IF YOU spent time online these last few weeks you must have repetitively seen the word “Wordle” being shared with no explanation as to what it means.
Wordle is an online word game created by Josh Wardle. The name of the game is an obvious wordplay on his surname. Wardle told the New York Times he created the game in the pandemic for his partner, Palak Shah. It was their way of killing time when they had nothing else to do.
After some time, Wardle shared the game with his family via a WhatsApp group and decided to share it with the world in October 2021. Although the game was released three months ago, it recently started going viral.
Wordle is a guessing game that gives you six tries to guess a five-letter word. You can only play it once a day, and each day a new word is added to the game. Everyone who plays the game each day will be given the same word.
Wardle told the New York Times he thinks that being able to play the game once a day is what has made it more successful. This way, players remain wanting more rather than becoming burnt out by firing through the concept of the game very quickly.
To play Wordle, you start by entering a five-letter word into the space provided. If one of the letters is correct and in the correct position, the tile will turn green. If the letter is correct but in the wrong position, the tile will turn yellow.
If a letter is not in the word at all, the tile turns grey. You get to repeat entering five-letter words for a total of six attempts. On completion, you can share your result on social media.
Software engineer Katherine Peterson’s brother enjoyed the game so much that he asked her to create a version that didn’t require waiting a full day to play it. Petersen titled the game, Word Master. Word Master is exactly what Wordle is, without the 24-hour wait between games.