The online game with words that has conquered Twitter is called Wordle: we explain what it is, how it works and how to play!
If you frequent social networks, especially Twitter, you may have noticed that many of your contacts have started chirping strangely. Small squares of different colors, including green, yellow and gray, accompanied by the word Wordle: nothing strange, it’s just a new web game about words whose popularity has grown dramatically in recent weeks.
Wordle: what the word game is and how it works
Wordle is an online game based on words (come on!) Developed by Josh Wardle, a British programmer who had made himself famous in the past for creating the social experiments called Place and The Button for the Reddit platform.
Wordle how to play
How does it work? Each day, a five-letter word is chosen from a list of 2,315 English vocabulary words that players must guess within six attempts. At the end of each attempt, the chosen letter is colored differently depending on how close you are to the result:
Green: if the letter is correct and in the correct position
Yellow: if the letter is correct but not in the correct position
Gray: if the letter is not present in the word at all
The playful concept is inspired by the Lingo game show franchise, but also by the Jotto pen and paper game from 1955.
Wordle started out as a private game for Wardle and his wife, Palak Shah. In October 2021 the decision came to make it public after he had noticed the blockbuster received by relatives. In December 2021, it became a viral phenomenon on Twitter, rapidly spreading around the world. To date, it’s one of the most sought-after curiosities on the net, with over 2 million people having at least given it one try.