It has been two years since Wordle was released to the public. It started out as a game created by New York-based software engineer Josh Wardle for his partner to play, but soon became a global sensation.
Millions logged on to solve the daily brainteaser and such was its popularity that the The New York Times purchased Wordle for an undisclosed low seven-figure sum in 2022. It remains free to play via the publication’s website and games app.
The premise is simple: one five-letter word per day and six attempts to guess it. If a letter is in the right place, a tile will go green. If it is in the wrong place, it turns yellow. If it is not in the word at all, the tile goes gray.
Wordle aficionados aim to guess the day’s word in as few tries as possible, and maintain a win streak.
In an interview with Newsweek, Erhan Aslan, an expert in applied linguistics who teaches at the University of Reading in the U.K., gave some advice on how to improve your chances of solving the daily puzzle.
“One thing that I think is important in this game is the starting letter chosen. Starting off with letters that include commonly used vowels, for example, e and a, consonants such as r and t, and sound sequences might be helpful,” Aslan said.
“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.”
Note: The answer for today’s Wordle can be found at the bottom of this page, so scroll down Newsweek‘s tips and clues with caution to avoid revealing it if you want to work it out for yourself.
‘Wordle’ #838, Clues for Thursday, October 5
Newsweek has put together five clues to help you solve today’s Wordle puzzle.
Hint #1: The word can be a noun or a verb.
Hint #2: There are no repeated letters.
Hint #3: There is only one vowel, in the second letter.
Hint #4: Synonyms for today’s Wordle include “community” and “crowd.”
Hint #5: The word features in the name of a popular sitcom about a large blended family that originally aired in the U.S. from 1969 to 1974.
‘Wordle’ #838, Answer for Thursday, October 5
The answer to today’s Wordle is “bunch.”
Merriam-Webster defines “bunch” as a number of things of the same kind, a considerable amount, or if used as a verb, to form a group or cluster.
Wordle resets daily at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT). While you wait for the next game, you could give the geography guessing game Worldle or other word puzzles a try.