Chortle

WHAT IS CHORTLE?

Chortle is a Wordle-inspired game by Peter Plantinga. Each puzzle asks you to find a five-letter word that answers a short question. The question may call for a playful interpretation, adding a riddle-solving element to the familiar letter grid.

FIND THE ANSWER IN FOUR GUESSES

Read the question first, then enter a five-letter word using your keyboard or the keys on the screen. Press Enter to submit it. You can use Delete to correct a letter before submitting.

After each guess, the tiles show what you have learned:

Green: The letter is correct and in the right position.
Yellow: The letter is in the answer but belongs in another position.
Gray: The letter is not in the answer.

Use that feedback to choose your next word. You win by finding the answer within four guesses.

PUT THE QUESTION AND COLORS TOGETHER

Here is a made-up example to show how the clues work. Suppose the question is, “What can you wear without buying it?” and the answer is SMILE.

If your first guess is SLATE, S and E turn green because they are in the correct positions. L turns yellow: it belongs in the answer, but not in the second position. A and T turn gray. The question suggests smile, and the colored tiles support it: SMILE starts with S, ends with E, and places L elsewhere. You could enter it on your second turn.

The example is hypothetical; the question and answer in the live game may be different.

WHAT MAKES CHORTLE DIFFERENT?

The question gives you a reason to think about a word’s meaning before testing its letters. Some questions may invite a playful interpretation, so a plausible answer is a better starting point than a random five-letter word.

With only four attempts, the game is brief but leaves little room for guesses that ignore what you already know. Chortle also has a statistics panel where you can view your total tries, success rate, and current and best streaks.