How To Talk About Wordle

Aug 12, 2023

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How to play Wordle and a glossary of important terms

By New York Times Games

Each guess must be a valid five-letter word.

The color of a tile will change to show you how close your guess was.

If the tile turns green, the letter is in the word, and it is in the correct spot.

If the tile turns yellow, the letter is in the word, but it is not in the correct spot.

If the tile turns gray, the letter is not in the word.

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Thanks to reader Outside Observer for compiling this glossary of common terms people use when talking about Wordle.

Ace — A solve on the first guess.

Deuce — A solve in two tries.

Easy mode — The game’s default mode.

Golf terms — Not to be confused with Wordle Golf, many solvers use golf terms in reference to their scores, sometimes with an emoji. Par is always four. A birdie (🐥) is one under par, and an eagle (🦅) is two under. A bogey (👻) is one over par, and a double bogey (👻👻) is two over.

Hard mode — An optional mode in which all found letters must be used in later tries.

Lone Wolf — A player who received WordleBot’s message, “No one in our sample of [number] completed Wordles faced this scenario.”

Phew — A solve in six tries, narrowly avoiding a loss.

PS/PU — Previously solved/previously used. Usually in reference to a solution.

RL — Repeated letter: A letter appearing more than once in a word.

Sea of Green—A solved puzzle with only green and gray squares.

Three-stepper — A solve in three guesses. Works with any number of guesses (like four-stepper or five-stepper).

Trap — A letter pattern that points to many words, such as _IGHT.

Twofer — A solve in two guesses. Works with any number of guesses (like threefer or fourfer).

WB — WordleBot, which analyzes your game and gives you a personalized score.

WL — Words left: The number of possible solutions left after a try, according to WordleBot.

WoF letters — Letters popular on the TV game show “Wheel of Fortune”: R, S, T, L, N & E

Wardle list — The original list of solutions as chosen by Josh Wardle, the game’s creator.

Whomp — A guess that you know cannot be the answer, played for the sake of finding more letters. Also known as a blimp.

Wordle twin — A player who solved exactly as another player did, using the same words in the same order.

X’ed out — failed to solve the puzzle.

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