I first heard the word “Wordle” warbled on the wadio whilst driving into work a couple of weeks ago. For some reason, the description of this word-solving puzzle stuck in my mind, so I decided to take a closer look.
Wordle is a web-based word game developed by a guy called Josh Wardle. The underlying idea is as simple as you could hope for, and Josh’s implementation is as intuitive as you could wish for. Every day, a five-letter word is randomly selected from a database — the word is the same for everyone — and players attempt to guess this word in six tries.
When you first visit the Wordle website, you are presented with a 5 x 6 array of squares (five squares wide and six squares deep). Underneath this array is a keyboard.

You start by clicking on the keys in the keyboard to enter a five-letter word, which automatically appears in the top row of squares. In the case of my first puzzle (as shown below), I entered the word “FRUIT” followed by the <ENTER> key to submit this guess.

After every guess, each letter (both in the array and on the keyboard) 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.
Based on this intelligence, you enter a new five-letter word, your goal being to correctly identify the word of the day in as few tries as possible. In my case, I managed to guess the word of the day “POINT” in only four tries, but I’m sure this was just a lucky fluke and not an indication of my awesome brainpower.
As far as I can see, Josh is a hero. He’s created a user interface so simple that even I could work it out without a manual. He’s limited us to just one word a day, which means we can have something to look forward to without becoming addicted and spending countless hours solving one puzzle after another. And even though Wordle now has millions of users, Josh has steadfastly refused to monetize the game. As he famously said: “It’s not trying to do anything shady with your data or your eyeballs … It’s just a game that’s fun.”
I’ve already introduced this to my wife (Gina the Gorgeous) and my mother (Margaret Mom of Max). Maybe you can think of someone you know who would enjoy a quick Wordle while no one was looking.
I just heard that there’s an equivalent game called Lewdle in which you have to guess 5-letter naughty words (https://www.lewdlegame.com/) along with a version called Sweardle in which you have to guess 4-letter swear words (https://www.sweardle.com/)
Wordle sounds very similar to the game Mastermind. In some ways it is simpler- Wordle immediately defines which letter is correct and the associated position. In other ways it is more complicated- there are way more letters in Wordle than colours in Mastermind.
Also you only get 5 guesses in Wordle, although perhaps he fact that it is an actual word may make it simpler.
Being retired, I am sure I will dabble with it every day.
I’m really not all that into word games — but I do like doing a Wordle as a break — I only started yesterday so I’ve only done two — yesterday’s (the one shown n this blog) took 4 guesses — I got today’s in 3 — but I suspect I’ve been lucky — we’ll see 🙂
Curse me for a fool for writing this blog — the folks at the New York Times saw it and now they’ve purchased Wordle (at least, I assume that’s what happened) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/business/media/new-york-times-wordle.html
And I heard it’s going to be behind a paywall…. 🙁
I used to play Mastermind which was doing the same thing with a code of 4 of 6 colours.
These days I like Jumble – I can usually do it in a minute or two which is about the limit of my attention span 😅
That would be a pain if it goes behind a pay wall — I think they should leave it free and just plaster a big banner saying “brought to you by the New York Times” — we’ll see what happens — Max
My chum Jay Dowling just pointed me at a very interesting video on “Solving Wordle using information theory” https://youtu.be/v68zYyaEmEA