Wordle is a web-based word game created and developed by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle, and owned and published by The New York Times Company since 2022. Players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given for each guess in the form of colored tiles indicating when letters match or occupy the correct position. The mechanics are nearly identical to the 1955 pen-and-paper game Jotto and the television game show franchise Lingo. The game has a single daily solution, with all players attempting to guess the same word.
How to install Wordle on an iPhone or Android phone?
Wordle is playable once per day and gives you six chances to guess that day’s word with color-coded hints after each guess. Yellow indicates the letter is in the word, but in the wrong spot and green indicates you got it dead on. If you opt to play in hard mode you will have to reuse any letters that were yellow or green in the previous round. For those familiar with the game show Lingo from the 80’s and early 2000’s, it’s similar to that game or a word-based version of the code-breaking boardgame Mastermind.
How to install Wordle on your iPhone
Open the Safari browser
Navigate to https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html
Tap on the Share button
Select Add to Home Screen
Tap Add in the upper-right corner
That’s it, Wordle will now appear on your home screen just like any other app. The one caveat for this is that it won’t bring over your current streak. The game isn’t presently designed to carry over between browsers or devices, so you will have to start fresh.
How to install Wordle on your Android phone
Open Google Chrome
Navigate to https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html
Tap on the overflow menu (three dots) in the upper-right corner
Select Add to Home screen
Tap Add
That’s it, Wordle will now appear on your home screen just like any other app. Just like on iOS the one caveat is that it won’t bring over your current streak. The game isn’t presently designed to carry over between browsers or devices, so you will have to start fresh.
How is Wordle gameplay?
Every day, a five-letter word is chosen which players aim to guess within six tries. After every guess, each letter is marked as either green, yellow or gray: green indicates that letter is correct and in the correct position, yellow means it is in the answer but not in the right position, while gray indicates it is not in the answer at all. Multiple instances of the same letter in a guess, such as the “o”s in “robot”, will be colored green or yellow only if the letter also appears multiple times in the answer; otherwise, excess repeating letters will be colored gray. The game has a “hard mode” option, which requires players to include letters marked as green and yellow in subsequent guesses. The daily word is the same for everyone. The game also has a dark theme as well as a high-contrast theme for colorblind accessibility, which changes the color scheme from green and yellow to orange and blue.
Conceptually and stylistically, the game is similar to the 1955 pen-and-paper game Jotto and to the game show franchise Lingo. The gameplay is also similar to the two-player board game Mastermind—which had a word-guessing variant Word Mastermind —and the game Bulls and Cows, with the exception that Wordle confirms the specific letters that are correct. Each daily game uses a word from a randomly ordered list of 2,315 words (out of the approximate 12,000 five-letter words in the English language).
The smaller word list was chosen by Wardle’s wife, who categorized the five-letter words into those she knew, those she did not know, and those she might have known. The game uses American spelling, despite the developer being from Wales and using a UK domain name for the game; he is a long-time resident of Brooklyn, New York. Players outside the US have complained that this spelling convention gives American players an unfair advantage, for example in the case of the solution “favor”.
Can Wordle answers be plural?
There is nothing from stopping answers from being plural. However, none have been plural so far in 2022, suggesting either that the makers are choosing not to use plurals or that they are just very rare. Three answers have ended in S in 2022, but they are FOCUS, REBUS and TRUSS.
Can Wordle answers use repeat letters?
Yes, answers often use repeat letters. These Wordles often tend to be a little tricky, as players are hesitant to potentially waste a guess on a repeat letter, particularly early on. Past examples of answers with repeat letters include COMMA, CHEEK, FEWER and AROMA.
Can Wordle answers be past tense?
Yes, Wordle can use past tense words – SHOWN was the Wordle 312 answer on 27 April, FOUND was the answer for the 282nd puzzle on 28 March and WRUNG was the answer for puzzle 225 on 30 January.
However, these are the only three past tense words in 2022 so far, suggesting they are quite rare. Keep in mind that if you guess a repeat letter and get both in the wrong place, one will turn yellow and the other will be grey, which can potentially be confusing.
Can Wordle answers use American spellings?
Yes, Wordle does use American spellings – something that has frustrated UK players before. Previous examples include HUMOR and FAVOR. If you find yourself stumped, keep in mind that the answer could be a US spelling. UK wordlers did get a bit of payback on the 250th puzzle, when BLOKE was the answer – a word barely used in the US.
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