CONNECTICUT, USA — Puzzles and guessing games surrounding language and words seem to always captivate us.
Between trying to beat your grandparents at a round of Scrabble, to your average word searches and crossword puzzles – we seem to be drawn to anything that helps us use those vocabulary lessons we learned in 5th grade.
There's a new word puzzle that's sweeping across the internet now. You may have seen it trending on Twitter from time to time in the last week.
Wordle.
Either on Twitter or on your Facebook feeds, you've likely spotted the little 6x5 grid with yellow, green, and gray squares that are accompanied by a caption like "Wordle 217 4/6" for example.
So, what is Wordle, how do you play, and what are those little squares?
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How to Play
First things first, you have to head to the website! There are options if click on the gear wheel in the upper right to change the website to dark mode, or a color-blind mode with high contrast colors.
There are only six attempts available to guess the word with the only clues given being the yellow or green squares.
You type in a five-letter word, and if you got any letters correct but are in the wrong place, the squares will turn yellow. The letters that are in the right place will turn green.
If you think you can type in random letters in random spots until you get a match, you can't. Wordle only accepts actual words.
Once your six attempts are up, and you can't guess anymore, it'll show you the word above at the top of your screen.
If you're looking to re-try on a different computer (because it won't let you try again on the one you just used), then make sure not to look at the top.
You can only play once a day with the clock resetting at midnight.
At the end of the six attempts, whether or not you were able to guess the word, you'll get your statistics box and a countdown to when the next puzzle will be available. If you hit the share button, that's what you can copy and paste onto social media to show people your results.
This is how you get those neat social media statuses!
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Tips and Tricks
If you search "Wordle Tips and Tricks" online, you'll get dozens and dozens of articles outlining the best strategy to beat the game for the day.
Because you can only guess once a day, technically, it's almost daunting to make sure you get yourself off on the right foot (there are a lot of words to chose from).
But, piling together all the tips and tricks articles, one of the things they suggest is guessing words that will guess many letters, specifically vowels, for you.
If you wanted to take a stab at some words that would cover bases if not in one guess, but two, some places recommend the following:
- Earns
- Steam
- Slate
- Heist
- Adieu
- Aisle
- Audio
- Regal
Another tip? Go to school. Or, rather, go do other word puzzles and searches to bring back those vocabulary lessons. There are the classes word searches and crossword puzzles, along with games like the ever-classic Scrabble. One search of your phone's App Store will likely yield a dozen results to choose from.
A third tip is a given: Play Wordle every day.
It's a game that's hard to get burnt out from. You can only play it once a day, waiting patiently for midnight to come around; there's no hacks, no cheating, no nothing. The website had no advertising on it, and there's no app to download to your phone in order to get push notifications.
It's something your brain will make a habit of remembering for you. It's a small language practice to start your morning or end your day with.
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Jennifer Glatz is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jglatz@fox61.com.
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