In 2021, Wordle, the word-guessing game designed and released by New York-based software engineer Josh Wardle, became a sensation in the English-speaking world during the global lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Since then, the simple game has sustained its immense popularity, attracting millions of enthusiasts who still dedicate time to the daily challenge.
The game’s widespread appeal can be attributed to its elegant simplicity: players aim to deduce the daily five-letter word using as few attempts as possible. The Wordle game changes every 24 hours, and players have six opportunities per day to guess the correct word. Tiles undergo color changes to provide feedback: green indicates correctly placed letters, yellow signifies letters that are included in the word but in the wrong position, and gray represents letters that are not part of the word at all.
Erhan Aslan, an expert in applied linguistics who teaches at the University of Reading in the U.K., provided some much-needed tips for Wordle players in an interview with Newsweek.
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He said: “One thing that I think is important in this game is the starting letter chosen. Starting off with letters that include commonly used vowels, for example, e and a, consonants such as r and t, and sound sequences might be helpful.
“Choosing a word that starts with q, z, j, or x, for instance, may not be the best choice. As you get more feedback after a few guesses, users need to draw on some knowledge of phonics to narrow down or eliminate some words that they might be thinking.”
If you’re still struggling to crack today’s puzzle, Newsweek has tips and hints to help you—but beware, the answer is below, so be careful as you scroll down the article!
‘Wordle’ #821, Clues for Monday, September 18
- Hint #1: There are no repeating letters in this word.
- Hint #2: There is one vowel in today’s word.
- Hint #3: Today’s word can be used as an adjective, verb or noun.
- Hint #4: There is no “I” in team, and the same is true of today’s word.
- Hint #5: This word begins with “F.”
‘Wordle’ #821, Answer for Monday, September 18
Still struggling? The answer to today’s Wordle puzzle is FRANK.
The adjective is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as meaning “honest, sincere, and telling the truth, even when this might be awkward or make other people uncomfortable.”
Frank can also be used as a name, and has various other uses too. For example, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it can be used to describe a member of a West Germanic tribal confederacy that entered the Roman provinces in A.D. 253.
