Today marks the 100^th day since I first tried Wordle.  Shortly after I started playing it, I posted some initial thoughts about it on this blog.  So, if you are reading this and don’t yet know what Wordle is – first of all, where have you been all year?  Secondly, you can learn more about what it is, as well as some of my initial thoughts on the game, on my original Wordle post here.

The five-letter word-solving puzzle, originally invented last year by creator Josh Wardle, has exploded in popularity ever since millions of people discovered it sometime around January.  At least that’s when I first found out about it.  Although there have been 316 daily Wordle puzzles in its history so far, for me personally, there have been 100.  As such, I thought the 100-day mark would be a good milestone for me to share some updates and additional thoughts on Wordle (with the understanding that I don’t promise to do this every 100 days).  I will also share some additional Wordle parodies that I have played, with some thoughts on those as well.

As of my original Wordle post on February 5, 2022, I had played the daily puzzle 15 times, and had gone a perfect 15-for-15 in solving it correctly.  Also at that time, the New York Times had just purchased Wordle and was in the process of transitioning it to their website.  Since then, if you want to play Wordle, you can still go to the original site at www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle; however, it will now automatically redirect you to the New York Times website at https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html.

During the transition to the new website in February, certain stats were lost for some users.  For instance, when I solved Wordle on February 12, I was a perfect 22-for-22.  Then, upon re-visiting the site a minute later, while it still showed that I had solved it correctly, it took me back down to 21.  The same thing happened the next day – it still showed my streak at 21, when it was actually 23.  After that, it saved my stats for subsequent days, all the while showing my cumulative total as two less than what I really had.  Even today, it shows that I have played Wordle 98 times, but I know that number to really be 100.  That really grinds my gears – I want credit for having solved those two missing Wordles, but I don’t think there’s a way for that to be recovered.  I will just go on knowing that I have really solved two more puzzles than it says I have.

Despite the New York Times not acknowledging two of my correct answers, I still had a perfect streak going, which I was feeling pretty good about.  Then came March 16, 2022 – a day which will live in infamy.  Going into that day, I was a perfect 53-for-53.  Then this happened…

I was aggravated.  My perfect streak had come to an end.  After guessing EARTH for my 4^th guess, I had enough information to know that the word was _ATER, but still had to figure out that first letter.  With two guesses remaining, I sifted through the alphabet, and two words came to mind: LATER and WATER.  Figuring I was good, I guessed LATER, and when that didn’t work, I knew the answer was WATER.  Except it wasn’t, and my day was ruined.  The word was CATER.  I was kicking myself.  Why hadn’t I thought of cater?  For some reason it didn’t register in my head as a word when I went through the alphabet.  If I had thought of it and realized there were three possibilities, I would have guessed CRAWL with my 5^th guess, and then known which of the three letters (C, W, or L) to use for my 6^th guess.  (More on this strategy later.)  At any rate, my perfect streak was stopped at 53 (although they have it as 51).

Despite the disappointment of having my perfect streak snapped, I have continued playing, because, why not.  Since that time, I have managed a new streak of 46 in a row.  So, after 100 days of Wordle, I am now 99-for-100.  My personal highlights have getting two instances of getting it in two guesses, plus a few instances of what I like to call “The Strategy.”

I mentioned in the first example above that if I know there are three possible words, and I have two guesses left, I would try to use my 5^th guess on a word that is impossible, but tells me for sure what the word will be, so that I can use my final guess to get it right.  Another example of this came on March 28, when after two guesses, I knew the word was _OUND.  However, with four guesses remaining, I figured out that there were seven possible words: wound, round, pound, found, hound, bound, and mound.  Some people will just keep guessing one of those words until they get the correct word or run out of guesses.  If I had tried this, I would have given myself only a 57% chance of getting the correct word.  But, by guessing PRIME and WHIFF, this gave me the information I needed as to which letter to use for my next guess and guarantee that I would correctly solve the puzzle.  So, there’s your Wordle tip of the day, in case you play it but hadn’t thought of doing something like that.  The Strategy – it doesn’t come up very often, but when it does, it’s fun to use.

Now, after 100 days, here are my stats (with only 98 games saved):

I know that the two games that are not saved were a 4 and a 5.  Therefore, out of the 99 games I have solved correctly, this comes out to an average of 4.22 guesses per correct answer.  Apparently, that’s not great, because research indicates that as of March, the average number of guesses per Wordle puzzle in the United States was 3.92.  Based on that information, in terms of number of guesses, it would appear that I am not doing quite as well as the American average.  Then again, maybe I shouldn’t feel too bad, because surely there are at least a few people out there who cheat by looking up the answer online first, so that they can then go in and say, “Hey look, I got it right on the first try!”  And since I don’t do that, I’d like to think that perhaps my statistics line up well with the average American who doesn’t cheat.  Although, I’m not too concerned with how many guesses it takes me anyway.  I’m more concerned with whether or not I get the word correct.  So, I will hang my hat on my 99-1 record.  I wonder how many people still have a perfect Wordle streak going, with a minimum of 100 attempts.  If you do, pat yourself on the back.

While Wordle is fun, there are some parodies out there which have caught people’s attention as well.  And while there are too many to list here, I will mention the ones that I have played, with varying degrees of regularity:

Nerdle.  I mentioned this one on my original Wordle post.  This is for the mathematically inclined such as myself.  While Wordle is more well-known, I have played Nerdle every day as well since I learned about it. This game can be found at https://www.nerdlegame.com.

This one is similar to Wordle, except in this one, there are eight characters, and you have to guess the correct math equation.  You are given six guesses, using the digits from 0-9, as well as +, -, *, /, and =.  So, for example, you might guess 2*8+3=19.  These characters will appear as either green, purple, or black.  Green means correct, purple means it’s in another spot, and black means it’s not in the equation. When playing Nerdle, it’s important to remember order of operations that your math teacher hopefully taught you in school.  For example, if you try 3+4*5=35, it will tell you, “That guess does not compute!”, although it will not charge you with a guess.  Just remember that when doing 3+4*5, you have to multiply 4*5 first, then add 3, so you get 3+4*5=23. Also, while the Wordle puzzle changes at midnight Eastern time every day, the Nerdle puzzle is based on England time, which means that we currently get a new Nerdle at 8:00 p.m. every day.  While it doesn’t keep cumulative stats like the New York Times, I believe I have gotten them all correct so far.

Nerdle has since come out with some variations on its site, including:

• Mini Nerdle.  This one has six characters instead of eight, so it’s a bit easier than “Classic Nerdle.”  Generally, this will be a simple equation.
• Instant Nerdle.  This one has eight characters, but has already given you all the numbers and symbols.  One of them is green, and the rest are purple.  You have ONE attempt to provide the correct equation, because apparently it gives you enough information to be able to do so.  It also runs on a timer, so the goal is to not only guess the right equation, but to do so as fast as possible.
• Speed Nerdle.  This is another timed game, in which you are provided with some numbers and symbols that are either purple or black.  Fortunately, you get six guesses for Speed Nerdle instead of just one.

Other Wordle parodies include:

Worldle.  This geography-based game gives you the shape of a country, and you have to name the country.  This can be found at https://worldle.teuteuf.fr. However, it never gives you obvious countries like the United States or Canada.  It usually gives you obscure countries like Monaco or New Caledonia.  Fortunately, after an incorrect guess, it tells you the distance and direction of the correct country, so this helps you narrow it down and sometimes get it right.  However, sometimes the clues can only help so much if you don’t know all the obscure countries.  Once the country of the day was Diego Garcia, I became convinced that the makers of Worldle were probably just making up countries and drawing islands on the world map. Also, while I was holding out hope that the easy countries would come up eventually, in recent days I have seen a couple reruns being used. So maybe the makers of Worldle will recycle certain countries never let us guess the United States.

Periodle.  For the chemistry people out there, this one is Wordle using the periodic table.  This can be found at https://heptaveegesimal.com/2022/periodle. You have to guess a word using five chemical elements on the periodic table.  So, the word could be between 5-10 letters in length (such as P-I-Ra-C-Y) or (Pr-Ac-Ti-C-Al).  Fortunately, you are given eight guesses instead of just six.  I have played this twice, but each time, it took me an hour to do it, because thinking of words from the periodic table is difficult.

Factle.  This one is found at https://factle.app. This one is supposedly a trivia-based game, in which you are asked to name the top five of a completely random category that nobody in their right mind would ever know.  (For example, the five cities with the most expensive residential properties worldwide, measured by square meters per million dollars).  You are then given 23 choices and have to put them in order from 1-5.  You also only get five guesses instead of six for some reason.  Since nobody would ever know the types of things it asks, this mostly tends to measure how good of a random guesser you are.

Heardle.  This one is found at https://www.heardle.app. In this game, you are given the start of a song, and you have to name which one it is.  You are given 1 second, then 2 seconds, then 4, then 7, then 11, then finally 16 seconds to name the song.  You can search by either the artist or keyword in the song title, and it will pull up the possibilities.  I’ve gotten a few of these in 1 second.  But most of the time I’ve played this, I have had no idea.

Taylordle.  As mentioned on my previous Wordle post, this one is for Taylor Swift fans, because some people just don’t know when to stop.  Apparently, this site has now been updated to include 4-to-8 letter words that have something to do with the Taylor Swift universe. You can play this one at https://www.taylordle.com.

11-letter Wordle.  If guessing 5-letter words is too predictable, easy, or monotonous for you, you can always try 11-letter Wordle at https://www.hellowordl.net.  Although, I don’t know very many 11-letter words.  You can also use this site to practice regular Wordle (5 letters), or any word length from 4 to 11 letters.

There are many other Wordle parodies out there as well, but those are the ones I have played at least once or twice.  The ones that I make a priority to play every day are regular Wordle and Classic Nerdle.  But those are some other options for you, in case you have the time and the inclination to try them out.

Whichever of the above games you play, or even if it’s none of them, I hope you enjoyed reading my 100-day recap.  I also hope the New York Times keeps this game free.  And finally, I hope to continue my current 46-game streak going until at least the year 2027.  Or until the New York Times sticks the game behind a paywall, or until everyone gets bored with it, whichever comes first.

And now, because it’s funny and on-topic, please enjoy this Wordle parody song from the Holderness family…