Considering the global sensation it has grown into Wordle has remarkably humble origins, being invented by New York-based software developer Josh Wardle during the coronavirus pandemic because he wanted a game “for me and my partner to enjoy.”
Wardle released his game to the general public in October 2021 and it quickly developed a dedicated following around the world, with some players taking to social media each day to share their results and tactics. In January 2022, Wardle sold Wordle to The New York Times for an unspecified low seven-figure sum, though the game remains free to play.
In an interview with Newsweek Erhan Aslan, an associate professor of applied linguistics at the University of Reading in the U.K., gave some advice for playing Wordle.
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, for example, e and a, consonants such as r …