# "Wordle," a strangely compelling word game (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** board-card-word-game\ **Created:** [December 24, 2021, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604 "2021-12-24T21:12:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 282
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5621 "2022-08-19T04:08:03Z")
Wordle 426 4/6 β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬›β¬›β¬› πŸŸ©β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬› πŸŸ©πŸŸ©πŸŸ©πŸŸ©β¬› 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 CRAMP STORE SHRUB SHRUG I saw both shrub and shrug, but unfortunately shrub first. Whaddya gonna do, right? ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5622 "2022-08-19T04:12:15Z")
Wordle 426 5/6 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜ 🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 RATIO PRUNE BURLY SCRUM SHRUB ---
**Author:** ![QMatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/aeb1de/32.png) [@QMatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QMatic)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5623 "2022-08-19T06:33:31Z")
Wordle 426 2/6\* 🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 SPIRE SHRUG 🀷 ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5624 "2022-08-19T07:48:48Z")
Wordle 426 5/6 β¬›β¬›πŸŸ©β¬›πŸŸ¨ β¬›β¬›β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨ β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬›β¬›β¬› πŸŸ©πŸŸ©πŸŸ©πŸŸ©β¬› 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 EARTH LIONS DUMPY SHRUB SHRUG ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5625 "2022-08-19T11:08:38Z")
Wordle 426 4/6 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 CRANE TIROS SHRUB - another SHRUB first SHRUG ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5626 "2022-08-19T11:49:54Z")
Wordle 426 4/6\* ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 MERCY BURKA VIRUS SHRUG ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5627 "2022-08-19T11:54:45Z")
Wordle 426 3/6 ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨 🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 EARTH HERON SHRUG ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5628 "2022-08-19T12:17:20Z")
Wordle 426 3/6\* ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟨🟨⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 YOURS SUGAR SHRUG Took just a minute to do this one. A relief after yesterday’s TWANG slog. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5629 "2022-08-19T13:32:22Z")
Wordle 426 3/6\* ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ β¬›πŸŸ©β¬›β¬›β¬› 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Adept Chino Shrug ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5630 "2022-08-19T13:51:00Z")
Got a lucky 3. Wordle 426 3/6\* β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬›β¬›β¬› β¬›πŸŸ©β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬› 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 IRATE CHORD SHRUG Nice way to start a Friday. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5631 "2022-08-19T14:31:28Z")
Wordle 426 3/6 SLANT CHORE SHRUG Eh, whatever. πŸ˜‰ Good thing I checked to see whether SHRUB had already been used. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5632 "2022-08-19T15:11:04Z")
Wordle 426 4/6\* ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 BEARD GROIN RUGBY SHRUG ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5633 "2022-08-19T16:08:54Z")
Wordle 426 5/6 β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¦β¬›β¬› β¬›πŸŸ¦β¬›β¬›β¬› β¬›πŸŸ¦β¬›πŸŸ§β¬› πŸŸ§πŸŸ§πŸŸ§πŸŸ§β¬› 🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧 LOUPE TUNIC FRAUD SHRUB SHRUG I wasted some guesses looking for vowels that weren’t there, though suppose I eliminated enough consonants along the way too. I was a little bummed when that B turned over, but a win’s a win. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5634 "2022-08-19T20:52:33Z")
> **Wordle 426 4/6\* 8/19/2022** > > ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 > ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩 > 🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩 > 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 > > TWAN **G** β†’ An odd start. Ends in G, but not NG? I was casting around for words to use and hit on an odd one… > D_R_OO **G** β†’ Which probably should have sunk me (double O? _D_?), but the R gave me some ideas. > **S** P **R** I **G** β†’ And not much could go between the S and the R, so, I guess… > **SHRUG** > > Frustrated me after the first guess, but then got fun after the second. I don’t often go four guesses without checking for an E. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5635 "2022-08-19T22:25:40Z")
A straightforward four for **tomorrow’s.** Wordle 427 4/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩 ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5636 "2022-08-19T22:36:26Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > Did anyone notice that WordleBot was updated today, and DEALT is no longer the top pick for the first word in hard mode? The best starting words are now LEAST, SLATE, and LEANT at 99. DEALT is now rated 98, along with SLANT, TALES, and PLATE. It seems very peculiar that DEALT was ever the top pick. D is way down the list of most frequent letters in Wordle solutions so far, fifteenth out of 26 letters, used only 67 times in 426 solutions. (Finally updated my stats!) The top Wordlebot picks you mention all seem to have the A and E vowels in common (except for one-vowel SLANT\*) so the difference is strictly the consonants. LEAST, SLATE, and TALES all have LST (hence share all 5 letters; only difference is their order\*\*), LEANT has LNT, SLANT has LNST (the best of both worlds wrt consonants), but PLATE puzzles me as P is almost as infrequent as D, appearing only 69 times. So I have no idea why Wordlebot would rate either DEALT or PLATE so high. The other thing that puzzles me is that the most frequent consonant in the 426 Wordle solutions is R, and it isn’t even close: R appears 179 times, while second-place T has shown up 149 times. But R isn’t in any of these top-rated Wordlebot starting words. You should be ALERT\*\*\*ed to that. \*My starting word. \*\*If I had to pick one of those three, I’d go with SLATE because if E is in a Wordle solution, it’s at the end \>1/3 of the time. It would not be TALES since S is almost never the final letter, only 7 times so far. Wardle seems to have excluded common 5-letter words which were 4-letter roots plus an S, like TREES or JUMPS. \*\*\*ALERT has five of the six most frequently appearing letters so far in Wordle, the exception being O. If I was OK with two vowels in my starting word, I’d be giving it a try. ---
**Author:** ![SeaSun](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seasun/32/14820_2.png) [@SeaSun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaSun)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5637 "2022-08-19T23:20:51Z")
**Wordle 426 4/6** ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ 🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 MANOR TRUCE RUGBY SHRUG ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5638 "2022-08-19T23:53:18Z")
Wordle 426 2/6 🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 STARE SHRUG Lucky start, plus my habit of looking for consonant-pairs to start, helped me see a 2–and it’s been a long time! ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5639 "2022-08-19T23:59:01Z")
Almost forgot today- first deuce in ages! Wordle 426 2/6 🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 HEART SHRUG ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2022, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/5640 "2022-08-20T00:20:29Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > plus my habit of looking for consonant-pairs to start I am a big fan of checking both L and R specifically to reduce the number of consonant pairs that could start a word. In general, that only leaves H and W as common β€˜second consonants.’ I suppose whirl would take them all out in one shot, but that would be a terrible opener. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604.md?page=281) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604.md?page=283)