"Wordle" Me This! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Midnight

According to "GAMINGINTEL", "Wordle" used to reset once a day at the exact same time for everyone worldwide, irregardless of time zone. It now officially resets at midnight in whatever time zone the player happens to be occupying at the time. While some fans are frustrated by this once-a-day play plan, the creator of the game, Josh Wardle, has stated that he believes playing only once a day for about three minutes, leaves the players wanting more - which is a good thing!

Answer: Mastermind

"Mastermind" was invented in 1970; it is a two-player game that uses a decoding board, colored code pegs, and black and white key pegs to help the codebreaker decode the color scheme created by the codemaker. The codemaker chooses four code pegs to create a pattern, which the codebreaker must decode within twelve turns. With each step the codemaker will use the key pegs to tell the codebreaker if he has placed any of the correct colors in the correct order. A black peg means the correct colored peg is in the correct position, and a white peg means a correct colored peg is in the wrong position.

"Lingo" is the television show on which the game was based, and "Jotto" and "Bulls and Cows" are older paper/pencil versions.

Answer: False

The standard game uses three color codes: gray if the letter is not in the word, yellow if the letter is in the word, but not in the correct place, and green if the letter and its placement are both correct. Not to worry, though! Those who are color blind may switch to the "High Contrast Mode for improved color vision", which takes the letters from yellow and green to blue and orange. Players can click on the gear-shaped setting and turn on the appropriate toggle.

It's just that simple!

Answer: There are typically no plural words.

So, plural words aren't typically used. At least, that is the word on playing sites, although "Wordle" does not just come out and state it. So far in 2022 there have been no plural words. This tells the player that while the letter "S" may be in the fifth square, it probably won't be just because they took a four-letter word and made it plural. Since there are only six tries to guess the correct word, this avoids a potentially wasted guess.

A correct letter is always yellow or green, depending on its position on the grid. Letters may be used more than once, although it is by player choice, not by a code color, and there is no requirement to tell anyone your score!

Answer: False

The word is intended to always be the same for all players. Now, there is the issue that some players have access to the word sooner than others. That really can't be avoided under the current system rules. And, if a person wants a hint or even to know the word before they play, there are sites for that.

There have been reports of a few mishaps of words changing after the game was sold to the "New York Times". This seems to have been caused because of players playing from the "New York Times" site or the original powerlanguage.co.uk site.

Answer: False

Actually "Wordle" can be played in a variety of languages, including English, French, German, Hebrew, Arabic, Cantonese, and Hawaiian; sources claim that it has been formatted for use with 91 different real languages. The website, "Wordles of the World", states that as of February 2022 there were 350 versions that include symbolic and fictional languages.

Some people do complain, however, that the English version is based on American spelling, which is unfamiliar to some people.

Answer: Hard Mode

Okay! Click on the gear logo in the upper right-hand corner and turn on the appropriate toggle if you want the game to be more challenging! So how is Hard Mode different? When playing the first line of the regular game, a player learns which letters were correctly guessed.

His next line guess can be any word he chooses, even one with none of the letters that were correctly guessed, if he just wants to try and find more correct letters. In Hard Mode, the next words guessed must contain the correctly guessed letters from the first line. To take it a step further, if one or more letters are green, meaning that they are located in the correct space, the next word must also contain the same letters in the correct place. Yes, that does make the game more difficult.

Answer: Alone

According to "Lexico" the ten most commonly used letters in English words are E, T, A, I, O, N, S, H, R, and D. The letter L is 11th on the list. So, it makes sense to use a word that contains most of those letters. Of course, there is a lot of discussion as to what the beginning word should be, and just as many web sites that gives lists of words. As you can see, the word "alone" ticks all the boxes. The "New York Times" has said that its WordleBot suggests the word "crane" to use as a first guess; other good words with which to start are listed too, but why spoil the fun? By the way, is it a good idea to use the same starting word every day? While it might be a strategy used by some, others say that is all about the letters, not the word.

The other choices just don't contain enough of the commonly used letters!

Answer: Fetus

If you remember, May 9, 2022, was the day that news was leaked that the United States Supreme Court was working on a draft that would repeal the Roe vs. Wade decision concerning the right to an abortion. The "New York Times" was afraid some players would feel that the word "fetus" was used as some sort of commentary of the newspaper's opinion of the daily news, even though the word was programmed into the game to be used a year earlier.

Answer: 13,000

Even though there are approximately 13,000 five letter words in the English language, you won't see all of them on "Wordle". In the beginning the words were sorted to exclude ones that were unfamiliar or obscure. Later on, additional words that are somehow offensive were removed. An estimated 2300 words make up the current list that is used by the "New York Times". Apparently, players can opt to continue to use the old website, which does contain more words; some did not want to switch because the "Times" version did not carry over their guessing streak and they had to start over.