Word Solitaire
Familiar card sense, new cards
If you have ever played patience at a kitchen table, you will feel at home within a minute. The cards are laid out in piles. You can only touch what is on top. Each move uncovers something new, and the goal is an empty table.
What changes is the question you ask yourself. In classic solitaire you look for a card that fits another card. Here you look for a word hiding across several piles. A deal has 4 to 6 piles, and the top cards, along with anything in the slots, are your hand: you tap them in order to spell a word of 3 to 8 letters, press Play, and they all leave together.
Classic solitaire and Word Solitaire, side by side
| Classic card solitaire | Word Solitaire | |
|---|---|---|
| Cards | Suits and ranks | Letters |
| A move | Place one card on another | Spell a word from top cards |
| Cards in play | Exposed cards, plus the stock | Top cards and slot cards |
| Face-down cards | Often, until uncovered | None, cards lie face up |
| Spare spaces | Depends on the variant | Two set-aside slots |
| Winning | Build up the foundations | Clear every pile and every slot |
| Can you get stuck for good? | Yes, some deals can’t be won | No, every deal can be cleared |
| Taking back a move | Depends on the version | Undo is free and unlimited |
The piles
Pile play is where the solitaire thinking comes in. Since a word can only draw on top cards, each pile gives you one letter per word at most. Even a very long word takes just one card from a pile. That makes a tall pile slow to clear, and a table with one tall pile left at the end is a poor place to be.
So it pays to think like a card player and work down the tallest piles whenever a word allows it. Short piles will run out by themselves.
When a pile runs out, you have one less letter to draw on, which means fewer words to choose from. Experienced players learn to keep several piles going for as long as they can.
The two slots
Under the table sit two set-aside slots, which work rather like the spare cells in some solitaire variants. Pick exactly one top card and tap a free slot, and that card moves off its pile. The card beneath comes into play, and the card you moved stays playable.
There is a catch that any card player will recognize. A slot used early is a slot you don’t have later. Undo is the only way back to a pile, and the deal isn’t won until the slots are empty too, so you will have to use that letter in a word at some point.
Planning a move
Here is the kind of choice a table gives you. Suppose the top cards show T, A, P, E and S. You could play TAPE and keep the S on top for a plural later. You could play PASTE and take all five cards at once, which can uncover up to five new letters. Fewer words brings you closer to par, but the S you spent might have finished a later word.
There is no fixed right answer. The fun is in weighing it up, and with Undo you can try both.
Keeping score
Each deal has a par, which is the number of words it was built from. Match or beat par and skip Peek for 3 stars, stay within par + 2 for 2 stars, and any other clear earns 1. Stars are a score to enjoy and never a gate, as you move on regardless.
In the iOS app, each finished world of ten levels unlocks the next of ten card decks, so the table’s look changes as you play.
Other word card games
Word Solitaire is the one game we host. Other word card games are a different kind of thing.
- Letter-card games for a group. These are played around a table, with hands of letter cards and a shared score. They are sociable, and they need other people and a physical deck.
- Word tile games. Close relatives of card games, with a board and points for each word. They reward knowing many short words and are usually played against others.
- Word Solitaire. It is for one player, with no need for a deck or a partner. It won’t give you the fun of a family game night.
Deal yourself in
The deal on this page is ready when you are, or you can play Word Solitaire at the very beginning. A new daily deal arrives once per calendar day.
Curious about the letters more than the cards? The anagram game page covers how to see words in a jumble. For the slower side of solitaire, try relaxing word games.