What is Wordle?

Wordle is the newly popular five-letter word guessing game created by a software engineer named John Wardle.

The objective of the game is to guess the daily five-letter word in six guesses or less. After entering each guess, the letters turn a certain color: gray if it doesn’t exist in the word, yellow if it exists, but is in the wrong spot, and green if it exists and is the correct spot. Incorrect letters will be grayed out on the keyboard below to prevent users from reentering them.

After guessing the word, you can share your results on social media, and it looks a little something like this:

Wordle 276 4/6

⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨

🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜

🟩🟩🟩⬜🟨

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

And this simple word game is taking the world by storm.

Here at the Academy, we are no less affected by the game’s addictiveness.

Senior Isabelle Brookshire stated, “I’ve been playing Wordle for a very short time, only about two to three weeks. When I first started, I was absolutely terrible and wondered how anyone could possibly be good at it. Now, I’m excellent, amazing, and fantastic. I love Wordle because it really wracks your brain. It’s a fun, competitive, and engaging game that requires not only knowledge of vocab, but also application of it in an unusual setting. I always feel smarter whenever I finish a round successfully.”

And it’s fun for people of all ages. Mr. Stegink, one of our beloved English teachers, boldly proclaimed. “I have never lost a Wordle. I always start with a different word—whatever comes to my mind first. I don’t do any of the statistically proven starter words. Because again, if you do that, you’re just a robot inputting systems. I play whatever word that comes to my mind first that’s five letters long, and it can’t be the word I used the day before or the previous Wordle’s solution.”

Mr. Stegink has an ongoing Wordle win streak of 82, so maybe he knows what he’s talking about.

On the other hand, senior Melissa Hanson has her favorite starter word: “The go-to strategy I use is starting off with the word ‘audio’ or ‘adieu,’ so that way I can eliminate four of five vowels and determine my next move based on my first guess. For a second word (depending on the availability of vowels), I like to pick a word that uses common consonants like T,  R, S, L, D, or H.”

Many other people have go-to starter words that typically knock out vowels and common consonants.  Isabelle Brookshire uses “ridge,” Katie Thomas ‘22 uses “irate,” and Ms. Barclay ‘94 uses “smart.”

Beyond strategies, however, the solidarity of trying to figure out the mystery Wordle along with the rest of the world really brings people together. Ms. Dorsett shared, “My family and I share our scores in our group chat every day. Everybody plays it. Mrs. Tunstill and I also share our scores when we play. So that’s what’s fun—the community of it. The community of Wordle.”

If you haven’t played Wordle yet, give it a try! It’s quick, it’s fun, and it gives you a little confidence boost after you catch a win.

Be sure to do the Wordle today and to share your best results in the comments.

Click the link to play! https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html