Forget waiting for tomorrow's Wordle - you can now make your own puzzles to challenge your friends

Wordle is open on a phone held in a hand. TRAIN and GRIND have been played, with the RIN in GRIND all green.

(Image credit: Mike Kemp / Getty Images)

Are your friends and family consistently being smug about how easy they’ve found Wordle today? Well, now have a chance to teach them a lesson by creating your very own Wordle puzzle. While making it as easy, or difficult, as you like.

The New York Times announced the addition in a recent update, allowing subscribers to quickly create and share their own Wordle puzzles.

There are a few caveats to make note of: firstly, you have to be a subscriber — although the app is offering a 75% discount at the moment — and the word you chose has to be a part of Wordle's dictionary. As such, you can’t send Grandma a Wordle quiz with a swear word in it. But you can give her a Wordle hint if she needs to sharpen up a bit.

How to create your own Wordle puzzle

Create a wordle puzzle on browser

In the NYT Games app, navigate down to Wordle and select the “Create+” option. From there, you can choose a 4-7 letter word, add a display name, and, if you're feeling generous, include a clue. Though I know you wouldn’t want to make it that easy.

Wordle Web Browser

If you're on a web browser, head to https://www.nytco.com/games/ and then select Wordle. When you enter the game, you'll see the option to create your own in the top right corner of the screen.

How to lose friends and alienate people

Now that you have decided to create a new puzzle, it’s time to think about how to make it challenging. Unlike normal Wordle, you can create a puzzle of up to seven letters, which gives you a fair few more options. The first thing to do is to check our Wordle of the day tips piece, which includes a breakdown of useful tips for solving the puzzle.

These include how many vowels are in the word, if there are repeated characters and if it contains any of the five most common Wordle letters.

Regarding the latter, if you break down many of the most recent words used by the New York Times, you’ll notice that a majority contain either E, T, A, O I. Meanwhile, as you would expect, letters like Z, Q, J, X and K were much less common.

So, if you want a word that will really throw people off, try Zombify. This is the one I chose for the puzzle that I sent to my Mom, who is a consummate Wordle professional. Long story short, I might not be invited to Christmas.

Wordle displayed on a smartphone — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Another tip we offer is to be on the lookout for vowels or repeated words in your guesses. While it can be tricky to find words with no vowels, I tested both Rhythm and Spryly, and both were accepted.

Repeated words are a bit trickier, as they're a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, Wordle doesn't inform users that they exist when making guesses. However, they usually follow a formula that's easy to spot, which can make them easier to guess.

At the end of the day, it’s about having fun, but it’s also about teaching your friend with an English major that they can always learn something new. Let us know in the comments what words you have used and any interesting tips and tricks you’ve found to help trip up your friends.

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Josh is a staff writer for Tom's Guide and is based in the UK. He has worked for several publications but now works primarily on mobile phones. Outside of phones, he has a passion for video games, novels, and Warhammer.

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