In 2022, The New York Times acquired Wordle and began providing game analysis to help players improve their skills at solving the daily puzzles. Two staff members, Josh Katz and Aatish Bhatia, analyzed 515 million Wordle games and found that the popular starting word “Adieu” was not actually helpful in solving the puzzles. Despite being one of the top 30 starting words used, it put players at a disadvantage in the long run. Starting with “Adieu” actually required players to take about a third of a turn more to solve their Wordles compared to starting with other words like “Slate.”
The concept of Wordle is simple: players must guess a five-letter word within six attempts. The game utilizes a color-coded tile system to provide feedback. A green tile indicates a correct letter in the correct position, a yellow tile signifies a correct letter in the wrong place, and a gray tile means the letter is not in the word at all. The daily puzzle becomes progressively more challenging, with average difficulty for Thursday’s puzzle being 4.6 out of 6 guesses, making it moderately challenging according to The New York Times.
For each day’s Wordle puzzle, Newsweek provides hints to help players figure out the answer. For example, the answer to one Thursday puzzle was “flunk,” which is both a verb and a noun meaning to fail in an examination or course. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as giving or receiving a failing grade. Players who correctly guess the Wordle answer can feel accomplished, but for those who don’t, there’s always another puzzle to look forward to the next day. Wordle updates daily at midnight in the player’s local time zone, providing a daily challenge to test their word-solving skills.
In addition to playing Wordle, players can also enjoy other word-based puzzles like Typochondria to keep themselves entertained while waiting for the next day’s Wordle puzzle. With the help of hints and tips provided by Newsweek and other sources, players can improve their skills and enhance their experience with the popular word game. By analyzing data from millions of games, players can gain insights into the most effective strategies and starting words to increase their chances of successfully solving the Wordle puzzles on a daily basis.
