Games Like Waffle: Swap, Anagram and Grid Word Puzzles

Waffle gives you the answer and then hides it. Every letter is already on the 5x5 board, and your job is to move them into six five-letter words, three across and three down, in 15 swaps or fewer. If that mix of logic and vocabulary is what you like, here is where to go next.

Few games copy Waffle directly, so this list is built around its separate pieces: rearranging letters, working a crossword-shaped grid, and reading Wordle-style colors.

If you like rearranging letters

Daily Jumble

Jumble is the closest relative in spirit. You unscramble a handful of ordinary words, collect the letters in the circled squares, and rearrange those into a pun that fits the day’s cartoon. It has run in newspapers since 1954. Like Waffle, you already hold every letter and the work is purely in seeing them differently. Jumble answers.

Letter Boxed

Letter Boxed hands you twelve letters on a square, and you chain words until every letter has been used. Nothing is scrambled, but you are again assembling answers from a fixed set. It rewards the same patience as a tricky Waffle corner. Letter Boxed hints.

Crossclimb

Crossclimb is one of LinkedIn’s daily games: arrange a ladder of words so each differs from the one before by a single letter, and the correct order unlocks clues for the words at the top and bottom. It is a different mechanic, but it trains the habit of changing one letter and checking whether a real word survives. See LinkedIn’s description of its games. We don’t cover it.

If you like a crossword-shaped grid

NYT Mini Crossword

Waffle’s interlocking words are the same idea as a crossword’s: some squares belong to two answers at once. The Mini is a five by five crossword, usually finished in under a minute, where letters from crossing words check each other. It adds clues, which Waffle never gives you. Mini Crossword answers.

Strands

Strands is a themed word search in which every letter is used exactly once. As you find words, the leftover letters shrink, which feels a lot like Waffle’s “the remaining tiles must fit somewhere” logic. Strands hints.

If you like the colors

Wordle

Waffle borrows Wordle’s color language: green for home, yellow for in the word but elsewhere. The difference is that Waffle’s colors are about a known set of letters, while Wordle’s are about a hidden word. If you came from Waffle, Wordle’s guessing is the unfamiliar part. Wordle hints.

Quordle

If you want Wordle-style colors with more bookkeeping, Quordle scores one guess against four boards at once with nine guesses total. Quordle hints.

A quick way to choose

• You like rearranging a fixed set of letters: Jumble or Letter Boxed.
• You like interlocking words: the Mini Crossword.
• You like the color feedback: Wordle, then Quordle.
• You want a new mechanic: Crossclimb on LinkedIn.

Getting better at Waffle

Read the colors before you touch anything. Green letters are home and should never move. A yellow in Waffle means the letter belongs in that word but in a different square, which is more specific than yellow in Wordle, so try moving it within its own row or column before sending it across the grid.

Nine squares belong to two words at once, so fixing one crossing square resolves letters in both directions. Start there. Fifteen swaps is the limit and a clean solve usually lands near ten, so a swap that fixes a letter in only one word is worth a second look.

If you get stuck, our Waffle hints can help you check your path, and the word unscrambler helps when you have a row of letters but can’t see the word.

Word Game Clues is an independent hint site and is not affiliated with The New York Times or any of the game publishers mentioned here.