Letter Strategy

The most useful guesses often differ by only one letter. If the match count changes, the two swapped letters reveal useful information.

Example 1: The count increases

TRACK - 2 TRICK - 3

Only one letter changed: A was replaced by I.

The match count increased from 2 to 3. Therefore, A is not in the secret word, while I is in the secret word.

Example 2: The count decreases

THICK - 3 THINK - 2

Only one letter changed: C was replaced by N.

The match count decreased from 3 to 2. Therefore, C is in the secret word, while N is not in the secret word.

Reading Equal Counts

If two one-letter-apart guesses receive the same count, the swapped letters have the same status: either both belong in the secret word or neither does. Information from earlier guesses can help determine which case is true.

Using the Game Tools