A Brief Wordle Review

You might remember my mentioning getting the correct answer to Wordle in only two guesses. I was proud, as that is very rare for me. It was kiosk, on February 19. And you might have wondered if I got any more in two since then, and I have not, though I have occasionally tried, and gotten some of them in three. And you may well have not wondered or cared about this at all, so I will be brief, and go back through the wordle list to see if I remember how I got them.

On Feb. 20, the word was sweat, which I think I got in three guesses, having gotten four of the letters in my first two tries.

On Feb 21, I had four letters in my first three tries, all out of order but the d. So – – – d – with r and u.I think I guessed gurdy, which showed the u second, but the r not third. So r u – d y, and I got the answer, ruddy.

The next one was unusual but I had i, e, p, r, after two guesses, and the e was not fifth. So riper.

Then a harder one. I had e fifth, and u fourth, with an a. I think I missed on a guess, then tried value, which was not the word, but which led me to vague.

Then I had r, o, and a after three tries, and r second. – r – – – with a and o, and no other regular vowels. So I got arbor, I think on guess four, although it could have been armor. And not ardor, because no d.

A somewhat difficult one next, even though the word itself was certainly not uncommon, but the hardest ones are usually when there are different possible words. I had i second, and a t and y in the wrong initial spots, but decided that y had to be fifth, so I eventually got to fifty, on the fifth guess!

Then the hardest one for me lately. I had to think and think about a word that had only a u among the pure vowels. I got a p and an s, and an r, but I still did not have the word. u r s p. I thought that usurp was the word, but it was not. Finally I realized that the answer was syrup, on the fifth guess.

Then a relatively easy one with o s, r, and e. I guessed gorse, as in the gorse bush in the Winnie-the-Pooh story about the bees, as an homage to the stories. But it was not right; and after thinking that morse and norse are proper names, I got it with worse.

An unusual one after that. I eventually had p – – – – with a, l, and o. Seems easy, but I could not think of a word, running through p l, and p a l, and finally thinking of polka.

March 1 showed o, e, s. with o third, and e fifth, for the very difficult – – o – e sequence. Fortunately I found that s was not first, and it was not third or fifth, so second or fourth, and second not too likely, so if – – o s e, and no l for close, I figured out moose.

Then a harder one with the same – – o – e, but with an a, which almost certainly was not second or fourth, so probably first. Several possibilities, including with n or v or l. I thought of a word with all three of those letters, naval, and trying that showed a v, meaning that the word was above.

I had a little trouble with the next one, with u, a, t, s, all in the wrong spots. Finally, it was either

s a u – t, or s – u a t, and I finally figured out that the word was squat.

Then I had four letters early, and I got trend.

Yesterday, I had a t and o and i, and I guessed tonic on my third guess, I think, and got the t o – i c, the word then was toxic.

Today, I tried to get it in two, but missed, and had to guess to get it in three. Altered Images, a group I liked in the early ’80’s!

So some good words. I never had to get to a sixth try, but a few caused me to do a lot of mulling before I got them. I guess I should have made notes, and not tried to do this from memory, but I wasn’t planning on recounting them. I hope that everyone else got them, too.