What’s a Wordle?

Example of Wordle. Each row represents a guess; after each guess, the letters are marked with gray (if the letter is not in the answer), yellow (if the letter is in the answer but a different position), or green (if the letter is in the correct position.) The fourth row, being all green, is the correct answer. Photo by Josh Wardle via Wikimedia Commons

Star Wars. Game of  Thrones. Harry Potter. Avocado toast. Taylor Swift. Anytime something becomes suddenly very popular, it becomes likewise as popular to hate the thing people like. It becomes a badge of honor. “Am I the only one who doesn’t like [popular thing]?”  becomes the smug refrain of these contrarians, as if their snubbing of the popular thing gives them some sort of superiority over the rest of the crowd. The newest target is the suddenly popular puzzle game, Wordle. 

If you are on social media, especially Facebook or Twitter, you’ve likely seen them: cryptic posts of several rows of green, yellow, and gray or black boxes. To those who don’t play, it’s meaningless clutter in their feed. To those in the know, it’s a story against which one can compare their own efforts and determine how they measured up on that day’s puzzle. It’s passive competition.

So what is the story of Wordle? It’s a fairly simple word game: You start out with a 5×6 grid of boxes. You begin by guessing a random five letter word and typing it into the first row. If any of the letters appear in the solution, they will turn yellow. If they are not only correct but in the right place, they turn green. Then, using what you learned in your first guess, you guess again. You have 6 attempts to guess the word. That’s all there is to it. It’s less than five minutes, typically.

Here’s an example. This was puzzle number 216, and there were 6 attempts made before the word was correctly guessed:

Wordle 216 6/6

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟨🟩🟩⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Once you are finished, you have an option to share the results of your attempt. If you share, you share only colored blocks as shown above, so as not to ruin the game for anyone else. That is what you are seeing in the social media feeds. A Wordle share post is a mini-story that tells other players how well you did on that day’s game. They in turn can see how their own performance stacked up. In my first play, I guessed on the third try and thought I was some sort of prodigy; turns out that’s not uncommon. The key is whether it was uncommon on that particular day’s puzzle.

Wordle is a fairly new game. It was created by a man named John Wardle – how perfect is that? – who wanted to design a game for his partner, an avid word game enthusiast. She enjoyed it, so he shared it with his family. In October, he put it online for the world, and slowly it caught fire and became the new thing to love/hate. You won’t find it in the app store (though you will find knock off versions.) It is a simple game, once a day, and that’s part of the appeal.

From the New York Times:

Few such popular corners of the internet are as low-frills as the website, which Mr. Wardle built himself as a side project. There are no ads or flashing banners; no windows pop up or ask for money. There is merely the game on a black background.

“I think people kind of appreciate that there’s this thing online that’s just fun,” Mr. Wardle said in an interview on Monday. “It’s not trying to do anything shady with your data or your eyeballs. It’s just a game that’s fun.”

Those who roll their eyes at the colored blocks in their feed and find self-satisfaction in being Different Because They Don’t Play Wordle are missing out on a fun, free, few minutes of daily brain exercise. Also, they are missing out on why this Ben Shapiro tweet from this morning was so damn hilarious:

Thanks for all the clues, political Twitter

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 21, 2022

This is what we call an inside joke, and the Wordle haters missed this glorious bit of self-deprecating humor by the love-him-or-loathe him Mr. Shapiro.

You see, today’s Wordle was PRICK.