# "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:** 404
**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:** [December 23, 2022, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8061 "2022-12-23T15:24:16Z")
Wordle 552 4/6\* ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜ 🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 BEARD RIVAL MAJOR AORTA ---
**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:** [December 23, 2022, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8062 "2022-12-23T16:47:32Z")
Nice to be back to a three. Wordle 552 3/6\* β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨πŸŸ©β¬› β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ©πŸŸ©β¬› 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 IRATE PARTY AORTA I wasn’t really sure AORTA was the answer, but the word allowed me to test placement of the β€˜A’ in both remaining spots. I figured the worst I could do was a four. Then WordleBot tells me it was the _only_ word left after my second try. So yayyy, I guess. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2022, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8063 "2022-12-23T16:51:20Z")
Got confused on the colors. Thought blue was correct. πŸ™„ Wordle 552 5/6 ⬜🟦🟦⬜⬜ 🟦🟦🟦⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟦🟦🟦 ⬜🟦🟧🟧⬜ 🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧 CRANE TRAIL SMART WARTY AORTA ---
**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:** [December 23, 2022, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8064 "2022-12-23T17:23:29Z")
Wordle 552 4/6 β¬›πŸŸ¦β¬›β¬›β¬› πŸŸ¦πŸŸ¦πŸŸ¦β¬›β¬› πŸŸ§β¬›πŸŸ¦πŸŸ¦πŸŸ¦ 🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧 MAUVE TRAIN ABORT AORTA Like @psychobunny, I doubted ABORT would be a Wordle answer, but I wanted to get an O in there and that was all I could think of. It led me to a par, so I’m not mad. > [@Sherrerd](#): > > LEVEL, with two repeated letters, would often be a bad guess I’ve noticed that [Scoredle](https://scoredle.com/)’s algorithm routinely uses repeated letters in its guesses. I think trying to get the letters you have into the right spots is a viable strategy. (Unspoilered because **Sherrerd** was referring to yesterday’s puzzle) ---
**Author:** ![knoodler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@knoodler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knoodler)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8065 "2022-12-23T18:28:23Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Wordle 552 2/6 > > β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ©πŸŸ©β¬› > 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 > > EARTH > AORTA > > Two woo-hoo!! πŸŸ©πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨β¬›β¬› 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 AROSE AORTA I don’t play every day, but something told me to open with β€œarose” and lo and behold a two-worder! ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8066 "2022-12-23T19:11:43Z")
> **Wordle 552 4/6\* 12/23/2022** > > ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ > 🟨🟩🟨⬜🟨 > 🟨🟩⬜🟨🟨 > 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 > > EXCEL β†’ OK. Time for one of my favorite second guesses… > _R_ **O** _A_S_T_ β†’ I tried several possibilties here - including HORTA (just in case Wardle was Trekker), and remembering SOLAR from a couple of days ago tried at random… > _T_ **O** L_AR_ β†’ And somehow that’s a word. So, AO[RT][TR]- or -O[RT][TR]A. Why not both As? > **AORTA** > > Never heard of TOLAR before, but it did yeoman’s work in getting me to the answer in 4. ---
**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:** [December 24, 2022, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8067 "2022-12-24T00:47:05Z")
Wordle 552 4/6 ⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 STARE SPOIL OCCUR AORTA I did see the #552 answer when posting about #551, last night. As it was partly NOT my fault (none of us have had to check game numbers before clicking on the faded-out text for a long time), and also partly WAS my fault (I should always be checking on the game numbers before clicking!), I decided to take a par score for the day. Hence β€œSPOIL” and β€œOCCUR”—couldn’t quite come up with a viable sentence to reflect the situation. > [@Wheelz](#): > > I’ve noticed that [Scoredle](https://scoredle.com/)’s algorithm routinely uses repeated letters in its guesses. Interesting. That’s not a site I’ve checked out, but as you say, getting letters into a potentially correct position does have some value, so I can see that the β€˜repeated letters’ option might be useful in that context. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8068 "2022-12-24T02:00:39Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Seconding @Author_Balk. I clicked on the blur without even thinking about it. I’m going to try and forget what I saw between now and morning, but it ain’t easy. > > Maybe it should be suggested to the NYT that there should be a single time worldwide when each day’s new Wordle pops up. I really don’t care what time - nothing wrong with midnight GMT, for instance - but the real problem here is that different people around the world gain access to a given day’s Wordle at very different times. I clicked on the blur too, and forgot the solution very effectively, except for the 1st letter, which didn’t help me too much anyway Wordle 552 4/6\* 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩⬜⬜🟨🟨 🟩🟨🟨⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ADIEU ABHOR AROMA AORTA ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8069 "2022-12-24T05:06:05Z")
Wordle 553 3/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 RATIO NOISY POISE ---
**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:** [December 24, 2022, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8070 "2022-12-24T07:01:30Z")
**Wordle 552 6/6** Yikes! ⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟨🟨 ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩 ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 FOAMY POLAR COCOA VOILA TRUST AORTA Beads of sweat on this one! I actually thought of Aorta after my start word, but felt it may not be used…there haven’t been too many anatomy words (other than Torso and Tibia, that I know of). I then was going with a few β€œtheme” words…might as well. And since Tracy said in the interview that she may toss out some slang words that are commonly used, I went for Voila, which in hindsight wasn’t so smart. I then made a mistake with thinking I had more words than I did (didn’t realize a few were ruled out), which is why I went with a sleuth word at guess #5. In any case, my sleuth word ruled out the other words, and it was indeed Aorta. πŸ™„ **Side Note:** Gouda was one of my choices, and I tried it on my 4th word, but Wordle wouldn’t let me play it, which was surprising. ---
**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:** [December 24, 2022, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8071 "2022-12-24T08:02:13Z")
Wordle 553 3/6 πŸŸ¨β¬›β¬›β¬›β¬› β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨β¬›πŸŸ¨ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 EARTH LIONS POISE ---
**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:** [December 24, 2022, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8072 "2022-12-24T08:42:26Z")
Wordle 553 3/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 🟨🟨🟨⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Crane Spoke Poise ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8073 "2022-12-24T09:21:23Z")
Wordle 553 4/6 _S_LANT CH_O_R **E** M **O** U **SE** **POISE** After my second word, when MOUSE was one of the few words I could come up with that still fit, I thought, β€œnot a creature was stirring…” - theme word?? So I was disappointed that that wasn’t it. ---
**Author:** ![QMatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/aeb1de/32.png) [@QMatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QMatic)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8074 "2022-12-24T10:18:28Z")
Wordle 553 3/6\* ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩 🟨🟨🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 CRIME SPICE POISE ---
**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:** [December 24, 2022, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8075 "2022-12-24T11:49:22Z")
Wordle 553 4/6 β¬›β¬›β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨ β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨πŸŸ© πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨πŸŸ©β¬›πŸŸ© 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 CLAMP TROPE OPINE POISE Screwed this one up by not checking S. When the P hit I had to drop S, T or R to fit it in, and S is the bottom of my list of those three. If I had chosen to drop T instead, my second guess would have been prose, leading to an easy 3. ---
**Author:** ![chiliwillybing](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chiliwillybing/32/12394_2.png) [@chiliwillybing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiliwillybing)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8076 "2022-12-24T11:59:54Z")
Wordle 553 4/6 ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩 ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩 🟨🟨🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ABIDE WHITE SPIRE POISE ---
**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:** [December 24, 2022, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8077 "2022-12-24T12:21:40Z")
Wordle 553 3/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Another 3. Average of the 48 words since the change: 3.31 Average of the last 48 words before the change: 3.52 CRANE TOILS POISE ---
**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:** [December 24, 2022, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8078 "2022-12-24T12:34:08Z")
Wordle 553 3/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟧 🟦🟦🟧⬜🟧 🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧 CRANE SPITE POISE Not bad for pre-coffee! ---
**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:** [December 24, 2022, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8079 "2022-12-24T12:44:40Z")
Wordle 553 4/6\* ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩 🟨⬜🟩🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 BEARD CHIME SNIPE POISE ---
**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:** [December 24, 2022, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/8080 "2022-12-24T14:53:56Z")
Wordle 553 3/6 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 HEART NOISE fishing for vowels and came up lucky POISE [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604.md?page=403) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604.md?page=405)