Playing games — especially board, card, and word games online — cultivates curiosity and promotes healthy competition among players. It also affords players a comforting escape from lingering doubts, nagging concerns, and distracting thoughts.
Whether you’re playing board games at a party or holding your smartphone in your hand while you challenge a friend or family member to a game of Last Letter First, the time you devote to one-upping your competition is always time well spent!
Given the steady popularity of online word games, we decided to put together a list of the ten most popular games. Have you played one, a few, or all of these? Let’s find out!
1. Last Letter First
Call us biased, but by our estimation, Last Letter First is hands down the best online word game to play by yourself or with others. To play Last Letter First, all you have to do is start a new game and enter any word of your choosing. The last letter of the word you choose must be used to create the next word. If you start a new game with the word “octopus,” for example, the next word must begin with “s,” and so on. Download Last Letter First on your phone or tablet or, if you prefer, play it directly in your web browser!
2. Words With Friends
Words With Friends is an online word game that appeals to people who enjoy playing Last Letter First. Both are multiplayer games that appeal to a wide range of age groups and skill levels. Words With Friends is quite similar to Scrabble because at the start of the game, you’re given a rack of seven-letter tiles that you’ll use to form words, and each letter holds a specific point value. If you’re curious about our take on Words With Friends and how it compares to Last Letter First, read this blog post for some useful insights.
3. Wordle
Back in 2013, a Brooklyn-based software engineer named Josh Wardle decided to create an online word game for his partner. The New York Times capitalized on its popularity by purchasing it in January 2022. The goal of this game is to guess a five-letter word. After each try, the game reveals if you have correctly guessed a letter and if that letter is in the correct place. You have six tries to guess the word.
4. Scrabble
According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, Scrabble “was developed by Alfred M. Butts, an architect, in 1931. It was redesigned, renamed as Scrabble, and marketed by James Brunot in 1948.” This game is available in many different versions and variants, and you can play it online whenever you wish. If you’re curious about the differences between Scrabble and Last Letter First, we invite you to read this blog post.
5. Battle Text
The goal of Battle Text is rather simple: during each turn, you must play a longer word than your opponent. Like Last Letter First, this game rewards those who have a strong, ever-expanding vocabulary.
6. Wordscapes
Wordscapes combines the challenge of a crossword puzzle with the excitement of a word search. At the start of the game, you’ll be given letters to fill in crossword-style grids.
7. Connections
One of three word games online hosted by The New York Times that appears on our list, Connections is a game that challenges you to categorize 16 words into four groups based on shared themes. Some of the words that seem likely to belong together don’t, so it takes a keen eye to decipher each category in order to solve the puzzle.
8. Spelling Bee
The New York Times hosts an impressive variety of word games online, and Spelling Bee is one of them. To play Spelling Bee, you have to create words consisting of four or more letters, and the word in the middle of the “beehive” must be used at least once. It’s a fun online word game to play if you have a solid vocabulary, and the game does a good job of inspiring you to continuously reach higher levels.
9. Letterpress
This popular turn-based word game requires players to form words using letters that appear on a 5×5 board of tiles. Once you successfully assemble and submit a word, you’ll claim those tiles as your own. The real challenge begins when tiles become locked, making them untouchable by your opponent — and vice versa. The player who captures the board wins.
10. Word Wipe
If you like the idea of racing against time as you connect letters to form words, you might find yourself enamored by an online word game called Word Wipe. The design may remind you of Tetris or Bejeweled, especially once you successfully form words and clear rows, with the pace of the game gaining speed as you go. The objective is to clear all your rows on the board before time runs out.
Discover Word Games You’ll Love Playing
There are so many brilliant word games online that are worth your time and attention. Some of the games on this list may appeal to you, while others may not. In the end, it’s all about finding your playing style.
Whatever games you decide to play now or in the near future, the best online word games will help you expand your descriptive vocabulary so you can communicate clearly in your day-to-day life.
