Strategy for solving Wordle Puzzle

Over the last year and a half, wordle, a game now owned by the NY Times, has captured a sizeable audience in the English speaking part of the world. There are now variations that have cropped up in other languages as well as more complicated forms of the same puzzle such as Quordle where enigmatologists of all varieties can put their skills to the test.

The game’s popularity is owed to the simplicity of the game where the game runners (now someone at NY Times presumably) chooses a word every day and makes it available at midnight local time wherever the player maybe located in the world. Game is mobile friendly (can be played on the browser, there is no app for it to my knowledge) and has no annoying ads lurking about to bother or distract you.

Don’t pay attention to weighty pronouncements from detractors who claim that there are tens of thousands of 5 letter words in the dictionary and that this is merely a shot in the dark. The first of the six tries may have a remote chance but the game does provide you with feedback in response to each try. Players can use that feedback to put forth subsequent attempts from a whittled down list of words. Even if the first try does not reveal a letter in the eventual answer, it helps eliminate letters and gets the player going on a possible hunt for words without the letters s/he tried first.

Here are some simple pointers for people looking to get the momentary thrill of guessing the right word with as few tries as possible:

1. Firstly, there are a handful of 5 letter words that are without a vowel. You can even add ‘Y’ to that list as it is considered by some to be a semi-vowel. That means that the first word should have as many vowels crammed in there as possible. Some possible words include ‘Adieu,’ ‘audio,’ ‘irate,’ etc.
2. Bear in mind that Josh Wordle, the wordle creator, has whittled down the list of 5 letter words himself and has mercifully taken out some of the most arcane terms from the list of possible words. Going for the commonly occurring terms is a good strategy instead of thinking of terms that may appear to be more meaty and emphatic.
3. Even if the first try does not result in more than a vowel in the right or wrong place, the second try should be used to confirm that the vowel shows up only once in the word unless the vowels are ‘i’ and ‘u.’ Apparently ‘a,’ ‘e,’ and ‘o’ occur twice in a word with almost equal frequency so if you find yourself with not much to…