If you’ve been bombarded with random, differently-colored squares on all of your social media recently, you’re not alone.
Wordle is the word game that everyone has, suddenly, incorporated into their everyday routine. It’s a daily, digitized word game, like the crossword puzzles we used to fill out in the newspaper (yes, these are also online, but go with me).
Wordle was actually created as a love letter to the creator’s partner. Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, knew his partner loved word games, so he programmed this game and named it ‘Wordle’ as a play on his last name. It was a fun thing for them to do together — that is, until everyone in the world caught on to the trend. Now, I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t at least tried to play the game.
Many things make Wordle special. There is only one puzzle a day, so if you miss it, it’s gone, but you also can’t binge games. In a world that’s full of technology and constant entertainment, I find the one-puzzle-a-day style refreshing.
The words have also gotten increasingly harder as the New York Times has acquired Wordle. Now, people who have hacked the original Wordle have been bested by the Times. A humbling experience, to say the least.
How To Play Wordle
If you’ve never played Wordle, get ready to get addicted.
The game has five squares for five letters. If you type in a word and you get gray letters, that means the letters aren’t in the word at all. If your letters turn to yellow, they’re in the word, but not where you put them. If your letters turn green, that’s where they’ll stay.
It sounds easy. Deceptively easy. That is, until you have a word like “shake” and sha_e is green, but you don’t know if p, k, m, d, or v go in that one gray spot. Then you lose your streak, get bitter, and cry (this hasn’t happened to me, but I’ve heard it makes for a tough day).
How To Win Wordle
There are many methods to win this game.
Many people start with the same word every morning. ‘Adieu’ is a good option because it covers the majority of the vowels. Other people love ‘aisle’ or ‘orate.’ I always start with ‘actin’ then ‘loser,’ because those two words cover the most commonly used vowels and consonants found in this game. However you start, I wouldn’t suggest changing up your starting word too often, unless you like to live on the edge.
There are also ways to ‘cheat’ without cheating. (If you’re a stickler for the rules, look away). Dictionary.com has a 5 letter word finder. Sometimes it helps you to see more words and understand what a five-letter word looks like. It sounds bizarre but, sometimes, when you’re too focused on the game, you cannot imagine how mo_st can be a word.
Word Hippo is my favorite website for light cheating. You can tell the program to exclude certain words, include them, and tell it where the words are placed. If you know the word starts with an ‘s’ and ends in an ‘ot’, plug that into Word Hippo and they’ll help you!
If my methods of cheating appall you, you can also opt for more practice. The Wordle Archive provides its users with all the previous Wordles. This will help you get the hang of what letters are most often used and also kick your boredom.
Hello Wordl is a simpler form of Wordle, where you can ‘give up’ or adjust the letters in the word. Plus, you can play it as many times as you want, every day.
Quordle provides you with four boards to solve at once, as well as practice boards you can play as many times as you’d like.
If none of these challenge you enough, try Absurdle. This game starts with multiple correct answers and purposefully changes the answer to make it difficult for you to win. That shouldn’t hurt anyone’s pride at all.
The amazing thing about Wordle is that you’re never guaranteed to win every time – it requires skill and a bit of chance, and that’s both refreshing and horrifying. And that’s why we love Wordle.
Have you played Wordle before? Do you love it? Comment below!
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