# "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:** 352
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7021 "2022-10-30T13:39:34Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > I’m legitimately stuck on 498. I can’t find any word that fits the feedback I have. I’m right there with you. I’ve got the middle three letters right after 3 guesses, but cannot even think of a word that fits what I’ve got left. At this point, I’m thinking it’s a word I don’t know, but that’s never happened yet, so maybe not. Grrrrr. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7022 "2022-10-30T13:53:55Z")
And I got it. Apparently I just needed to get up and walk around a bit to shake the answer loose. Wordle 498 4/6\* ⬛🟩⬛⬛⬛ 🟨🟩🟩⬛⬛ ⬛🟩🟩🟩⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ---
**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:** [October 30, 2022, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7023 "2022-10-30T13:54:31Z")
Fun one! Wordle 498 4/6\* ⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛ ⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛ 🟨🟩🟩⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ---
**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:** [October 30, 2022, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7024 "2022-10-30T14:01:39Z")
Tricksy Wordle. Good word today. 🙂 Wordle 498 3/6\* ⬛⬛🟨🟩⬛ ⬛🟩🟩🟩⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 IRATE SALTY WALTZ ---
**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:** [October 30, 2022, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7025 "2022-10-30T14:17:46Z")
Wordle 498 5/6 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛🟨🟨🟨 🟨🟩🟩⬛⬛ ⬛🟩🟩⬛🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 CRISP METAL TALLY BALUT WALTZ Oh thank God I finally saw it. There was no build up to it, I just all of a sudden could see it. I would have never guessed a common English word would end in TZ. ---
**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:** [October 30, 2022, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7026 "2022-10-30T14:25:56Z")
Wordle 498 5/6 ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨 ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Definitely not as easy as 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3 HEART TASTY CANTO WAITS (I knew there was no S, just mining for letters WALTZ ---
**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:** [October 30, 2022, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7027 "2022-10-30T15:01:22Z")
Wordle 498 3/6\* ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 SPOUT THIEF WALTZ ---
**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:** [October 30, 2022, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7028 "2022-10-30T15:18:20Z")
Wordle 498 4/6 ⬛⬛⬛🟧⬛ 🟦⬛⬛🟧⬛ ⬛🟦🟦🟧⬛ 🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧 ROUTE AMITY SWATH WALTZ I was in @EllisDee’s shoes, just not for as long. I convinced myself that A had to be both the second and fifth letter. H and Y are gone. Nothing else makes sense! WANTA? WALTA? PAWTA? Nothing! Took quite a while for that Z to drop. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7029 "2022-10-30T16:00:35Z")
Wordle 498 4/6 S_LA_N_T_ CHORE _T_ **AL** LY **WALTZ** Man, this one made me _work_. Had 3 letters right off the bat, but none of their positions. Came up with ~10 possibilities starting with one of those letters, and my usual second word was actually the best word I could think of to narrow those down, and it did. My third guess was one of the remaining possibilities from after the first guess, and it eliminated the other two as well. So after the third guess, I knew the middle three letters, but given the letters I’d eliminated, it took me _forever_ to get _any_ word that would work at all. Fortunately, that word was the solution. ---
**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:** [October 30, 2022, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7030 "2022-10-30T16:09:09Z")
It was, for me, a sort of Sherlockian process: the answer, however improbable, must be correct. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7031 "2022-10-30T17:03:40Z")
The hard part is when, after you’ve eliminated the impossible, you don’t seem to have _anything_ left, improbable or otherwise. > [@EllisDee](#): > > (Not helping my ego that everyone else seems to have gotten it without a problem.) Trust me, this one gave me fits. I was in the exact same position you were, trying to fill the blanks in _ALT_, so I feel your pain. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7032 "2022-10-30T21:00:38Z")
> **Wordle 498 5/6\* 10/30/2022** > > 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ > ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨 > 🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜ > 🟨⬜🟨🟨🟨 > 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 > > _L_IBEL → One and only one L. Got it. > C_L_OU_T_ → And it’s not in second place, but there’s a T also… > _A_P_TL_Y → And an A - the only vowel there. Now, I should have seen by now that L must be in the middle, in which case I wouldn’t have wasted a guess on… > _T_R_AWL_ → …but I did at least pick up the W. And I haven’t guessed an S yet! So - SALWT? STLAW? No. WALTS? Oh… > **WALTZ** > > I was glad, in retrospect, to have avoided the ?ALT? trap, but it would have been nice to have had a shot at a 4. Also notable: no greens letters on the board before the winning guess. ---
**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:** [October 30, 2022, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7033 "2022-10-30T21:15:44Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > It was, for me, a sort of Sherlockian process: the answer, however improbable, must be correct. That’s _exactly_ how I saw it, too! ---
**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:** [October 30, 2022, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7034 "2022-10-30T23:38:34Z")
Wordle 498 5/6 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟨🟨 🟨🟩🟨⬜⬜ 🟨🟩🟩⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 AROSE VAULT LATCH TALKY WALTZ With Y and H both eliminated as possible last letters, and (blank)ALT(blank) confirmed, it was a matter of going through the alphabet of non-eliminated letters for that fifth-position possibility. \_ALTB? \_ALTD? and so on…with I and Z looking like the only ones that could work. WALTZ seemed more likely than any borrow-word ending with \_ALTI. (I assume it would have had to be a borrow-word, maybe from Italian? Anyway, no likely candidate occurred to me.) eta: funny, Discourse won’t let me put underscores (to represent missing letters) in front of AND in back of other letters. ---
**Author:** ![Beesnest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@Beesnest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beesnest)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7035 "2022-10-30T23:54:07Z")
I spent a really long time making up new words to hammer out a solve in 6 [spoiler]Balti is a word. It is a Indian stirfry curry/spoiler] Wordle 498 6/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜cheat ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜party ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜fasts ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜balti 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ---
**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:** [October 31, 2022, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7036 "2022-10-31T00:40:58Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > eta: funny, Discourse won’t let me put underscores (to represent missing letters) in front of AND in back of other letters. That’s the shortcut for italics text, like if you do asterisks instead it’s bold. You can force any character to be displayed literally instead of interpreted as a code by putting a forward slash \ in front of it. “\_test\_” should display as \_test\_. Without the escape characters, “\_test\_” will appear as _test_. ---
**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:** [October 31, 2022, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7037 "2022-10-31T04:38:17Z")
**Wordle 498 4/6** 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 TRACE HAUNT PATTY WALTZ Had to rack my brain on this one after my 3rd word…I was stumped for the first time since I started playing. I went through every TI and TO ending word I could think of. Didn’t think it would be a plural word, as there never has been. Just wasn’t seeing it…until I _finally_ did. > [@EllisDee](#): > > Not helping my ego that everyone else seems to have gotten it without a problem. Not everyone. I was stumped too! Though, I did get it in 4 tries, but I didn’t think I was going to be able to solve this one for a bit there. ---
**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:** [October 31, 2022, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7038 "2022-10-31T04:52:59Z")
Wordle 499 4/6 ⬛🟨🟨⬛🟨 🟨🟨🟨⬛⬛ 🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 CLAMP PALER APPLY APTLY Got me good on this one. I thought I had it with apply, but only because I was unable to check T like I normally would after hitting three yellows in the first guess. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2022, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7039 "2022-10-31T04:55:38Z")
Wordle 499 3/6 ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 RATIO METAL APTLY I don’t use word lists so I don’t know if there were other options after 2 but I had trouble thinking of any. ---
**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:** [October 31, 2022, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/7040 "2022-10-31T07:01:25Z")
Wordle 499 4/6 ⬛🟨⬛🟨⬛ 🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛⬛🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 EARTH LIONS DUMPY APTLY [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604.md?page=351) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604.md?page=353)