He surely can’t have imagined the New York Times would buy his creation in January 2022 for a seven-figure sum, nor that his online puzzles would remain a viral sensation more than a year after they were first released.
The rules of Wordle are simple, allowing the game to be played by almost anyone regardless of whether they have any past experience with word puzzles. Each day the player must work out a new five-letter word, in six attempts or less. After each guess letters light up, indicating how accurate it was. If a letter goes green it is both in the word, and has been put in the correct place. Yellow means the letter features, but not where you put it, while gray tells you it’s not in the word as all.
Speaking to Newsweek Erhan Aslan, associate professor of applied linguistics at the University of Reading in England, gave some tips for completing the game.
He said: “One thing that I think is important in this game is the starting word chosen. Starting off with words that include commonly used vowels (e.g., e, a), consonants (e.g., r, 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. For example, if the second letter of the target word is L (indicated by green) and the player feels that the word starts with a consonant, they will need to know that there are only a few consonant cluster possibilities (e.g., bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl).”
The answer to today’s puzzle will be revealed at the end of this article, so scroll down with caution if you want to work it out for yourself. To help you solve today’s Wordle, Newsweek has provided some hints and tips on the latest puzzle.
‘Wordle’ #509 Tips and Clues for Thursday, November 10
Wordle players can use these five hints to solve puzzle #509.
Hint #1: The answer contains three vowels.
Hint #2: There are no repeated letters.
Hint #3: Synonyms for today’s answer include “cooperate,” “coalesce” and “consolidate.”
Hint #4: None of the last five letters in the alphabet feature.
Hint #5: Many Americans would like to see our politicians do more of this.
‘Wordle’ #509 Answer for Thursday, November 10
The answer to today’s Wordle is “unite.”
With three vowels, it was not the toughest challenge Wordle has thrown our way, but still a good brainteaser. Did you get it? Congratulations if so! But don’t worry if not, Newsweek will be back tomorrow with more hints and tips for the latest puzzle.
What Does ‘Unite’ Mean?
The Cambridge University Dictionary defines unite as “to join together as a group, or to make people join together as a group; to combine.”
For example: “The opposition parties are uniting in an attempt to overthrow the government.”
The next Wordle puzzle will be available at 7 p.m. ET, when the daily update occurs.
