To play Quordle, you guess four five-letter words at the same time. You get nine guesses in the Classic mode. Every word you type is applied to all four boards at once. Green tiles mean the letter is in the right spot. Yellow tiles mean the letter belongs in a different spot.
Grey tiles mean the letter does not appear in that word. Solve all four words before your guesses run out and you win. Fail on even one board and the whole puzzle is lost. That shared guess pool makes Quordle four times harder than Wordle. It is also what makes the game so satisfying to finish.
Quordle is free to play in any web browser. It is published by Merriam-Webster, the American dictionary company. A new puzzle arrives every day, with unlimited practice available. If you know Wordle, you can learn Quordle in five minutes. The rest comes down to strategy.
What is Quordle?
Quordle is a daily word puzzle built on the Wordle formula. Instead of one hidden word, there are four. Instead of six guesses, you get nine. The four boards sit in a two by two grid on your screen. Each board scores the same guesses against its own hidden word.
The game launched at the end of January 2022. Engineer David Mah built the first prototype. Freddie Meyer then rewrote and expanded the code. Meyer said he was inspired by Dordle, the two-word version of Wordle. Quordle simply doubled that idea again.
Growth was rapid. Within the first few weeks, more than one million people had played Quordle. By late February 2022, Meyer reported over 500,000 daily players. At the time, he had no plans to make money from it. In January 2023, Merriam-Webster bought Quordle for an undisclosed sum.
Merriam-Webster now hosts Quordle on its games portal. Greg Barlow, the company president, called the game a staff favourite. The acquisition followed a wider trend. The New York Times bought Wordle in January 2022 for a low seven-figure sum. Spotify bought the music game Heardle in July 2022.
Quordle rules explained
The rules are short, but every detail matters. Here is the full list for Classic mode.
- There are four hidden words, each with five letters.
- You have nine guesses to find all four.
- Every guess must be a real five-letter English word.
- Each guess is checked against all four boards at once.
- Green means correct letter, correct position.
- Yellow means correct letter, wrong position.
- Grey means the letter is not in that word.
- A solved board locks and stops accepting new guesses.
- You win only when all four boards are solved.
The same letter can score differently on each board. The letter A might be green on board one and grey on board four. This is normal. Each board is scored independently.
Your keyboard also updates with colours. In Quordle, each key is split into four small quadrants. Each quadrant matches one board. One glance shows which letters remain open on each board. Reading this keyboard is the most useful habit for new players.
How to play Quordle step by step
Follow these steps for your first game. They work for Classic mode and carry over to other modes.
Step 1: Open the game
Go to the Merriam-Webster games page and choose Quordle. No account is needed. The game runs on phones, tablets, and desktop computers. Your stats and streak are stored in your browser.
Step 2: Choose your mode
The home screen lists several modes. Classic is the standard daily puzzle. Chill gives you 12 guesses and easier words. Extreme gives you eight guesses and harder words. Start with Classic if you are new.
Step 3: Type your first guess
Enter any valid five-letter word and press Enter. Most players use the same opening word every day. Good openers contain common letters and no repeats. Words like SLATE, CRANE, and TRACE are popular choices.
Step 4: Read all four boards
Look at each board and note the colours. Then check the keyboard for the quadrant colours. Write down or remember which letters are confirmed where. This takes ten seconds and saves many guesses.
Step 5: Play a second information word
Your second guess should test five new letters. Do not try to solve a board yet. A good pair of openers covers ten different letters. After two guesses, you often know the shape of two or three words.
Step 6: Solve the easiest board first
Pick the board with the most green and yellow tiles. Find a word that fits its pattern. When that board locks, your remaining guesses go further on the other three.
Step 7: Repeat until all four are solved
Keep solving one board at a time. Use each solved board’s letters as clues for the others. Watch your guess count. With nine total, you can spend two on information and seven on solving.
Step 8: Share your result
When you finish, the game shows a results grid. It uses coloured squares and numbers with no letters. You can copy this and share it without spoiling the answers. Sharing is optional, but many players enjoy comparing scores.
Quordle vs Wordle: the key differences
Both games use the same tile colours and the same five-letter format. Beyond that, the experience is very different.
- Wordle has one word; Quordle has four.
- Wordle allows six guesses; Quordle allows nine.
- In Wordle, one guess feeds one board. In Quordle, one guess feeds four.
- Wordle keyboard keys show one colour. Quordle keys show four quadrants.
- Wordle can be won in one lucky guess. Quordle cannot, since four boards need four different final words.
The numbers show why Quordle feels harder. Wordle gives you six guesses for one word, a ratio of six to one. Quordle gives you nine guesses for four words, just over two to one. Your information must be shared across all four puzzles. Wasted guesses hurt four times as much.
Wordle remains the bigger game by far. The New York Times reported that Wordle was played 4.8 billion times in 2023. Its full games portfolio passed 8 billion plays that year. Quordle sits in a smaller but loyal niche. Fans often describe it as the puzzle they play after finishing Wordle.
Understanding every Quordle mode
Merriam-Webster has added several modes since the acquisition. Each changes the guess count or the word list. Here is how they work as of September 2026.
Classic
Classic is the original daily game. Four words, nine guesses, one puzzle per day. This is the mode most players mean when they say Quordle. It also feeds the daily streak counter.
Chill
Chill gives you 12 guesses instead of nine. The word list avoids unusual vocabulary. This is the best mode for beginners and relaxed solves. It is also useful for learning how the four-board layout works.
Extreme
Extreme cuts you to eight guesses. The words are drawn from a harder list with rarer letter patterns. Experienced players use Extreme to test opening strategies under pressure. One wasted guess here often ends the game.
Sequence
Sequence shows only one board at a time. You must solve the first word before the second appears. The trick is that your earlier guesses still count. Letters you played on board one carry over to board two. Planning ahead for words you cannot yet see is the challenge.
Rescue
Rescue is the newest twist. The computer plays your first two guesses for you. They are rarely helpful. You then have seven guesses left to recover all four words. This mode rewards players who can extract value from bad starting positions.
Weekly Challenge
The Weekly Challenge unlocks after you complete a daily puzzle. It resets every Monday. It uses the same four-board format across the week. Many players save it for a quieter moment on the weekend.
Practice
Practice mode offers unlimited random puzzles. Results do not count toward your stats or streak. This is the right place to test new opening words. It is also the safest way to learn the keyboard quadrants.
When does Quordle reset?
Quordle releases one new daily puzzle every 24 hours. The change happens at midnight. The daily puzzle number goes up by one each day. Most players in Canada see the new puzzle when they wake up.
The timing question comes up often for every daily word game. Canadian players often also ask when does Wordle reset. Both follow a daily cycle, so one morning session covers both games.
Best starting words for Quordle
Your opening words matter more in Quordle than in Wordle. You are gathering information for four boards, not one. The goal is to test many distinct common letters in two or three guesses.
Research on Wordle gives a useful baseline. In 2022, MIT researchers Dimitris Bertsimas and Alex Paskov solved Wordle exactly. Their analysis found SALET to be the optimal first word. It solved the puzzle in an average of 3.421 guesses. The words closest behind it were REAST, TRACE, CRATE, and SLATE.
Quordle players tend to adapt this into a fixed set of openers. A common three-word set is:
- SLATE or CRANE for common vowels and consonants.
- BOUND or DOUGH for the letters O, U, D, and N.
- CHIMP or WHISK for less common consonants.
Together these cover about 15 letters. After three guesses, you typically know three or four letters on every board. You then have six guesses left to solve four words. That is enough if you avoid wasted moves.
Some players prefer a two-word opening. This leaves seven guesses for solving. The trade-off is less information early on. Test both approaches in Practice mode before committing to one.
Quordle strategy tips that actually work
The tips below come from watching how strong players approach the four-board format. They apply to Classic, Chill, and Extreme. Sequence and Rescue need small adjustments.
Never waste a guess on a single board early
A guess that only helps one board is expensive. In your first three turns, choose words that reveal letters across all four. Save single-board solving for after you have information everywhere.
Solve boards in order of certainty
Always attack the board you are most sure about. Locking a board early frees up your remaining guesses. It also removes one set of colours from the keyboard, which reduces confusion.
Use the keyboard quadrants constantly
The four-part keys are the heart of Quordle. Before every guess, scan the keyboard. Grey in all four quadrants means the letter is dead everywhere. Yellow in one quadrant means you need to place it on that board only.
Watch for repeated letters
Words like SKILL, FLUFF, and ERROR appear regularly. A yellow tile for a letter already placed green signals a repeat. This catches many players who assume each letter appears only once.
Track vowels per board
Every English five-letter word has at least one vowel. Some have three. After your openers, count the known vowels on each board. A board with no vowel after SLATE and BOUND usually contains I or Y.
Do not chase the hardest board
If one board refuses to yield, leave it. Solve the other three. Their letters often expose the stubborn word. Many failed games come from burning three guesses on one board too early.
Remember the guess budget
Nine guesses sound generous. In practice, three go to information and four go to final answers. That leaves only two for corrections. Every later guess should solve a board or narrow two at once.
Common mistakes new players make
Most early losses in Quordle come from the same handful of errors. Fixing them raises your win rate quickly.
- Solving one board completely before looking at the others.
- Reusing grey letters because the keyboard was not checked.
- Guessing words with repeated letters as openers.
- Forgetting that a solved board no longer gives feedback.
- Ignoring yellow letters that appear on multiple boards.
- Playing Extreme before mastering Classic.
The last mistake deserves attention. Extreme gives you eight guesses and rarer words. If you are still losing Classic games, Extreme will be frustrating. Spend a week or two on Classic and Chill first. Once you win Classic four days in five, move up.
Quordle streaks and statistics
Quordle tracks your results in the browser. The statistics panel shows games played, win percentage, and current streak. It also shows the number of guesses used for each win. A perfect score of four is rare. Most consistent players finish in seven or eight guesses.
Your streak only counts daily Classic puzzles. Practice games and other modes are tracked separately. Clearing your browser data will erase your stats. There is currently no cloud sync unless you log in through Merriam-Webster. Players who switch devices often lose their streak this way.
How Quordle compares with other Wordle variants
Quordle sits in the middle of a family of multi-board word games. Each version scales the same core idea.
- Wordle: one word, six guesses.
- Dordle: two words, seven guesses.
- Quordle: four words, nine guesses.
- Octordle: eight words, 13 guesses.
- Sedecordle: 16 words, 21 guesses.
Each doubling of the boards adds only a few guesses. Quordle is widely considered the sweet spot. It is hard enough to demand strategy but short enough to finish over coffee. Newer players can learn how to play Dordle first. It teaches the shared-guess concept with only two boards.
Canadian players also have a home-grown option. Ottawa brothers Mark and Jeff Rogers launched Canuckle, the Canadian Wordle, in February 2022. It uses only Canadian-themed answers and red tiles instead of green. Within weeks of launch, 2.4 million people had played it. At its spring 2022 peak, the game reached nearly 300,000 daily users.
Canuckle solves the same problem Quordle does from a different angle. Quordle adds difficulty by multiplying boards. Canuckle narrows answers to Canadian words and adds a fact after each solve. Many Canadian players run both daily. The unlimited Canuckle mode offers endless practice games without touching your streak.
Playing Quordle on mobile
Quordle works well on phones. The four boards shrink to fit the screen. On small phones, you may need to scroll to see the bottom two boards. The keyboard quadrants remain readable but are smaller.
A few practical tips help on mobile:
- Turn larger phones sideways to see all four boards at once.
- Add the Merriam-Webster games page to your home screen for one-tap access.
- Turn off predictive text in your keyboard settings if it interferes.
- Use the in-game keyboard rather than your phone keyboard for accurate colours.
Building your own word game
Some players go a step further and build their own version. Custom Wordle clones are simple web projects. A basic version needs a word list, a checking function, and a colour display. Many free tools now let you make your own Wordle without any coding. These tools are popular for classroom vocabulary, family games, and workplace team-building.
If you build one, respect the rules the New York Times has set. It has sent takedown notices to games copying the Wordle name and colours. Games with their own name, colours, and code have generally been left alone. Canuckle is a good example. Its creators rebuilt their code from scratch and use a red and yellow palette.
Improving your win rate over time
Quordle rewards patience more than raw vocabulary. Win rates climb steadily within a month for most players. The gains come from habits, not luck.
The habits that matter most are:
- A fixed opening set that you know by heart.
- Reading the keyboard before every guess.
- Solving boards in order of certainty.
- Leaving stubborn boards for last.
- Practising in unlimited mode between daily games.
The principles behind how to win Wordle every time apply here with one change. In Wordle, you can afford a risky guess on turn four. In Quordle, risk must be spread across four boards. A guess that gambles on one board and helps no others is wrong.
Quordle answers and hints
Every day, thousands of players search for Quordle hints and answers. Hint sites usually list the first letter of each word and a short clue. Some players use hints only when a streak is at risk. Others prefer to play without help.
If you use hints, look at them in order. Start with the vowel count for each board. Move to the first letter only if you are still stuck. Full answers should be the last resort. Using hints too early removes the reasoning that makes the game worthwhile.
Answers for past puzzles are archived on many sites. Reviewing them shows which letter patterns appear most often. Words like NYMPH, QUIRK, and FJORD appear more often than everyday English would suggest.
Frequently asked questions
How many guesses do you get in Quordle?
Classic mode gives you nine guesses. Chill gives you 12. Extreme gives you eight. Rescue gives you seven after the computer uses two.
Can you play Quordle more than once a day?
Yes. The daily puzzle can only be played once. Practice mode offers unlimited games. Sequence, Rescue, Chill, and Extreme each have their own daily puzzle too.
Is Quordle free?
Yes. Quordle is free to play on the Merriam-Webster website. The page shows advertisements to cover costs. No subscription is required.
Who owns Quordle?
Merriam-Webster acquired Quordle in January 2023. The company is a subsidiary of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Financial terms were not disclosed.
What happens if I lose a Quordle game?
The game reveals all four words. Your daily streak resets to zero. Your total games played and win percentage update. You can try again with tomorrow’s puzzle or play Practice mode right away.
Does Quordle work in Canada?
Yes. Quordle is a web game with no regional restrictions. Canadian players can access it from any province or territory. The word list follows Merriam-Webster’s American spellings, so plan guesses accordingly.
Sources
- Engadget, “Quordle has a fitting new owner as Merriam-Webster buys the Wordle clone”, January 2023
- TechCrunch, “Wordle clone Quordle acquired by Merriam-Webster”, January 2023
- Global News, “Quordle: Hit Wordle-style game finds buyer in Merriam-Webster”, January 2023
- Silicon Republic, “Wordle rival Quordle snapped up by Merriam-Webster”, January 2023
- Deseret News, “Introducing Quordle, a Wordle spinoff”, February 2022
- Yahoo News, “What is Quordle? The game four times harder than Wordle explained”, February 2022
- Merriam-Webster, Quordle game modes page, accessed September 2026
- The New York Times Company, announcement of Wordle acquisition, January 2022
- The New York Times Company, 2023 games engagement figures as reported by Sherwood News, January 2024
- Bertsimas and Paskov, “An Exact and Interpretable Solution to Wordle”, MIT Sloan School of Management, 2022
- CNBC Make It, “This is the best Wordle starting word according to MIT researchers”, September 2022
- CTV News Ottawa, “Canadian Wordle lovers now have a game to call their own”, February 2022
- CTV News Ottawa, “Creator of Canadian word game Canuckle says he has not received NYT takedown notice”, March 2024
- Daily Hive, “Wordle Canadian spin-off Canuckle”, February 2022