A new online word-guessing game has become a rage on Twitter and off it too. In Bengaluru, people are staying up nights, making strategies, and dodging spoilers to ace the daily puzzle.
It is called Wordle, and is created by software developer Josh Wardle from Brooklyn, USA. You need to guess a five-letter word in six attempts or fewer to crack the puzzle. One word is released to the world every day at 12 pm local time.
It is a deceptively simple game and doesn’t take more than a few minutes. So why two million users worldwide are hooked to Wordle?
Bengaluru players say the ‘addiction’ lies in the format. Journalism student Saishyam Srikanth says, “You keep coming back to the game every night just for one word. Had the frequency been higher, I would have lost interest I think.” He solves the puzzle the moment it is out at midnight. Even product designer Sahil Khan likes this one-word-a-day “constraint”. “Like other games, it doesn’t suck me into it all day,” explains the 33-year-old.
For history student Samara Chandavarkar, Wordle has become a family game. She solves it with her sister after the latter is done with school studies. “We have set an alarm of 6.30 pm for the activity. I go on Twitter only after solving it to avoid spoilers,” Samara says. The sisters have also made a list of 15 five-letter ‘starter words’ to maximise their chances.
Every user has a strategy: Saishyam begins with ‘Spain’; Sahil starts with ‘arise’ or ‘adieu’; IT professional Sandhya Chandrasekaran tries ‘swear’ or ‘sweat’.
Wordle doesn’t give rewards, just a performance chart, which you can share and brag about online, enough to keep the users competitive.
Samara recalls a near-miss: “We got to ‘polar’ and even ‘molar’ but the answer was ‘solar’!” Sandhya can relate as she says, “I felt such a high after getting the word ‘siege’ right in four attempts.” She does Wordle after her morning fix of coffee and newspaper.
No surprise but the scrabble community in Bengaluru has taken a shine for the game. Such as 61-year-old marketing consultant Sanjoy Gupta: “Wordle is a game of skill and our know-how of Scrabble, such as spotting anagrams and patterns, help. I have had a 100% success rate.” He gives pointers: “Use clues from the preceding words while guessing the next. If the last letter is confirmed to be ‘c’, it will likely have an ‘i’ before (as in ‘panic’ or ‘manic’). If all vowels are eliminated in first two attempts, then it may be a ‘y’ word (as in ‘myrrh’ or ‘crypt’).”
Indian response
According to Twitter, 96% of Wordle conversations in India have taken place in January 2022 and it is witnessing a 48% daily average growth.
‘A Tamil Wordle’
Since its public release in October 2021 on a website, Wordle has spawned clones, offering multiple word puzzles a day. A Tamil version is available too. Many clones have been taken down following public outrage. It has also led to much upset, and memes. The Britishers and Americans have warred over the spelling of ‘favour’ and ‘favor’, and fans have called out those guilty of giving out spoilers.
How to play
Wordle is a game of deduction. You have to guess a five-letter word in a maximum of six tries. Each time you guess a word, the letters turn green, yellow or grey to indicate if they are in the correct spot or correct at all. Play for free on powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle.
Tips and tricks
Twitter and Reddit are full of ‘hacks’. We summarise a few.
1. Focus on the first word: Choose popular words with three vowels and five different letters, such as orate, media, radio. Many like to start with adieu or oiuja. Avoid words with x, q and z in the first guess.
2. Check the consonants: N, r, s and t are common to many words.
3. Identify patterns: Usually, ‘q’ is followed by ‘u’, and sequence ‘ea’ is more common than ‘ae’.
4. Never reuse greyed-out letters: Grey letters are not in the final word.
5. You can repeat letters: Chill and ferry, for example.
6. Use US English: Though
Wordle is hosted on a UK website, it accepts American English.
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