Wordle is a simple online word game that suddenly, everyone seems to be playing.
Posts about it are everywhere on social media: little yellow and green boxes, along with some numbers.
What does it all mean? That’s how many tries it took that person to solve the puzzle.
“It’s a great game… first of all… and I think that’s the basis of anything being super popular,” started Amanda Rafkin, a word game expert in Los Angeles.
Like many others, she has been playing Wordle daily.
The game consists of one puzzle a day where you have six chances to guess a five-letter word.
When you guess, correct letters are highlighted: green means a letter is in the right spot, yellow means the letter is in the word, but it’s not in the right spot.
“It’s really nice that it’s bite sized entity and there’s only one a day,” said Rafkin.
The game was created by a New York based software developer named Josh Wardle. It was a pet project, something he created for a friend that took on a life of its own once other people started playing it.
The original game is only available at the website https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle, the confusing URL has led many searching App stores, but there is no official app and no need to pay to play.
You can add a shortcut to the daily game on your phone by opening the website in Safari, then tapping the share icon at the bottom of the screen and choosing the option to “Add to Home Screen.”
Part of the game’s appeal is bragging rights. When you solve a puzzle, you can share how many tries it took you on social media.
“Having something that you can share that capitalizes on the way that the internet tends to go viral i think has caused this to propagate and spread in a major way,” explained Rafkin.
If you’re ready to dive in, here are some tips and tricks to get you started.
WARNING, SEMI PUZZLE SPOILER ALERTS BELOW!
“A lot of people like to start with ARISE because that gives you 3 different vowels, an R and an S… which are all common letters,” explained Evan Birnholz, the Sunday crossword writer for The Washington Post Magazine.
Other hot words to begin your puzzle with include ADIEU, followed by FRONT, since they both give you a sizable number of vowels and other common letters to work with.
But the bottom line from Birnholz: “I think any word game is good for the brain and good for the soul, just as long as you’re having fun with it…that’s really the main goal.”
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