Beat the tide
Every wave rolls in fast. Spell a word to push the sea back out: longer words buy more time before it takes your tiles.
Chain a combo
Valid words in a row climb your multiplier: ×2 from the third, up to ×5 from the fifteenth. One miss resets it, so every guess counts.
Power-ups & wildcards
Pop candy bubbles out at sea for an extra life, bonus time, a calm shell that stills the tide or a wildcard star that plays as any letter.
Daily challenge
The same puzzle for everyone each day. Keep your streak alive, hit milestones, then share your result card with friends.
Relaxed mode
Take the clock away. In Relaxed mode the tide moves only when you do, with gentle hints if you get stuck.
No ads, no accounts
No ads, no sign-up, no internet needed. Just open it and play, and your progress stays on your phone.
See Tidewords in action
Letters wash up on the sand, you tap them into a word, and every word you bank pushes the sea back out. Valid words in a row build a combo, and each wave asks for a little more. Power-up bubbles start surfacing from wave seven, and wildcard tiles from wave eight.
Play the daily puzzle, which is the same for everyone, chase a high score in the endless game, or switch to Relaxed mode and take the clock away.
the wave.
Score up to ×5!
for power-ups.
What is Tidewords?
Tidewords is a free mobile word game with a tide. Letter tiles wash up on the sand and you spell words with them before the next wave rolls in and takes them back. Every word you land holds the sea off a few seconds longer, so a round is a race between how fast you can read the sand and how fast the water is rising.
It plays in portrait with one thumb, in rounds of a couple of minutes. Valid words in a row build a combo multiplier, candy bubbles out at sea hold an extra life, bonus time, a calm shell or a wildcard star, and wildcard tiles stand in for any letter. The daily challenge deals every player the same letters so a shared score means the same thing for everyone. There are no ads, no accounts and no sign-up, and your progress stays on your own device. Read our privacy policy for the details.
Version 2.0 gives the beach a glossy Candy Shore makeover, with juicy effects, music that builds as the tide rises and short tips that teach each idea the first time it matters. Prefer it calmer? Turn on Reduce motion in Settings.
Get Tidewords free on iPhone, iPad or Android, or read how the game handles your data first.
How to play Tidewords
A round is a chain of waves. Each wave gives you a rack of letters and asks for a set number of words before the sea reaches the top of the beach. You have three lives.
- Pull letters from the sand Tap tiles to build a word and tap again to put one back. Every wave is seeded with at least one common five-letter word, so a rack is never a dead end.
- Bank the word before the wave lands A valid word scores and pushes the tide back out. Longer words buy more time, so a six-letter find is worth far more than two short ones.
- Clear the wave's quota Later waves ask for more than one word. Because each word you bank refills the tide, the quota is a chain: the first word buys you the time to find the second. Clear it and the sea rolls straight back out.
- Keep the combo going Valid words in a row raise your score multiplier: ×2 from the third, ×3 from the sixth, ×4 from the tenth and ×5 from the fifteenth. A wrong or repeated word, or a lost wave, resets it.
- Pop power-ups and play wildcards From wave seven of a timed game, a candy bubble sometimes surfaces in the sea: tap it for an extra life, bonus time, a calm shell that stills the tide for five seconds, or a wildcard star. Wildcard tiles also wash up from wave eight. A wildcard plays as any letter and resolves to the best word you could have spelled with it.
If you would rather not race a clock, Relaxed mode drives the tide by moves instead of time: it creeps in on every submission and goes back out on every valid word, so the skill is efficiency rather than speed. A short tutorial walks you through your first word, and quick tips explain the tide, the combo meter, hearts and pearls the first time each one matters.