Word Solitaire
Your vocabulary is the whole toolkit
Decades of books, newspapers and conversation have left you with far more words than you use in a normal week. Most of them just sit there. A word game for adults should let them out, and that is what happens here, because no one has chosen the words for you. Each deal is built from hidden words, but any real word from the game’s list will do.
That changes how a table looks. Say you have O, R, C, H, I and D showing. A quick look gives you RICH or CHOIR, and a second look gives you ORCHID, which clears all six cards at once. Or perhaps the table is stubborn and the letters will not join up. Then the words you never say aloud start to matter. EKE and HEW use awkward letters and can open up a stuck table. HAKE, the fish, can do the same.
Rarer words have a way of turning up once you start looking: ZEPHYR, WHARF, SALVE, LUCID. Some days the cards won’t offer anything like them. On other days, you will be glad you once read a lot of sea stories.
A calm kind of mental exercise
Think of a deal as a calm bit of mental exercise, and as more than a vocabulary test. Each word you play changes the table. You weigh what a word takes away against what it uncovers, you decide whether a card should wait in a slot, and you try to keep enough vowels for the words still to come.
That thinking happens at your speed. Nothing counts down, so you can spend ten seconds or ten minutes on a move. You get the satisfaction of a tricky puzzle without the feeling of being chased. Any move can be taken back with Undo, so trying an idea costs you nothing.
Par: a private challenge
If a calm game sounds too calm, par gives you something to aim at. Par is the number of words the deal was built from, and using longer words can take you under it. Clear a deal in par or fewer words without Peek and you earn 3 stars. Stay within par + 2 and you earn 2.
Stars never hold you back. They are a private measure, and a replay is always open for any deal you have reached, so you can go back and try for a better result. Many of the pleasures of this game come from that second attempt, when you see the word you missed.
Which word game suits your mood?
Different games do different jobs. Word Solitaire is the only one on this site, and it won’t suit every evening.
| If you want | Try | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A slow puzzle with a plan | Word Solitaire | Every word changes what you can do next |
| To show off general knowledge | Crosswords | Clues reward what you know, not only how you spell |
| To play against friends | A tile-based board game | It is social, which a solitaire game isn’t |
| To switch off completely | Word search | It asks for very little thought |
| A logic problem | Word ladders | One letter changes at a time, with a clear goal |
Fitting it into a grown-up day
There is nothing to install and no account to make, and the website has no ads, so it stays out of your way. Open it in any modern browser on a laptop, tablet or phone. On a keyboard you can type each word and press Enter, which can be more comfortable than tapping.
If you like a regular slot in your week, the daily deal gives you a single puzzle per calendar day, and everyone playing in English gets the same one. That makes it a nice thing to compare with a friend.
Start with a deal
Try the deal on this page, or play Word Solitaire on the home page. If you take to it, the iOS app goes well beyond the 50 website deals, with 200 deals and new ones after that.
Want a different angle? If you like the structure of cards and piles, the word card game page explains how it borrows from solitaire. If it is the letters that catch your eye, the anagram game page is the place to go.