How to play Wend

Wend is LinkedIn's daily word puzzle, added in June 2026. You find hidden words by linking letters that touch, until every letter on the board is used. Here are the rules, an example and some tactics.

The rules

1. Spell a word by linking letters that touch up, down, left or right. No diagonals.
2. Words can bend. A word may run down, turn a corner and carry on sideways.
3. Gray blocks are walls. A word can go around them but not through them.
4. Every letter is used exactly once, and two words can't share a letter.
5. The blanks under the board show how many words there are and how long each one is. The words get longer from first to last.

A new board comes out every day at 12:00 AM Pacific Time. LinkedIn's Hint button reveals one letter of a word at a time.

A small example

This board is one of ours, with four words of 3, 4, 5 and 6 letters on a breakfast theme.

Start in the top-left corner: C, U, P reads straight across, so CUP is the natural first word. Then look at the K under it. Few words start with K, so a word probably ends there; reading back from K gives L, I, M, which spells MILK.

Strategy

1. Start at dead ends

A letter with only one open neighbor has to be the first or last letter of its word. Corners and letters boxed in by walls are the best places to start.

2. Hunt for rare letters

J, Q, X, Z, K, V and W appear in fewer words, so they narrow the choices fast. Q is almost always followed by U.

3. Think in word endings

Endings like -ING, -ED, -ER, -LY and -TION show up often. If you spot I, N and G in a chain, a word probably ends there.

4. Use the lengths

The word lengths add up to the number of letters on the board. Once the short words are in place, the longest word has to use exactly what is left, so its letters are already decided.

5. Keep the board connected

If a word leaves a single letter, or a pocket of letters, that no remaining word could fill, undo it and try a different route. A word that looks right can still be wrong if it blocks the rest.

Where to go next

Today's Wend answer with hints · Past Wend answers

Want practice? Play Wend Unlimited: our own Wend-style boards, as many as you like.