What Is Word Peaks? The Wordle Variant That Tells You Where in the Alphabet the Answer Hides

Word Peaks is a free Wordle variant in which you guess a five-letter word in six tries — but instead of telling you whether letters are in the word, each tile tells you where the correct letter sits in the alphabet relative to your guess. Green means correct, yellow means the answer's letter comes earlier in the alphabet, and blue means it comes later, so every guess visibly narrows the possible range for each slot.

What Is Word Peaks?

Word Peaks (also listed as "Wordle Peaks" on several game portals) is a browser-based daily word-guessing game built with SvelteKit and TypeScript and created by developer Devin Spikowski. The game plays at vegeta897.github.io/wordle-peaks and is free to play with no sign-up required [10].

The core idea is a twist on classic Wordle: every guess must be a valid five-letter word, and you get six attempts to find the hidden word. But the feedback is alphabetical rather than positional. Each tile answers the question "where in the alphabet is the answer's letter compared to the letter I typed?" This turns every guess into a visible narrowing of possibilities — after your first try, the game even shows you the range of possible letters for each slot, ordered alphabetically, so you can see the gap closing without guessing blind [2].

Game-listing site Kotaku describes it as "a daily word guessing game where players have 6 guesses to find a 5-letter mystery word," with each guess narrowing the possible letters "by whether they precede or follow the letters in your guess in the alphabet," and notes that it includes both a daily mode and a free-play mode [5].

How to Play Word Peaks

1. Open the game. Play free in your browser at the official page or on one of the many fan portals that host it [2][8].
2. Type a five-letter word. Use your physical keyboard or the on-screen keyboard, then hit Enter. As with Wordle, the first guess can be anything valid — common letters give you more information [10].
3. Read the color feedback. Green tiles are locked in. Yellow tiles tell you the answer's letter comes earlier in the alphabet (closer to A); blue tiles tell you it comes later (closer to Z) [8].
4. Check the ranges. After each guess, each slot shows the remaining possible letters in alphabetical order — use these "peaks" of possibility to pick your next word [2].
5. Guess again. You have six tries total. A new daily puzzle arrives each day, and free-play mode lets you practice unlimited rounds [5].

Word Peaks Color Codes Explained

The color system is the whole game, so it is worth learning precisely:

For example, if you guess CRANE and the C tile turns yellow, the answer's first letter is somewhere between A and B. If the R turns blue, the answer's second letter is somewhere between S and Z. Combine all five slots and you have bracketed the answer from both sides — like closing in on a summit from base camp [2][10].

Note that different portals describe the yellow/blue pair slightly differently ("too high" vs "too low"), but the underlying rule is consistent: yellow = earlier in the alphabet, blue = later [8][10].

Word Peaks vs Wordle: What's Different?

The practical difference: Wordle rewards vocabulary and pattern knowledge, while Word Peaks rewards systematic elimination. A Wordle player thinks "what words fit these letters?"; a Word Peaks player thinks "the third letter is between M and P — what fits?" For more on how the main alternatives stack up, see our Plusword vs Wordle comparison.

7 Strategy Tips for Word Peaks

1. Open with a vowel-heavy, spread-out word. Something like ADIEU or AUDIO tells you the alphabetical position of common vowels across several slots at once.
2. Use the ranges, not just the colors. After your first guess, each slot displays its possible letters in alphabetical order — pick guesses that split the biggest remaining ranges in half [2].
3. Think binary search. If a slot's range is A–Z and you guess M (yellow), the answer is A–L. Next guess F. Three guesses can pin any letter.
4. Don't waste greens. A green tile is solved — keep that letter in every subsequent guess.
5. Mind the ends of the alphabet. Letters near A and Z give lopsided information: guessing Z and getting yellow tells you almost nothing (answer is A–Y), while guessing M splits the alphabet evenly.
6. Play free-play mode to learn the rhythm. Kotaku notes the game includes a free-play mode alongside the daily puzzle — use it to practice the alphabetical logic before your daily attempt counts [5].
7. Combine slots. If slots 1–2 read "earlier than T" and "later than H", you are hunting two-letter openings like SH-, SL-, SM-, SN-, SP-, ST- — that list is short enough to brute-force.

Where to Play Word Peaks Free

The original game lives on the developer's GitHub Pages site [10]. It is also hosted on numerous free game portals — dordlegame.io, wordhurdle.co, and wordgames.gg all carry playable versions with no download or sign-up [2][6][8]. As with any fan-hosted mirror, the GitHub Pages original is the safest bet; portals are unofficial copies. The game has no affiliation with The New York Times or the official Wordle.

Word Peaks vs Other Wordle Variants

Word Peaks stands out because it changes what information you get rather than how many puzzles you solve — it is one of the few variants that teaches you something new about the alphabet itself. If you like the daily-guessing format but want something fresher, see how to play Plusword.

Sources

[1] https://dordlegame.io/wordle-peaks

[2] https://wordhurdle.co/wordle-peaks

[3] https://wordgames.gg/wordle-peaks

[4] https://kotaku.com/games/word-peaks

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml4RYBzlLTk (gameplay walkthrough, puzzle #72)