WORDLE is the word! by Sarah Nicholson

 Is it too early to stick my neck out and predict the word of 2022? I’m not sure what odds I’d get but the word WORDLE would have to be a strong contender.

As I type this, I can say with utter certainty that I have a 25 day winning streak, I can’t believe I’ve been playing it for over three whole weeks. It's crazy, perhaps I am addicted, but a quick scroll through my twitter timeline shows I am not alone.

I’m sure I don’t need to spell out what it is but in case you have somehow missed it, WORDLE is a word game where you quite simply have to guess a new five letter word each day. You get six attempts and after each guess your letters change colour, (or even color as WORDLE uses US spelling!) green if you have put the right letter is in the right place, yellow means a letter is in the word but in the wrong place and grey if the letter is not in the word at all.

As many people have remarked it’s very like the old board game of Mastermind – if you are a child of the seventies maybe you will understand that reference.

There seems to be various schools of thought as to the best way to play, some people prefer a usual starting word, eliminating as many vowels first go as possible. Some then advocate guessing a second word with a totally new set of letters to give you as many correct ones as possible for subsequent rounds.

I much rather use serendipity and luck, plucking a word from the air, an object nearby such as plate phone or table, perhaps a word I come across when reading - elbow, fight or lover.

It’s amazing how many five letter words you spot when reading a book and how you can’t think of a single one when playing the game! 

WORDLE has spawned some dubiously named alternatives:-

Prayerdle – churchy words – if you guess in 3 you are like the holy trinity, four and you are favourably compared to the number of gospels. Prayerdle also features a fancy font setting for a more prayerful experience!

Sweardle – rude words – haven’t checked this one out – not sure I know enough rude words!

Absurdle – every time you guess a letter correctly the word you are trying to find changes,  I really don’t understand how this works but it is described as “Wordle with a mean streak”

Nerdle – not words at all but numbers, don’t attempt unless you are a hard sums ninja. My brain exploded and I gave up with this...

My son informed me today there is even a Pokemon version that his uni mates play. I’m sure many others exist and if not, no doubt new genre will be coming soon…

The world has seemingly gone mad for WORDLE, with green and yellow squares popping up all over the place.

It’s a daily ritual, played along with the first mug of coffee in the morning, enjoyed with afternoon tea and a biscuit or for those who have to be first at EVRYTHING sneakily devoured under the duvet just after midnight when a new word is released into the wild.

That is the great thing, there is only one word per day, if you stick to the original, so you are not sucked in for hours on end. People rarely spoil it as the option to share just shows coloured boxes so no letters are given away.

This tweet expresses it perfectly "The social contract we are all upholding to not spoil the day's Wordle has slightly restored my faith in humanity."

It is a phenomenon across the globe bringing people together and building community in these times when some of us are still keeping some distance and too many things are pulling us apart.

If WORDLE isn't the word of the year at least it was word of the month for January - let's see if it stays on the top spot until March!

I think I have included over 60 unique five letter words in this piece, I hope at least some will be useful!