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PATCHWORD

© 2026 Benjamin Weatherston

Patch complete!

Settings

Difficulty

Theme

Gold-glaze win tiles (Master Tiler reward) Show timer

The clock starts with your first letter and pauses while a menu is open. Your time is always saved and shared, even when hidden.

Sound effects Vibration

Short buzzes for mismatches and wins.

Colorblind colors (orange and blue)

Changes green and yellow to orange and blue everywhere, including the share text.

Tile collection

Solve a puzzle to add its tile. Every difficulty counts, and repeats are fine. Collect all of them for a prize.

Master Tiler!

You collected every one of the tiles. Here is your gold-glazed set.

Statistics

Daily puzzles

Pick a day to play. E, N and H show which difficulties you have solved.

Welcome to Patchword

You know that little thrill when your Wordle grid comes out looking cool? This game is built around it.

Every day there's a patch: a design in green, yellow and gray tiles, like a diamond or a staircase. Build it row by row with words whose colors light up the right tiles, and the grid becomes the picture. We show you the key word up front, so it's all about making the design.

Want a quick tour?

You're starting on Normal difficulty. You can change it any time in Settings.

How to Play PATCHWORD

Each day brings a patch: a design in colored tiles, shown at the top. The key word is already revealed at the bottom. Fill the five rows above it with valid words that, measured against the key word, make the same colors as the patch.

Green: letter is in the right spot in the key word.
Yellow: letter is in the key word, but in a different spot.
Gray: letter is not in the key word.
Guess from the top row down. Any word that makes the right colors works.
A row that doesn't match stays on screen so you can learn from it. Type or press backspace to try again.
Letters highlighted on the keyboard are in the key word.
Easy: reuse any letter as often as you like. Normal: letters that are not in the key word fade. Each can sit on gray tiles in accepted words only 3 times, shown by the dots on its key. Hard: such a letter is blacked out as soon as one accepted word uses it. Rows that don't match never cost you anything.
The hint button counts only the words you can still play with the letters you have left. If you ever run out of options, tapping it takes back your last word (+1 guess).
Hint (lightbulb): the first tap tells you how many words fit the row. Each tap after that shows one letter and adds 1 to your guess count. After three letters, one more confirmed tap reveals a whole word for +3.
Every patch is a named design, such as a diamond or a staircase. Its name appears under the title, and the tile collection button tracks the ones you've built.
A new puzzle arrives every day at midnight Eastern Time. Stuck? Settings has a Give up option that shows one solution.
Easy, Normal and Hard change how dense the patch is and how many words fit each row. Change them in Settings.
Guesses are checked against the official NASPA Word List (NWL2023). 5 guesses is a perfect game.

Patchword © 2026 Benjamin Weatherston. All rights reserved.