Daily word games
Four fresh word games every day at midnight Eastern. One streak across all of them.
Four word games, four different muscles. Every day at midnight ET a fresh set drops on DailyGrid: find the hidden words, fill the mini, climb the ladder one letter at a time, crack the code. Finish any one to keep your streak — finish all four (and the six number & logic games) for a Perfect Day.
The daily puzzles are free. Always. No account, subscription, or download is required — open a puzzle in your browser and start playing.
Which word game today?
| If you want… | Play | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A finish in under a minute | 🔍 Word Search | The words are listed; you can't get stuck. Median finish: 21 seconds. |
| A real crossword, coffee-sized | ✏️ Mini Crossword | A proper 5×5 with real clues — about two minutes, no filler. |
| Vocabulary, one letter at a time | 🪜 Ladder | Turn the start word into the end word, changing one letter per step. |
| Pure pattern deduction | 🔐 Cipher | A cryptogram quote — letter frequencies and short words give you in. |
Start here if…
- You want a guaranteed quick win: start with Word Search — the list is right there, and most players finish in well under a minute.
- You do the newspaper mini with your coffee: start with the Mini Crossword.
- You like wordplay more than definitions: start with Ladder, where the route matters more than the endpoints.
- You'd rather deduce than recall: start with Cipher — no trivia, just patterns.
Worked example: a ladder, one letter at a time
Today's style of ladder, start CAT, end DOG:
On DailyGrid the day's ladder is dealt from a precomputed deck, so the pair you get has a proven shortest path and never repeats. The example above is illustrative of the mechanic; the live daily pair is on the Ladder page. DailyGrid's Ladder strategy guide shows how to work backward from the end word when the forward route stalls.
Four games, four different skills
Word Search is scanning and recognition. The grid hides the listed words in every direction; the skill is systematic sweeping, not vocabulary. It is the shelf's front door — the fastest first finish on DailyGrid. Go deeper with the Word Search strategy guide.
Mini Crossword is knowledge under a clock you set. A real 5×5 with honest clues, built to be finished over coffee rather than abandoned mid-grid. The Mini Crossword strategy guide covers crossing-first solving and when to bank a guess.
Ladder is vocabulary by steps. Every intermediate word must be real, so the game rewards a wide vocabulary of short words and the patience to route around a blocked letter. Par is proven for every pair DailyGrid deals.
Cipher is pure pattern deduction. A famous quote in a substitution cipher: one-letter words, doubled letters, and letter frequencies give you in, and the quote assembles itself word by word. The Cipher strategy guide walks the frequency method from the first pencil marks.
The daily habit
New words every day, none repeated: every puzzle is fingerprint-checked against everything ever published (1,095 days × 10 games audited: 10,950 puzzles, 0 duplicates). One streak across all ten games, so a word day still counts on a numbers day.
Prefer numbers to letters? The other shelf is the six daily logic puzzles — Sudoku, Kakuro, nonogram, Slitherlink, Hashi, and Minesweeper. Coming from a bigger platform? See how DailyGrid compares as an NYT Games alternative. Want everything at once? See all ten daily puzzles.
A note on Spanish
DailyGrid's interface is fully available in Español, and the six logic games play completely in Spanish because their content is numbers and symbols. These four word games are the honest exception for now: their puzzle content — word lists, clues, quotes, and ladder pairs — is currently English, and the site says so rather than pretending otherwise.
Honest limits
- Four of DailyGrid's ten games are word games. The other six — Grid, Kakuro, Pixel, Slitherlink, Hashi, and Minesweeper — are logic and number games.
- This is a daily set, not an endless random-puzzle feed. Everyone gets the same fresh challenge on the same day; older sets stay available in the archive.
- Streaks and progress are tied to the device you play on because there are no accounts. They do not yet carry automatically to a new phone or computer.
FAQ
How many daily word games does DailyGrid publish?
Four: Word Search, Mini Crossword (5×5), Ladder (word ladder), and Cipher (cryptogram). They are part of a ten-game daily set that also includes six logic and number games.
Which word game is quickest to finish?
Word Search. The words are listed, so you cannot get stuck; the median finish is 21 seconds. The Mini Crossword takes about two minutes, and Ladder and Cipher reward a slower, deductive pace.
When do new word games appear?
At midnight Eastern, every day. No puzzle ever repeats: every published puzzle is fingerprint-checked against everything DailyGrid has ever published.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no signup, email, or password. DailyGrid uses an anonymous device ID for progress, streaks, ratings, and leaderboard entries.
Can I play a puzzle I missed?
Yes. Past daily sets stay playable in the archive. An archive solve is useful practice and lets you revisit a hard board after its day has passed.
Are the daily word games free?
The daily puzzles are free. Always. That promise covers DailyGrid's daily ten, including all four word games on this page.
Start today's shelf
Play Word Search · Play Mini Crossword · Play Ladder · Play Cipher