Some games are boring. Others exist only to kill time. WordHero is not one of those: instead, it is a game that is actually quite fun, expands your vocabulary, and lets you pit your word knowledge against thousands of strangers.

Getting started on WordHero is easy. After signing up for a username (no email necessary), you can get started as soon as the next game starts.  After that, you’ll have around two minutes to find as many words as possible from within a small board: swipe up, down, to both sides, and diagonally to connect letters. On the image to the right, you might be able to find words like far, peer, and deer–but don’t think those are it.

In each game, there are dozens of possible words. You can keep track of how many you’ve found and how many are left in the top left of the screen. You might not believe it, but there are over 200 words you might find for that board! Most people only find around 10-20 of these words each time they play.

After each game, you can check how well you did. Personally, I always managed to score in the top 25% of players, which is simultaneously not amazing but not terrible. I did consistently did better each time I played, sometimes getting to the top 15%. It’s actually an amazingly addictive game, and one I’d much rather be addicted to than something trivial like Angry Birds.

In short, WordHero is an awesomely fun game for anyone who likes words. As someone who works with words all day every day, you too would probably enjoy this game a lot! My top score was 258 points in just one game. How much can you score? Sound off in the comments.

Price: Free!

Version discovered: v4.8

Requires: Android 2.1+

Download size: 4.4MB

[WordHero] on Play Store