{"id":336317,"date":"2026-09-02T21:32:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/336317\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T21:32:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:32:24","slug":"the-new-york-times-just-dropped-a-brand-new-wordle-spinoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/336317\/","title":{"rendered":"The New York Times Just Dropped a Brand-New Wordle Spinoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wordle<\/a> fans, start marking your calendars for hump day. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the New York Times introduced a weekly drop of five to six new puzzles created by the newspaper\u2019s puzzle constructors and editors. The new puzzles aren\u2019t daily but will be released every Wednesday in a group and will include twists on current puzzles. They\u2019re only available to people who pay for a New York Times Games or All Access subscription.<\/p>\n

The types of bonus puzzles offered may vary from week to week. Other puzzles, including Wordle, Connections, Strands, Pips, and Connections: Sports Edition, remain free, while some others are behind a paywall.<\/p>\n

CNET offers daily hints and answers for Wordle,<\/a> Connections<\/a>, Strands,<\/a> Connections: Sports Edition<\/a> and the Mini Crossword<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wordle in 1<\/p>\n

I played the new batch of games, and I think the most popular game will be Wordle in 1. Regular Wordle gives you six tries to guess a five-letter word, uses specific colors to indicate if you\u2019ve guessed a letter that\u2019s included, and also notes if you put it in the right spot. Wordle in 1 sets up five five-letter grids, each with a different word, and fills them in with some correct and some incorrect letters. You use the letters provided to figure out the answers.<\/p>\n

\"WordleWordle in 1 provides you with some correct and some incorrect letters, and you take it from there.NYT\/Screenshot by CNET<\/p>\n

In the example above, the colored letters indicate that the U and T are in the right spaces, that there\u2019s no N at all, and the S and the other T needs to be relocated. (Answer at the bottom of this post if you want a spoiler.)<\/p>\n

More games: Connections 3\u00d73, Colorful Strands<\/p>\n

Other games in the weekly drop also play off the current New York Times puzzles.<\/p>\n

Connections 3\u00d73 is a smaller version of the regular Connections puzzle<\/a>, offering just nine words or phrases that you have to separate into three groups.<\/p>\n

Colorful Strands is exactly the same as regular Strands<\/a>, but the answers show up in color, which is something the regular puzzle does from time to time.<\/p>\n

Mystery Mini is another Mini Crossword, with a creative twist. The first one, for example, uses two answers twice, with different clues, and other answers are also related.<\/p>\n

Easy Mode Crossword simply takes the standard Friday crossword and just makes the clues easier. There\u2019s also a monthly Special Crossword, which might be written in collaboration with a famous person or feature a theme. Comedian Rachel Dratch, a former Saturday Night Live cast member, co-constructed a puzzle released Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That promised spoiler<\/p>\n

Spoiler for the pictured Wordle in 1 puzzle above: The answer is TRUST.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Gael\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of “Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the ’70s and ’80s,” as well as “The Totally Sweet ’90s.” She’s been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She’s Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she’ll be first in line.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSee full bio\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wordle fans, start marking your calendars for hump day. On Wednesday, the New York Times introduced a weekly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":["post-336317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}