Lewdle: what is the rude Wordle spinoff, how to play - and other versions of the online game

The latest game to be sweeping the internet - and clogging up Twitter feeds with grids of green, yellow and grey emojis - is Wordle, a word puzzle game which releases a new puzzle once a day.

In response to the game’s sudden online popularity, a number of spinoffs giving their own twist on the puzzle have cropped up, including Lewdle - this is what you need to know.

What is Lewdle and how do I play?

Lewdle, which is available to play online, (and the original Wordle) is a brainteaser which lies somewhere between a crossword and a sudoku puzzle. Anyone who knows the game Mastermind, which employs the use of coloured pegs, will instantly be familiar with the premise of Wordle.

The objective of Wordle is to guess the secret word in six tries, using a series of hints to figure it out - the objective of Lewdle is exactly the same, but instead of just normal words, all the words are rude.

If any of your letters is highlighted as green, that means that you’ve got the right letter in the right place.

If any of the letters is highlighted as yellow, that means that that letter is in the word, but it’s in the wrong place.

Finally, if any of your letters is highlighted as grey, it means that that letter isn’t included anywhere in the secret word.

You also have to enter a word as a guess, you cannot enter random letters, like the vowels, in hopes of cracking the code.

There is only one puzzle a day, so once you’ve completed it you’ll need to wait until the following day to try a new one.

Are there other Wordle spinoffs?

Given the sudden popularity of the online game, a number of spinoffs have appeared online.

As well as Lewdle there’s Queerdle, which describes itself as the “yassification of wordle”, wherein players need to figure out the word which relates, in some way, to the LGBTQ+ community.

Speaking to Pink News, Jordan Bouvier, the creator of Queerdle, said: “I want it to be truly queer. So there are references to history, drag, slang, and of course the sexual references.

“There are words in the dictionary for all queer folks. I’ve also opened up word submission to everyone because I’m under no impression that I know all of the queer lexicon.”

Similarly to Lewdle, Sweardle is a ruder version of the puzzle game, but with four letter words instead of five, with players having to figure out the swear word.

Absurdle pitches itself as an “adversarial version” of the game, featuring a much more complicated playing style.

Where Wordle only has one correct answer for all players on a daily basis, Absurdle’s winning word actually changes with each word.

The developers explained: “Wordle picks a single secret word at the beginning of the game, and then you have to guess it.

“Absurdle gives the impression of picking a single secret word, but instead what it actually does is consider the entire list of all possible secret words which conform to your guesses so far.”

While Wordle only allows users six tries to crack the code, Absurdle gives its players an unlimited amount of chances to try their luck - which is desperately needed as Absurdle is intentionally trying to prolong the game as much as possible.

If that sounds a bit confusing, the developers of Absurdle broke down the mechanics of the game in an extraordinarily detailed blog post, explaining exactly how the game functions.

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