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Dev tools · February 8, 2022

Three Magic Words

Here’s a free, fun, novel five-letter word game for the web! It’s a game I originally wrote for the iPhone in 2010, but wasn’t able to finish before my first child was born. When I left my senior web developer job in September 2021 I figured I would postpone looking for work and finish the game before another 11 years passed, and expose myself to new skills doing it (in this case, Swift). I released it on the App Store in December, then turned my attention to doing a web version — when suddenly Wordle was in The NY Times, and then everywhere. Perhaps foolishly, I plowed ahead and here we…

Three Magic Words launched on February 8, 2022 with 204 votes, #127 of 2,645 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 4 years on.

In plain words

Three Magic Words is a free web-based five-letter word game with a single daily puzzle that increases in difficulty throughout the week. Players guess words to solve each day's challenge. The game was developed by a former senior web developer who originally created it for iPhone in 2010 and completed the web version in 2022. It's designed for anyone seeking a casual word puzzle experience.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Play Three Magic Words Web Edition, a Lively Game of Letters and Logic

It looks like you’ve never played before! Three Magic Words gets more difficult as the week progresses. You should try an easier day below before you divefrom threemagicwords.app

In the maker’s words, at launch

Here’s a free, fun, novel five-letter word game for the web! It’s a game I originally wrote for the iPhone in 2010, but wasn’t able to finish before my first child was born. When I left my senior web developer job in September 2021 I figured I would postpone looking for work and finish the game before another 11…

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