New Delhi: In a very short time, guessing game Wordle has become a massive hit with word game enthusiasts. And its exclusivity, the fact that you get only one word a day to guess, makes it all the more popular.
More than 2 million users are currently hooked to the game and play it every day, according to a report in The Guardian.
The game created by software engineer Josh Wardle for his puzzle enthusiast partner is housed in a web browser. Wordle does not have its app.
The viral game gives players six tries to correctly guess the five-letter word of the day.
A letter grid turns from black to green if the user guesses the right character in the right place.
If the box turns yellow, it means the word of the day features this particular letter but the user has put it in the wrong place.
A grey grid means the word does not have the letter.
Here are 4 tricks for you to master the Wordle game and guess the correct word in minimum tries.
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2. First Word Must Have More Than 2 Vowels
A five-letter word is not likely to have more than two vowels, if not one, and your can get to the correct word faster if you get the vowels, or at least one vowel right in the first try. Try words like ‘cable’ or ‘waned’, since ‘a’ and ‘e’ are the most common vowels. In the rare case of not getting the vowel right in first try, the second word must have the other vowels. ‘Pious’ is a good word to try because it has all the other three.
2. Get The Consonants Right
If you have already got the vowel and its position right, it shouldn’t take you long to figure out the right word from here. A tip is to use the consonants that are more commonly used - ‘s’, ‘t’, ‘r’, for example. Be mindful of the coloured boxes suggested in the game while positioning your letters and hitting ‘Enter’. Make sure you don’t repeat the letters that have turned grey.
3. American Spellings
Wordle has been seen to use US spellings. Wordle 207 answer, for example, was Favor. It’s the US spelling for ‘favour’. This has raked up some criticism but it’s a little fact that can be kept in mind while solving the puzzle.
4. One Letter Can Be Used Twice
The answer for Wordle 208 was ‘Abbey’. Now, that was tricky because there is no way to know if a word of the day includes a letter twice. Well, there are also five-letter words that have one letter coming thrice — ‘Puppy’ is one. So, don’t shut your mind out to words like these. The site's virtual keyboard shows the letters that you have used and those left out — with correct letters in green, ineligible letters in black and unused letters in grey. In case you are stuck, and you think the leftover letters won’t make any word together with the four letters you have in hand, consider one of the letters already in green.
5. Get Your Notebook Out
If you are stuck, can’t make out which letter it is next, and are running out of chances despite guessing at least three or four letters right, just stop staring at your phone, or the computer screen. Get a pen and a piece of paper out, and scribble down the options in all permutations and combinations. If you still get it wrong, just remember Wordle is a guessing game. You are not ‘wrong’ if your word is legit. It’s just that you didn’t read Wardle’s mind right. Happy puzzling!