Our take
Squaredle gives you a small grid of letters and asks you to find every hidden word by sliding from letter to neighbouring letter, across, down or diagonally, without using a square twice in one word. Each word you find fills in; the board is done when every required word is found.
Puzzles get harder through the week, easiest on Monday and hardest on Friday, and a tiny three-by-three Express board arrives each day too. Obscure words count as bonus words, so a big vocabulary is a pleasure rather than a requirement. Hints unlock after a while if you are stuck.
The subscription removes adverts and opens the archive and extra puzzles. The free daily board is the whole game for most people.
A first sitting
Look for common endings first: -ING, -ED, -ER and plurals. Once a few short words are in, the longest word on the board usually reveals itself.
Where to stop
The daily board ends when every required word is found, and that is a natural place to close the tab. Leaderboards, streaks and the archive are built to stretch a sitting; you can enjoy the board without any of them.
Worth knowing
- Its terms set a minimum age of 13 in the US and 16 in the UK and EU.
- Data is stored on servers in the United States.