Wordle is the word

If you haven’t heard of Wordle, it’s this guessing game where you have a five-letter word to guess and six tries to get it right. If you guess a letter and it turns yellow, it’s in the word but in the long place. Green means correct letter and correct spot.

I’ve always been a word fan, loved word searches and jumbles. So of course I checked out this new fad of a daily puzzle. The thrill of getting it right in as little tries as possible was exciting, of course.

There’s always the strategy of what word are you going to start with. I know of some people who even methodically choose their words to eliminate as many letters as they can. And we can’t forget the ones who share their game on Facebook, posting colored squares indicating how they did each round but omitting letters to not spoil it for those who haven’t gotten it yet.

Safe to say Wordle has collected quite a few fans, even since The New York Times got a hold of it not long ago.

Well, Wordle has been kicking my butt more times than not since this change. They vary in difficulty - ‘stove’, ‘today’, ‘depot’, ‘nymph’, ‘epoxy’, ‘lapse’ - and that starting word really seems to set the tone. All grey in the first guess and I already feel disheartened.

Take Wednesday for example, at the final guess I had one letter in the correct place and two that I knew went somewhere. I wracked and wracked my brain trying to think of what it could be. Nothing.

Eventually, something else took my attention away and I never finished. But today, Thursday, I looked up the list of the past words and discovered Wednesday’s word was ‘comma’. Comma. The writer in me is shaking her head in disdain I couldn’t come up with that one.

I’m interested to see how long this game stays in the forefront of people’s minds and what will take its place, because there’s always some new attention grabber.

But for now, Wordle is the word.

And in case you're wondering, no, I did not get Thursday's either.