Wordspool

About Wordspool

Wordspool is a free daily word association puzzle played in a browser. You are given a starting word and a goal word to reach. The words displayed around you are those related to your current word; you step onto one to move to it, and the pool of related words changes accordingly. The puzzle is to navigate from start to goal through word relationships in as few moves as possible, with par being the shortest route worked out when the puzzle is dealt.

Unlike spelling games such as Wordle, Wordspool has no letters to guess, no grid and no anagrams. It belongs with games that measure meaning rather than letters, similar to Semantle, Contexto, NYT Connections, Redactle and Six Degrees of Wikipedia. The key difference is that in Wordspool the distance is walked rather than guessed: every move is a real link between two words, and your score is how many of those links you took.

A new pool of a hundred words is cut from a graph of 10,352 words every day at 05:00 UTC. The daily challenge is one puzzle from that pool, the same for everybody, and you can also deal new puzzles with different start and goal words from the same hundred words. Every puzzle has a four-digit code you can share with friends to challenge them to the same puzzle during that day.

• word association
• semantic
• puzzle game
• browser game
• daily puzzle
• word game

FAQ

What is Wordspool?

Wordspool is a free daily word association puzzle played in a browser. You are given a word to start on and a word to reach, and the words around you are the ones related to the word you are standing on. Step onto one and the pool changes to the words related to that one instead. The puzzle is to get from the start to the goal in as few moves as you can.

Is Wordspool like Wordle?

No. Wordle is a spelling game where you guess letters and the grid tells you which are in the right place. Wordspool has no letters to guess, no grid and no anagrams. It is an association game where the only thing that matters is what words mean and how they are connected to each other.

What is par in Wordspool?

Par is the shortest route from your starting word to the goal, worked out the moment the puzzle is dealt. Arriving on par means the board could not have been walked in fewer moves. Moves is what you actually spent, and hint says how many steps still lie between you and the goal.

How often does the Wordspool puzzle change?

A new pool of a hundred words is cut every day at 05:00 UTC. The daily challenge is one puzzle from that pool, the same for everybody, and new puzzle deals a different start and goal from the same hundred words.

Is Wordspool free to play?

Yes. Wordspool is free in any desktop or mobile browser, with no download, no account and no sign-up. There is a weekly leaderboard you can put a first name on if you want to, and nothing on the site asks for anything more than that.