Like many people, I started playing Wordle a few months ago, and I still do. Still, I’m more a Quordle guy.
In Wordle, you must guess a 5-letter word in six tries or less. Every word you enter must be in the word list. A correct guess turns that letter green. A letter in the word but in the wrong place turns yellow. An incorrect letter turns gray. Letters can be used more than once. Answers are never plurals.
The game was purchased by the New York Times a few months ago. But what I’ve discovered is that there are LOTS of imitations. Wordle Game and Wordle-Play and Wordleplay and Wordle.NYC and Wordle Unlimited, just to name a few. Some games have more than five letters.
There seems to be a cottage industry swirling around Wordle, with hundreds of videos and websites suggesting the best first word. ADIEU is popular because it hits four vowels.
I don’t worry about getting the word early; just trying not to miss it. Of my first 100 words, I’ve got 99. None did I get one or two turns, 15 in three turns, 19 in four turns, 24 in five turns, and 41 in six turns. I have a 57-game streak.
I think I’m an impatient player. Unlike my wife, who can start and stop over a period of hours, I like to get it completed quickly.
What I DO enjoy about Wordle is the dialogue I have with my friend David. He’ll write: “Today’s reminder to check the scale.” I’ll reply RIGHT, which was a subtle clue. All the letters in RIGHT were in the day’s word GIRTH. Or when I find the word and tell him he’s full of it; the word is PIETY and he’s studying to join the ministry.
The more (words), the merrier
There is also Dordle and its variants, such as Dordlegame, where you must find two words in seven guesses.
My favorite is Quordle, with a variant Quordle Game. This requires getting four words in nine tries. Unlike Wordle, the primary goal of most of these games is not primarily to finish in the fewest turns but to complete it at all.
To that end, I pick the same four words, which knock off 20 letters, leaving JKQVXZ. So I like to know what’s NOT there.
I use the same words for Octordle or a variant, eight words in 13 attempts. I’ve never tried sedordle (16 words in 21 attempts), and tried duotrigordle (32 words in 37 tries) but once because I can’t see all of the words at once.
My favorite recent play left me with the letters IEP showing in slots 3 to 5, but none of them were correct. I used the word PIECE, which I knew to be wrong because the C had been eliminated. Still, this gave me a PI correct in the first two slots and E correct in the fifth. I got the word, PIXIE.