# "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:** 310
**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:** [September 15, 2022, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6181 "2022-09-15T16:52:56Z")
Wordle 453 4/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 EARTH STONY CLOUT DOUBT ---
**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:** [September 15, 2022, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6182 "2022-09-15T17:20:11Z")
Wordle 453 5/6 β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¦πŸŸ¦β¬› πŸŸ¦πŸŸ¦β¬›πŸŸ¦β¬› β¬›πŸŸ§πŸŸ§πŸŸ¦β¬› β¬›πŸŸ§πŸŸ§β¬›πŸŸ§ 🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧 PIOUS TUMOR YOUTH COUNT DOUBT Ugh, starting another five streak, I guess. This shouldn’t have been such a slog. That BT ending was just unusual enough to block my brain from seeing it earlier. ---
**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:** [September 15, 2022, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6183 "2022-09-15T20:54:33Z")
Nope, I’m out again. No more Wordle for me. Here’s **tomorrow’s**. Wordle 454 X/6 ⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜ 🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨 🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 ---
**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:** [September 15, 2022, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6184 "2022-09-15T22:29:00Z")
Wordle 453 3/6\* β¬›β¬›β¬›β¬›πŸŸ© β¬›β¬›β¬›β¬›πŸŸ© 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 > **Summary** > > Yeast grift doubt ---
**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:** [September 15, 2022, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6185 "2022-09-15T23:39:43Z")
Wordle 453 5/6 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟨🟩⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 STERN TALLY OPTIC BOOTH DOUBT Sometimes I get lucky with the opener; today I did not. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2022, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6186 "2022-09-16T00:50:08Z")
> **Wordle 453 4/6\* 9/15/2022** > > 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ > ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ > ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩 > 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 > > _T_HYME β†’ An apt start. More consonants, please? > S_T_RIP β†’ No luck there. Gotta try some more vowels before I run out > F **OU** N **T** β†’ Oooh, lucky guess! What goes between OU and T? Can’t be S, R, N. L? Nah. G or C? Couldn’t be. Wait, there’s one word with a B… > **DOUBT** > > This ended pretty fast. I’m glad I got ?OU?T late so a lot of consonants had already been eliminated. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2022, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6187 "2022-09-16T03:06:38Z")
**Tomorrow’s Wordle, Today** I know what this word means. I have never seen it in use. Boooo. Wordle 454 X/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 > **Wordle 454** > > GHOST > INURE > BREAD > WAFER > CALMS > PAPER ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2022, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6188 "2022-09-16T04:02:14Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > I know what this word means. I have never seen it in use. Boooo. Yeah, today’s was hard. Got it on the fifth but I was riding the strugglebus. ---
**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:** [September 16, 2022, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6189 "2022-09-16T04:19:10Z")
Wordle 454 5/6 β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬›πŸŸ¨ β¬›πŸŸ©πŸŸ¨πŸŸ©πŸŸ© β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨β¬›β¬› πŸŸ©πŸŸ©β¬›πŸŸ©πŸŸ© 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 CLASP TAPER GRAVY PAWER PARER This answer is some bullshit. Nobody says parer, they say paring knife. Anyway, after 2 I had positively narrowed it down to PA\_ER, and had already eliminated paper. Running through the letters in my mind I could see pager, paver and payer so I guessed gravy to positively identify the answer. Nada. So now being pissed, I cheated with an anagram solver. Plugged in all my unused letters to see if anything created a five letter word. The only thing that hit was pawer, so I tried that. Still nada. Finally in disgust I realized that my anagram checks didn’t check for double R’s. This answer was some stupid Scrabble bullshit. The kind of thing that turns me off the game. I’ll keep playing for now, but this really took the shine off it for me. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2022, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6190 "2022-09-16T04:30:36Z")
Wordle 454 X/6 🟨🟩⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟩🟨🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 RAISE LATER MAKER NYMPH CAPER PAVER Darn! I made it to 197. I knew there were a ton of words possible so I went for a letter hunt on 4. I still think CAPER was a good guess, to distinguish between that, PACER and PAPER. I ended up with PAGER, PAVER and PARER and I guessed wrong. I am not sure what else I could have done. ETA: I guess I should have tried to guess letters starting at The third guess. If I had guessed NYMPH, then CAPER then VIRGO I would have had it in six. ---
**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:** [September 16, 2022, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6191 "2022-09-16T04:57:09Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > I made it to 197. Oh man, I know how that feels. My first loss was at 199. It’s super frustrating; you have my sympathies. ---
**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:** [September 16, 2022, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6192 "2022-09-16T05:36:33Z")
**Wordle 453 4/6** ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩 ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 REACH POINT JOUST DOUBT ---
**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:** [September 16, 2022, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6193 "2022-09-16T07:04:01Z")
Wordle 454 X/6 β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨β¬› ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ β¬›β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬› β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬›β¬› πŸŸ©πŸŸ©β¬›πŸŸ©πŸŸ© πŸŸ©πŸŸ©β¬›πŸŸ©πŸŸ© ☹ HEART LIONS DUMPY WHACK PAPER PAGER (PARER) I guessed wrong too. ---
**Author:** ![Newtosite](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/newtosite/32/8623_2.png) [@Newtosite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Newtosite)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2022, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6194 "2022-09-16T07:28:59Z")
Wordle 454 6/6 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜🟩🟨🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Taser Caper Pager Payer Paver Parer I was so sure I’d get it in two, or at the most, three. Almost didn’t get it at all! ☹ ---
**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:** [September 16, 2022, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6195 "2022-09-16T09:05:06Z")
Wordle 454 4/6 ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 CRANE PAGER - From experience I know there are a lot of \_A\_ER words with a P or G. With my normal way of playing I would struggle with those words (apparently like others have/will today). PAGER is a common second word for me to identify if it’s one of the P/G words. It helped today. REPLY - Searching for letters. No help PARER ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2022, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6196 "2022-09-16T10:48:06Z")
Wordle 454 X/6 My first loss, and I see I had plenty of company today, which takes some of the sting off. Also, I feel I approached this problem in as intelligent a fashion as I could manage, and still lost, so I’m not slapping my head over some stupid mistake, and that takes some of the sting off too. And I share Terminus Est’s and Ellis Dee’s sentiments about this word. Nobody ever says, β€œparer,” they say β€œparing knife.” SL_A_NT CHO_RE_ _A_MB **ER** W **A** G **ER** F **A** K **ER** R **ARER** > **Summary** > > So after two guesses, I had the A,E.R, just not in position. AMBER took care of that, but then of course I was in the \_A\_ER trap, with a couple dozen legitimate words, even considering the consonants I’d eliminated, of which I took a half-dozen seriously. (PARER wasn’t one of these.) Also, just for fun, SF-related proper nouns VADER and ZAGER (as in Zager & Evans, β€œIn the Year 2525,” enjoy the earworm!) fit. > > My top possibilities were FAKER, GAZER, PAGER, WAFER, WAGER, and WAVER. (PAPER was out, it was a previous solution.) WAGER (guess 4) overlapped with all but FAKER, so FAKER was my fifth guess. At which point I was going β€œaw shit.” > > So now I’m down to stuff like DARER (β€œI double dog dare you!” β€œDarers go first!”), PARER, PAVER, RAGER, RAKER, RAPER (I didn’t think the NYT would let this one through, though), RARER, and RAVER. RARER seemed to be (a) the most commonly used, and (b) a triple letter seemed to be just the sort of surprise to trip people up. So I went with it, and lost. Such is life. > > ETA: Maybe I could’ve gotten it if I’d gone with my usual DUMPY on my third guess, because having that P would’ve helped immensely. But I already had three letters, and it seemed like it was time to start working towards the solution more directly, rather than fishing for more letters. ---
**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:** [September 16, 2022, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6197 "2022-09-16T10:57:44Z")
Wordle 454 4/6\* ⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜ ⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 BEARD GREAT PARSE PARER Lucky 3rd guess. ---
**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:** [September 16, 2022, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6198 "2022-09-16T12:04:52Z")
Wordle 454 6/6 ⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Got the first 4 letters in 3 tries. Then tried the old β€œis it a word?” game sticking in unused letters and found words I didn’t know existed. Then I realized there was a letter used twice. HEART DARES PAREN PAREV PAREU PARER ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2022, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6199 "2022-09-16T12:30:55Z")
Wordle 454 X/6 ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨 ⬜🟨🟨🟨🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 My first loss in a long time. I got to a near win in three moves, then used GLOVE to wipe out three potentials winners leaving two to go. My problem: I didn’t think of PARER. IRATE SPEAR PACER GLOVE PAYER PAPER ---
**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:** [September 16, 2022, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/6200 "2022-09-16T13:17:51Z")
ARGH! I hate the words where I’m only missing one letter and there are more possibilities than guesses left! Wordle 454 X/6\* 🟩⬜🟨⬜🟨 🟩🟨🟨🟨⬜ 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 PHAGE PEARL PAPER PACER PALER PAVER [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604.md?page=309) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604.md?page=311)