Have you seen people posting strange green, yellow and black squares on social media recently? If you have, it may be due to a new game taking social media by storm called “Wordle!”
It’s a simple game: you have to guess a five- letter word in six guesses! If the square associated with the letter is green, it’s in the right area. If it’s yellow, the letter is in the word but not in that spot you guessed. And if the square is black, the letter is nowhere in the word. So, if the word was “sweet,” the word “swipe” would have the first and second squares be green, and the next two black and the last square yellow. You have six tries to sleuth out what word it is. If you fail to get it in six tries, it resets and lists the number of resets you do. If you succeed however, you can post it to show your word sleuthing skills! Wordle refreshes every day, meaning you can wake up with a fun new challenge daily!
What are some other people’s strategies for winning at Wordle? Some people opt to just start with whatever word they feel like beginning with, but others choose a more careful approach. Words like “quiet,” “start” and “crane” are examples of good words to start with. This is because they are composed of often used letters such as R, T, A and E. When they see that they have a yellow square, they try to find where that letter goes first, as it is the best hint towards what the correct word will be. There are only so many five letter words after all. You should make note that if a letter is green, that doesn’t exactly mean that it’s only in that spot in the word. Words like “sweet” have two Es, for example. It’s paying attention to little possibilities and keeping up to date on many spellings of words that are the key to full green rows in your Wordle games.
Wordle was originally made in October 2021 by Josh Wardle, a Welsh software engineer who had made it originally just for him and his partner, who loved word games. The name Wordle comes from his last name and “word,” since it was originally just for his family. But when it became a major hit in his family group, he decided to see if it would be able to attract interest in the wider world. He was right. The player numbers skyrocketed every week, as more and more people enjoyed the simplistic fun Wordle was able to provide. In 2022, New York Times purchased Wordle, but did not change its policies about free usage of the site. Its new connection to one of the largest names in general media solidified it as a mainstay of the internet for years to come. Perhaps, if you’re not already playing Wordle, this article has caught your interest enough to join those thousands of people playing it for the first time.
