Off By One
Nice run! Try another:
Off By One
PuzzleLeaderboard
The weekly board starts fresh every Monday.
No scores this week. Be the first!
No scores yet. Be the first!
You might also like
How to play
- Type or tap a five-letter word, then press Enter.
- Dot: right letter, right place. Ring: right letter, wrong place. Slash: not in the word.
- Solve the word and the next one changes one letter. The old word is already there: find the new letter.
- Leftover tries carry on to the next word, plus one more.
- Run out of tries and the chain ends. Your score is the words you solved in a row.
Controls
- Phone or tablet: Tap the letters on the screen, then Enter. The delete key erases a letter.
- Keyboard: A-Z type, Enter guesses, Backspace erases, Esc pauses.
- Mouse: Click the letters on the screen.
- Gamepad: Menus only. The word board needs the keyboard or taps.
Tips
- The free row at the top is the old word: the glowing question mark is the letter that changed.
- Common letters such as E, A, R and T split the possible answers better than rare ones.
- Only the daily chain counts for the leaderboard. Practice gives you a new random chain every time.
- Stopped halfway? Come back before the next chain starts and yours carries on where you left it.
About this game
Off By One is a word puzzle with a twist. Guess a hidden five-letter word, the way you may know from Wordle. A green letter with a dot is in the right place, an orange letter with a ring is in the word but in the wrong place, and a gray letter with a slash is not in the word at all. A short lesson at the start shows you how, one step at a time.
Read moreShow less
Here is the twist. When you solve a word, the next word is one letter away from it. The word you just solved is already on the board as a free first row, with a glowing question mark over the letter that changed, so your job is to find the new one. Your unused tries carry over to the next word, plus one more. A sharp player keeps the chain going for a long time. Lose all your tries on one word and the chain ends, and your score is the number of words you solved in a row, shown as a chain of links.
Every day has one chain, the same for everyone who plays that day. Play it once, see your score, and come back tomorrow for a new one. If you stop halfway, the chain waits for you on this device until the next one starts (midnight UTC) and carries on where you left it. Only the daily chain counts on the leaderboard. When today's chain is done, Practice gives you a fresh random chain every time.
Type on a real keyboard or tap the letters on the screen. A word that is not in our list is refused, and it costs you nothing. The word list is filtered for a teen audience.
Free to play in your browser.