# "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:** 468
**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:** [February 27, 2023, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9341 "2023-02-27T17:03:56Z")
Looks like 4 is a respectable score today. (Or so I tell myself.) Wordle 618 4/6\* β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬›β¬›πŸŸ© β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨πŸŸ© β¬›πŸŸ©πŸŸ©β¬›πŸŸ© 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 IRATE CHORE FORCE WORSE My word listlooks like a bad day I hope no one is having. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2023, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9342 "2023-02-27T20:02:25Z")
Wordle 618 4/6 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜🟨🟨🟩 🟨🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Practically played itself today. READY STORE ROUSE WORSE ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2023, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9343 "2023-02-27T20:08:58Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Wordle 618 4/6 > > _S_LA_R_T > NICH **E** =\> could be PURSE, PROSE, ROUSE, or WORSE. So is it… > PU **RSE** =\> or is it something… > **WORSE** _Slart?_ Well, I suppose it _is_ a word. And as long as you’re not in β€œhard” mode, checking as many consonants as possible as quickly as possible is a viable strategy. ETA: Huh. I could have sworn I typed strategy. ETA: Strategy. ETA: Stra-Ge-Ty ETA: Good. Stragety. Thought I was gonna have to change my handle to **Bugs\_Bunny** for a minute there. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2023, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9344 "2023-02-27T21:04:00Z")
Wordle 618 3/6\* ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩 ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 CRATE HORSE WORSE ---
**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:** [February 27, 2023, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9345 "2023-02-27T21:43:53Z")
Wordle 618 4/6 β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¦β¬›β¬› πŸŸ¦πŸŸ§πŸŸ¦β¬›β¬› πŸŸ¦πŸŸ§πŸŸ§β¬›β¬› 🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧 ABOUT ROSIN SORRY WORSE At three, I hadn’t realized E was still out there; otherwise I might have scored the trey. But at least I picked WORSE over HORSE and avoided a five. > [@EllisDee](#): > > heading into my 400th game in a few days. That reminds me: I’ve been meaning to ask who has the longest current win streak on here. I think I did for a while, but I lost it a few weeks back. Just curious. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2023, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9346 "2023-02-27T21:44:24Z")
> **Wordle 618 4/6\* 2/27/2023** > > 🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜ > ⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜ > ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 > 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 > > _S_Y **R** UP β†’ Not a bad start. Where to try the S? Probably not the end, and ASROC is an acronym, so - 4th? What should I try… > FI **RS** T β†’ OK, not bad. I’d like to get another couple vowels out of the way, though… perhaps E & O? My kingdom for a… > H **ORSE** β†’ So close. NORSE? MORSE? GORSE? Oh, there’s one better word, the others are… > **WORSE** > > I was a little scared at the end, which looked like a trap. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2023, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9347 "2023-02-27T22:54:29Z")
Wordle 618 4/6 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2023, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9348 "2023-02-27T23:14:18Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Well, I suppose it _is_ a word. And as long as you’re not in β€œhard” mode, checking as many consonants as possible as quickly as possible is a viable strategy. [Long and probably not very interesting discussion of my current starting word follows] > **Summary** > > Sure it’s a word! It’s short for β€˜Slartibartfast.’ πŸ˜‰ > > Anyhow, I tripped over it totally by accident sometime early last fall, I think, and only used it once or twice before going back to SLANT as my starting word. Reason being I had good followup words to SLANT if it didn’t yield enough info on its own, but I didn’t for SLART. Recently I came up with a good followup, though. > > Yeah, I’m definitely a consonants-first guy. I figure that if I get the consonants, filling in the vowels won’t be that hard. Vice versa? Not so much, at least for me: there’s only 6 vowels (counting Y, which is a vowel about 90% of the time in this game) but there’s 19 consonants, excluding Y and Q. So if you’ve got the vowels, that’s a lot of consonants to have to check. (I think of Q less as a consonant in and of itself than as a QU[vowel] combination, which is worth thinking about only if there’s room for it in a 5-letter word.) > > But why SLART over SLANT? The answer is that R is the most frequent consonant in this game, and L,R,S, and T gave me (a) the four most common consonants, and (b) consonants that are in a metric ton of consonant combinations. N is #5, so my starting word was going from #2,3,4,5 to #1,2,3,4. > > That’s the theory anyway. I’ve only been using SLART for maybe a week and a half. Come back in a month and I’ll tell you whether it seems to be making a difference. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2023, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9349 "2023-02-27T23:58:05Z")
Wordle 618 4/6 🟨🟩⬜🟩⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ROAST HORSE WOMEN WORSE WOMEN, of course, was a test word. I saw GORSE, MORSE, NORSE, and WORSE. I wasn’t entirely sure that Wordle would rule out MORSE and NORSE (though I thought it should). And WORSE is certainly more common than GORSE, so I could have thrown caution to the winds and gotten a 3, but…what the heck. ---
**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:** [February 28, 2023, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9350 "2023-02-28T02:36:04Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Wordle 618 4/6 > > CRANE > SPOIL > HORSE - only two choices and I backed the wrong horse πŸ˜ƒ > WORSE Same here! Was it a HORSE of a different color? Wordle 618 4/6\* 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 SLATE NOISE HORSE WORSE > [@Aspenglow](#): > > Looks like 4 is a respectable score today. (Or so I tell myself.) WordleBot says that today’s average score is 4.1 ---
**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:** [February 28, 2023, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9351 "2023-02-28T03:10:07Z")
> [@gkster](#): > > WordleBot says that today’s average score is 4.1 We slid in under the wire! πŸ˜ƒ ---
**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:** [February 28, 2023, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9352 "2023-02-28T04:46:11Z")
**Wordle 618 4/6** ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩 🟨🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 MEANT SLICE ROUSE WORSE ---
**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:** [February 28, 2023, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9353 "2023-02-28T05:30:34Z")
**Tuesday, February 28th** Wordle 619 5/6 β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨β¬›β¬› πŸŸ¨πŸŸ©β¬›β¬›β¬› β¬›πŸŸ©πŸŸ©β¬›β¬› πŸŸ©πŸŸ©πŸŸ©β¬›β¬› 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 CLOTS LONER FOLLY POLIO POLKA At this point I’m just bad at this game. Both P and A are cornerstones of my strategy, yet I didn’t check either. It took me five guesses to check five vowels; that’s just not good. Two more days until I hit 400, and if I win them both I will beat my previous longest streak of 199. I think I’ll come up with a different strategy going forward. (After 400.) Different starting words, different letters to check, etc… ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9354 "2023-02-28T05:49:58Z")
Wordle 619 4/6 ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨 🟨⬜🟩🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 RATIO SHOAL ALLOW POLKA Not upset with a four. ---
**Author:** ![QMatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/aeb1de/32.png) [@QMatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QMatic)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9355 "2023-02-28T07:32:49Z")
Wordle 619 4/6\* ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 HOUSE POINT PORKY POLKA ---
**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:** [February 28, 2023, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9356 "2023-02-28T08:54:25Z")
Wordle 619 4/6 β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬›β¬› β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬›β¬› β¬›β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬› 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 DEATH SCOUR GIMPY POLKA ---
**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:** [February 28, 2023, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9357 "2023-02-28T11:14:33Z")
Wordle 619 4/6 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜ 🟨🟩⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 CRANE TOILS LOYAL POLKA ---
**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:** [February 28, 2023, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9358 "2023-02-28T12:21:31Z")
Wordle 619 3/6 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ABIDE SOLAR POLKA ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9359 "2023-02-28T12:32:54Z")
Wordle 619 4/6\* πŸŸ¦πŸŸ¦πŸŸ¦β¬›β¬› β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¦πŸŸ¦πŸŸ¦ πŸŸ¦πŸŸ¦β¬›πŸŸ¦β¬› 🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧 ALONE SHOAL LABOR POLKA That second word was a mistake. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604/9360 "2023-02-28T12:52:49Z")
Wordle 619 5/6 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 READY AUDIO (just to clear out all unusable vowels) WOMAN (so, the A has to be in position 5) POOKA (there HAVE been a lot of doubled letters lately) POLKA [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604.md?page=467) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordle-a-strangely-compelling-word-game-part-1/956604.md?page=469)