The Word Desk · Squareword

How to solve today’s Squareword — July 28, 2026

duplixo publishes its own free daily Squareword — same rules, unlimited practice — alongside the solving method below. This is not the official Squareword puzzle, and duplixo is not affiliated with the makers of Squareword. For the exact daily board, play on the official Squareword site; to learn the method or get unlimited practice, you are in the right place.

How to solve today’s Squareword

Spoiler-safe summary

duplixo’s free daily Squareword for July 28, 2026 is a 5×5 grid whose five rows each spell a common five-letter word — the columns are free letters. The opening row begins with S, and the letter O turns up 5 times across the grid, threading the rows together. Five graduated hints sit below; the worked solution is revealed further down whenever you are ready.

Open only what you need

Need a nudge? Five graduated hints

Hint 1 The shape of it Reveal

There are five rows to solve, each a valid five-letter word. The columns are not words — so read across, never down.

Hint 2 Row 1 Reveal

The top row begins with S and ends with E.

Hint 3 Rows 2 and 3 Reveal

Row 2 opens G‑H; row 3 opens P‑H. Their shared columns give the middle of the grid away first.

Hint 4 Row 4 Reveal

The fourth row opens G‑O and ends with E.

Hint 5 Row 5 Reveal

The bottom row opens S‑C and ends with E.

The Solved Grid

A worked solution: our daily Squareword, solved

Reveal the five row-words Hide the row-words
  1. Row 1STONE
  2. Row 2GHOST
  3. Row 3PHONE
  4. Row 4GOOSE
  5. Row 5SCARE

Today’s five rows, top to bottom, are STONE · GHOST · PHONE · GOOSE · SCARE. Every row is a valid five-letter word; the columns are simply the letters those words share.

The Rules

How Squareword works

Squareword is a daily word puzzle on a 5×5 grid. The single rule that matters is this: every row must spell a valid five-letter word. The columns are free — they are just the letters the rows happen to share, and they never have to spell anything.

You play by typing letters into the grid. Each time you check a guess, the board marks every letter you have placed: a square is correct when the right letter sits in the right place, present when that letter belongs somewhere else in its row, and absent when the row has no use for it. Solve all five rows and the grid is complete.

Difficulty at a glance

Today’s board, by difficulty

Modelled difficulty indicators — duplixo’s Squareword board for July 28, 2026. Estimated from the board’s structure, not a claim about the official Squareword puzzle.
IndicatorEstimate
Estimated solve rate62%
Typical guesses to solve6
Likely to need a hint26%
Hardest row to crackRow 1
Difficulty vs a typical boardHarder · 72th pct

How we build this. The Squareword board on this page is generated by duplixo and run through our solver to confirm it is valid before it is published. The figures above are modelled difficulty indicators for that board — derived from its structure, not measured from player sessions or taken from the official Squareword puzzle.

From the Editor

Why today’s Squareword rewarded the columns

The trap in today’s grid was treating the five rows as five separate Wordles. They are not independent — the columns lock them together, and once column 1 carried an S in rows 1 and 5, that edge fell into place. Pin one row, let its letters feed the columns, and the rest follows.

The letter O did the heavy lifting, showing up 5 times across the board. Use the present-letter marks to shuffle the trickier rows into shape; if you stalled halfway, you were in good company.

The Back Files

Previous Squareword answers

Full archive
The last eight Squareword grids. Each links day, puzzle number and how the field fared.
DatePuzzleResult
July 28, 2026 No. 41 62% solvedToday
July 27, 2026 No. 40 68% solved
July 26, 2026 No. 39 64% solved
July 25, 2026 No. 38 55% solved
July 24, 2026 No. 37 69% solved
July 23, 2026 No. 36 60% solved
July 22, 2026 No. 35 55% solved
July 21, 2026 No. 34 63% solved
Common questions

Squareword answer FAQ

How does Squareword work?

Squareword is a daily 5×5 word puzzle where every row must spell a valid five-letter word; the columns are free letters. You type into the grid and each guess returns per-cell feedback — correct when a letter is in the right place, present when it belongs elsewhere in its row. Solve all five rows to win.

Do the columns have to be words?

No. Only the five rows are checked as words. The columns simply hold the letters the rows share, which is what makes Squareword quicker and more forgiving than a full crossword square.

Is there only one Squareword answer each day?

Yes. Each daily grid has a single set of five row-words. Each row is checked against our five-letter dictionary before publishing, so the board you solve has an accepted solution — the five words shown in the reveal above.

Is there a Squareword archive or unlimited practice?

Yes. We keep a dated archive of past grids and their solved rows, and the game page’s New puzzle button draws five fresh, valid row-words from the same dictionary, so there is always more to play.

Is this the official Squareword board?

No. duplixo publishes its own free Squareword board every day, with the same rules and unlimited practice, plus this how-to-solve guide and a worked solution. It is independent and not affiliated with the makers of Squareword. For the exact official daily puzzle, play on the official Squareword site; to learn the method or practise without limits, you are in the right place.

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