Create a Tilerdle

From a list of words to a playable board

Type a theme, then add your words one at a time. Each one is woven into the arrangement as you type it, so the board on the right is never a preview of something you might get — it is the board, from the first word onward.

1. Every word is checked. Words are looked up in a 255,000-entry English dictionary before they are allowed onto the grid, so a board can never ship a spelling that nobody could reasonably be expected to find.
2. The words are woven into a crossword. The maker searches for a placement that crosses the new word through a letter it shares with a word already down, and keeps the tightest arrangement it can find. Shuffle asks for a different weave of the same words.
3. You can move things by hand. Drag a whole word to reposition it. The editor re-checks the arrangement on every drop and refuses placements that would break a rule, so hand-editing can’t produce an unsolvable board.
4. The answer is cut and scattered. The finished crossword is partitioned into 3×3 tiles, those tiles are spread around the perimeter, and some are turned. The maker then verifies the result: exactly one solution, no tile that starts out already correct, no tile that looks the same rotated.

The four rules a board has to satisfy

These are the same constraints the daily generator works under. They exist so that a solver can reason their way to the answer instead of guessing at it.

• Words cross only where their letters agree. An intersection has to spell the same letter both ways.
• No word runs straight into another. Two words touching end to end would read as one longer word that isn’t in the theme.
• No two words sit flush side by side. Parallel words in adjacent rows create accidental two-letter readings across the whole length of the pair.
• Everything hangs together. Each word has to connect to the rest through a chain of crossings; a word floating on its own island is a separate puzzle, not part of this one.

There is a fifth rule the daily puzzles enforce that the maker only warns about: no two words in a pool may share a three-letter run, read in either direction. Tiles rotate, so a shared run means one tile can legitimately go in two places and the board quietly gains a second solution. We hold that line on the daily board — it’s the reason a Tilerdle can be solved without guessing — but your puzzle is yours, so the maker flags the clash and lets you decide.

What makes a word list worth solving

The engine guarantees your board is fair. Whether it is fun is down to the words, and a few habits help.

• Make the theme do work. The theme strip is the solver’s only clue about what they are assembling. “Things in a toolbox” narrows the field; “Random words” leaves them with nothing but letters.
• Mix lengths. A board of six-letter words is monotonous. A couple of short words give the solver a foothold, and one long word gives the board a spine to build against.
• Favour crossable letters. Words full of vowels and common consonants have somewhere to cross. A word that is mostly J, Q, X and Z often has nowhere to attach and will be the one the maker struggles to place.
• Solve it yourself. The maker walks you through your own board before the share step opens. That test solve is the honest measure of whether the theme reads and the scatter is fair — if you get stuck on your own puzzle, change it.

Sharing, publishing, and what happens to your puzzle

Every finished board gets a share link that carries the entire puzzle inside the address itself — the theme, the tiles, their positions and rotations, all compressed into the URL. Nothing is stored on our side for that to work, so the link keeps playing for anyone you send it to, on any device, without an account and without you publishing anything.

Publishing is the other option. Sign in, choose Public and your board joins the community page where anyone can browse and play it, with your name and a play counter beside it. Choose Unlisted and it gets a short link but stays off the listing — useful for a board built for one class, one group chat, or one person. Either way it costs nothing, and either way people who play it keep their streak untouched.

Published boards are checked for slurs and abusive language in both the theme and the words themselves, and every community puzzle page carries a report link. Reported boards are reviewed and removed when they should be. New to the game itself? The rules explain tapping, dragging and the colour hints, the tutorial walks a real board end to end, and there is a fresh daily Tilerdle every morning.

Questions about making puzzles

Do I need an account to make a Tilerdle?

No. Building a board and handing out its share link needs no sign-in at all — the whole puzzle travels inside the link. An account is only needed to publish a board to the community page, so that every listed puzzle has an author beside it.

Is the Tilerdle puzzle maker free?

Yes, completely. The maker, the share links, and the community page are outside the Knotwise subscription — there is no puzzle limit, no watermark, and no paid tier for creators.

How many words does a Tilerdle need?

Between 4 and 10 words, each 3 to 12 letters long. Six or seven mid-length words is the sweet spot: enough crossings to make the board interesting, few enough that it still solves in a handful of minutes.

Why won't the maker accept one of my words?

Three reasons cover almost every case: the word isn't in the dictionary the maker checks against, it is outside the length range, or it shares no letter with anything already on the board, so there is nowhere for it to cross. Proper nouns and very recent slang are the usual dictionary misses.

What is a shared three-letter run, and why is it flagged?

It means two of your words contain the same run of three letters, which lets one tile honestly belong in two places and can give the board a second valid solution. The daily puzzles reject such pools outright; in the maker it is only a warning, so you can keep the word if you would rather have it.

Do community puzzles count toward my streak?

No. Boards made by players are played for their own sake — they never touch your daily streak, your solve-time averages, or your archive. The daily puzzle is the only thing that moves those numbers.

Can I change a puzzle after I publish it?

Published boards are fixed, because links already handed out have to keep working. Make a new board if you want a different version, and get in touch if you need an old one taken down.