A red or orange Wordle square comes from high-contrast mode. When it is on, yellow tiles become orange and green tiles become blue; gray stays gray. Nothing about the puzzle changes. Turn the mode on or off from the settings gear at the top of the game.
Why your Wordle squares are red or orange
Standard Wordle uses green and yellow. If your tiles look orange (which many people describe as red) and blue instead, high-contrast mode has been enabled — either by you, by someone else on the same device, or by a mis-tap in the settings menu. It is an accessibility option aimed at red-green colour blindness, where green and yellow are hard to tell apart.
There is no red tile in Wordle. The orange “present” tile is the one people call red.
What the orange and blue squares mean
| Standard | High-contrast | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Blue | Right letter, right position — lock it in |
| Yellow | Orange (“red”) | Right letter, wrong position — move it |
| Gray | Gray | Not in the answer — drop it |
Blue S is correct in position one. Orange A is in the answer but not in position three. L, T, and E are gray. Read it exactly as you would a blue/green and orange/yellow board.
The full colour reference for both palettes is in Wordle colours meaning.
How to turn high-contrast mode on or off
- Open Wordle and tap the settings gear at the top right of the screen.
- Find the High Contrast Moderow (sometimes labelled “Colour Blind Mode” in older builds).
- Toggle it on for orange and blue tiles, or off to go back to yellow and green.
The setting is saved per device and per browser, so switching it on your phone does not change your laptop, and clearing site data will reset it. It works the same in the New York Times Games app and on the website.
Can you play Wordle without colour?
Wordle has no fully colourless mode, but you do not have to rely on hue. High-contrast mode plus the position of each tile is enough to play: a solved position is a filled blue tile, a misplaced letter is an orange tile, and an absent letter is gray. Screen readers also announce each tile state as “correct,” “present,” or “absent” rather than by colour.