Bordle is a Wordle spin-off by Nookkin where you guess a five-letter word in six tries — with one twist: every answer contains at least one wildcard tile, shown as a B emoji, which can stand in for many different letters. It looks like Wordle, but in this five-letter word game the wildcard changes how you have to think.
What Is Bordle?
Bordle plays exactly like the Wordle you know: type a five-letter word, get green tiles for correct letters in the right spot and yellow tiles for correct letters in the wrong spot, and solve it within six rows (wordle-unlimited.io).
The difference is the wildcard. In every Bordle answer, at least one position is a B tile — and that B is not the letter B. It's a wild card that can represent lots of different letters. Past answers have included BOUGH (the wildcard standing in for the T in TOUGH) and DUSBY (standing in for DUSTY), where the wildcard tile quietly substitutes for whatever letter the real word needs (wordle-unlimited.io).
That single change makes Bordle one of the most specialised Wordle variants out there: you're still doing letter deduction, but one slot in every word refuses to play by normal rules.
How to Play Bordle: The Rules
1. Guess Any Five-Letter Word
Type any valid five-letter word as your opening guess, just like Wordle. Standard colour feedback applies: green means the letter is correct and correctly placed, yellow means it's in the word but misplaced.
2. Account for the Wildcard
Remember that at least one tile in the answer is the wildcard B. It will never resolve to a literal "B" — it stands in for the actual letter of the hidden word. Don't waste guesses trying to pin a B into that slot.
3. Solve in Six Rows
You have six attempts. The wildcard effectively gives you one free position per word, which sounds generous, but it also removes information: a green tile on a normal letter tells you something concrete, while the wildcard slot tells you almost nothing until the surrounding letters lock in.
4. A New Word Every Day
Like the original Wordle daily word puzzle, Bordle serves one new puzzle per day, with shareable results.
Bordle Strategy: Tips for the Wildcard
Open With a Vowel-Heavy Word
A classic Wordle opener like ADIEU or AUDIO works just as well here. Your goal on guess one is information about the four normal slots; the wildcard slot will sort itself out later.
Solve Around the Wildcard, Not Through It
Treat the wildcard position as already "filled." Focus your deduction on the remaining four letters. Once those are placed, the wildcard's identity is usually forced — there's often only one word that fits the pattern.
Use Elimination Guesses
If you're stuck on the wildcard slot, spend a guess on a word that tests several candidate letters at once in the other positions. Bordle rewards the same sacrificial-guess tactics that work in hard-mode Wordle — see our word puzzle strategies guide for opener theory.
Watch for Common Patterns
Because the wildcard can be anything, answers often resolve into familiar word shapes: -OUGH, -IGHT, -OUND. If your confirmed letters spell _OUGH with one slot wild, you already know the family.
Don't Overthink the B
New players fixate on the wildcard tile. Experienced players ignore it until the end. The B is decoration; the other four letters are the puzzle.
Bordle vs Wordle: Key Differences
The two games share a format — six guesses, five letters, green/yellow/grey feedback — but Bordle's wildcard tile makes it a different kind of deduction puzzle. In Wordle every tile resolves to a fixed letter; in Bordle one position is deliberately uninformative, so you are really solving a four-letter puzzle with a free slot. That makes openers and elimination guesses more valuable than in the original.
| Feature | Wordle | Bordle |
|---|---|---|
| Word length | 5 letters | 5 letters |
| Guesses | 6 | 6 |
| Wildcard tile | No | Yes — at least one B wildcard per answer |
| Creator | Josh Wardle | Nookkin |
| Daily puzzle | Yes | Yes |
| Difficulty | Moderate | Slightly trickier (less information per guess) |
The Other "Bordles": Name Disambiguation
"Bordle" is a popular name, and several unrelated projects use it. If your search results look confusing, here's the landscape:
- Nookkin's Bordle — the wildcard-B Wordle game described in this article, launched in 2022 with the tagline "Like Wordle, but at least one letter is 🅱️". The official site is apps.nookkin.com/bordle; it is also playable on Wordle spin-off sites (wordle-unlimited.io/bordle, dordle.online/bordle).
- A geography game by developer chrisbarrott, where players guess a mystery country's bordering nations from its outline (github.com/chrisbarrott/bordle).
- A Bangle.js smartwatch app — a Wordle clone for the Bangle smartwatch (github.com/mroos/bangleapps).
- A terminal game — "Bash + Wordle == Bordle," a Wordle TUI written entirely in Bash (github.com/sean-gall-41/bordle).
- A bilingual Wordle clone supporting English and Persian (github.com/hessamsadeghi/bordle).
This article covers the wildcard word game, which is the version most players mean when they search for Bordle. If you enjoy inventive word-game formats, also try Parseword, and for a completely different kind of word puzzle see our explanation of the "Word for Word" crossword clue.
Common Bordle Mistakes to Avoid
The number-one mistake is treating the wildcard B as the letter B — it is a wild card that can represent many different letters, so never lock a literal B into that slot. Another classic error is ignoring the four normal positions to chase the wildcard; experienced players solve the real letters first and let the wildcard's identity fall out of the pattern. A third mistake is wasting your opener: because one slot gives no information, a vowel-heavy starter like ADIEU or AUDIO that tests the other four positions is worth more than a consonant-rich guess. Finally, do not forget the six-row limit — Bordle rewards the same disciplined elimination tactics as hard-mode Wordle, so spend guesses on information, not hunches.
What is Bordle?
Bordle is a Wordle spin-off by Nookkin where every five-letter answer contains at least one wildcard B tile that can stand in for different letters.
How is Bordle different from Wordle?
Gameplay is identical to Wordle — six guesses, green/yellow feedback — except one or more answer positions are wildcard B tiles instead of fixed letters.
What does the B tile mean in Bordle?
The B is a wild card, not the letter B. It represents whatever letter the hidden word actually contains in that position.
Who created Bordle?
Bordle is a project by Nookkin ([wordle-unlimited.io](https://wordle-unlimited.io/bordle)).
Is Bordle free to play?
Yes. The web versions are free in a browser with no account needed.
Where can I play Bordle?
The official game is at apps.nookkin.com/bordle; free mirrors exist on Wordle spin-off sites like wordle-unlimited.io. No account or download is needed.
Is Bordle a daily game?
Yes — a new word is released every day, like the original Wordle.
Is Bordle harder than Wordle?
Slightly. The wildcard gives less positional information per guess, so you lean more on elimination and word-pattern knowledge.
Can the wildcard B stand for the letter B?
In practice it never resolves to a literal B — treat it as a stand-in for whatever letter the hidden word needs in that position.
How many wildcards are in each Bordle answer?
At least one: every five-letter answer contains one or more wildcard B tiles, though most answers have just a single one.
Does Bordle use the same word list as Wordle?
The game plays like Wordle but its answers are built around the wildcard mechanic — past answers have included wildcard-rendered words like BOUGH (standing in for TOUGH) and DUSBY (standing in for DUSTY).