Word Grid

How to play Word Grid

Word Grid is a fast, addictive word-building game played on a small square of lettered dice. When the round begins a clock starts ticking, and your job is to spell as many words as you can before it runs out. You build a word by linking neighbouring letters — across, down or diagonally — into a connected chain, then submitting it. Every valid word you find adds to your score, and the longer the word, the more it is worth. The grid is different every time, so no two rounds ever play the same. It is an English word game: the tiles are English letters and every word must appear in the game’s dictionary, but the whole interface, the rules and this guide are available in your language. Rounds are short and replayable, perfect for a quick brain workout on the bus or between tasks.

The goal

Score as many points as possible in a single timed round. You earn points by finding words hidden in the grid — every distinct word you submit is added to your list and its points to your total. There is no single “solution”: a typical grid contains dozens of findable words, and no one ever finds them all. When the clock hits zero the round ends, your score is recorded, and the game reveals the words you missed so you can learn new ones for next time. A higher score is always better, and your best score on each difficulty is saved.

The grid of dice

Each round gives you a square grid of letter tiles — 4×4 on Easy and Hard, or 5×5 on Medium — filled from a weighted mix of letters that favours vowels and common consonants, so there are always plenty of words to find. The letters are generated fresh for every round from a random seed, and the game checks that each grid contains a healthy number of findable words before handing it to you, so you never get a dud board. A tile showing “Qu” counts as the two letters Q and U together, exactly as it would in the words you know.

Connecting letters (adjacency)

A word is a path through the grid that hops from one tile to a touching tile each step. “Touching” means any of the eight surrounding squares, so movement is very free:

• From any tile you may move to a neighbour left, right, up or down, or to any of the four diagonal neighbours — eight directions in all.
• Each letter of your word must sit next to the previous one. You cannot jump across the grid to a tile that is not touching the last one.
• No tile may be used twice in the same word. Once a square is part of your current chain, you must move on to a different square.
• The path can twist and turn as much as you like — up, sideways, back down a diagonal — as long as every step lands on a neighbouring, unused tile.

Playing a round

• Trace a word by dragging your finger or mouse across the tiles, or by tapping them one at a time. The tiles you have chosen light up and the word you are spelling appears above the grid.
• The word bar turns green when your current chain is a valid new word, amber if you have already found it, and red if it is not in the dictionary — instant feedback before you commit.
• Release the drag (or press Submit) to lock the word in. If it is valid it jumps into your Found list with its points; if not, a short message tells you why. Use Clear to drop the current chain and start again.
• The very first letter you trace starts the clock. Keep finding words until time runs out — there is no penalty for a wrong guess, so try anything that looks like a word.

Scoring

Points depend only on how long each word is, using the classic small-grid scale. Longer words are worth far more, so hunting for a single six- or seven-letter word often beats grabbing several short ones:

• A 3- or 4-letter word scores 1 point.
• A 5-letter word scores 2 points.
• A 6-letter word scores 3 points.
• A 7-letter word scores 5 points.
• An 8-letter word scores 11 points.

Difficulty levels

Easy is a relaxed 4×4 grid with a generous 180-second clock — the friendliest place to learn. Medium steps up to a 5×5 grid with 150 seconds; the extra row and column open the door to many longer, higher-scoring words. Hard keeps the compact 4×4 grid but uses a tougher “big dice” letter mix with more of the rarer, higher-value letters, and gives you only 90 seconds — a fast, intense sprint. Each difficulty keeps its own best score.

Strategy tips

• Warm up with short words to bank easy points, then hunt for longer chains once you can see the whole grid. A single 7-letter word is worth five quick 3-letter words.
• Add common endings to words you have already spotted. If you can make CARE, look for a nearby S, D or R to reach CARES, CARED or CARER without starting over.
• Lean on prefixes and suffixes: RE-, UN-, -ING, -ED, -ER and -EST turn a short root into a longer, higher-scoring word whenever the letters line up.
• Scan around vowels. Words cluster where vowels and common consonants sit next to each other, so a corner full of consonants is usually a dead end.
• Do not agonise over a single tile. Wrong guesses cost nothing but time, so keep tracing — plurals, past tenses and small variations add up fast.

Frequently asked questions