Popular brainteaser Wordle can sometimes stump the most devoted of players.
Josh Wardle came up with it in an effort to entertain his partner during coronavirus lockdowns. After releasing it to the public in October 2021, it soon went from having just a few dozen active players to a sensation that attracted millions of regular users. The New York Times acquired it in January 2022 for an undisclosed sum.
But he has spoken of struggling with it.
"[My partner] and I play it on the couch together each morning. She will consistently get it in three goes, which is way, way better than I can ever hope to achieve. I normally need at least four or five attempts," he said in an interview with Newsweek last year.
The premise is simple: one five-letter word per day and just six attempts to guess it.
The color of the tiles changes to show how close your guess was to the word of the day. If a letter is in the right place, the tile turns green. If it is in the wrong place, it turns yellow. If it is not in the word at all, the tile goes gray.
The aim is to guess the day's word in as few tries as possible.
Erhan Aslan, an associate professor of applied linguistics at the University of Reading in the U.K., told Newsweek that one of the best tactics is choosing a good starting word.
"Starting off with words that include commonly used vowels (e.g., e, a), consonants (e.g., r, t), and sound sequences might be helpful. Choosing a word that starts with q, z, j, or x, for instance, may not be the best choice," Aslan said.
"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 of. For example, if the second letter of the target word is L (indicated by green) and the player feels that the word starts with a consonant, they will need to know that there are only a few consonant cluster possibilities (e.g., bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl)."
Aslan has also suggested that it can be more useful to get the incorrect gray letters than the ones that are in the word of the day because it allows you to eliminate possibilities.
Note: The answer for Wordle #764 can be found at the bottom of this page, so scroll down to Newsweek's tips and hints below with caution to avoid spoilers.
'Wordle' #764 Tips and Clues for Sunday, July 23, 2023
Players can attempt to solve Wordle #764 with the following five hints:
Hint #1: Today's Wordle is a noun and verb.
Hint #2: The third and fifth letters are vowels.
Hint #3: Today's word has no repeated letters.
Hint #4: Merriam-Webster definitions of the word include "to strike or hit vigorously."
Hint #5: Synonyms or similar words to today's word include "behemoth."
'Wordle' #764 Answer for Sunday, July 23, 2023
The answer to today's Wordle is "whale."
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.
