By MIA ARANDA, ISAAC MEJIA and JASMINE ROSALES

Acquiring all green boxes in a row represents successfully solving the Wordle for the day. (ISAAC MEJIA/ Ethic News visual)

The web-based word game, Wordle, has captivated both teenagers and adults to challenge themselves with their daily word game. 

The basics

The object of the game is to figure out the five-letter word within six tries in a grid. Upon attempting a word, colored boxes will surround each letter indicating the status of that letter. 

If the box is gray, it means that letter is not used in the word. If the box is yellow, that letter is in the word, but not in the spot where it was placed. If the box is green, that letter was correctly placed. Five green boxes are needed to successfully complete the challenge. 

The New York Times bought the game from creator Josh Wardle on Jan. 31. 

Its popularity 

Despite Wordle seeming to have a fairly basic concept, its accessibility, stimulation, competition and simplicity have allowed the game to garner much popularity. 

Citrus Valley High School sophomore Makenna Buhrow said, “I think Wordle is a great game to improve strategy and critical thinking.”

Wordle’s easy accessibility compared to other word-based games can be attributed to it being a web-based game which doesn’t require an app download. 

Eva Shinnerl, Redlands East Valley High School Advanced Placement Composition and English 101 teacher, plays Wordle with her class most days. She was reading The New York Times online when she first discovered Wordle. 

Shinnerl said, “I read one day that there was this word game that everyone was playing and I like certain types of word games.”

“I tried Wordle one time and I loved it,” continued Shinnerl. 

Anders Carlson, REV senior, first heard about Wordle while listening to the radio on Super Bowl Sunday.

“Usually fourth period rolls around and I play it,” says Carlson. 

He shares that he has gotten around a 94% win streak, thereby indicating that he wasn’t able to solve the Wordle 6% of the time he has played. 

REV senior Noah Snodgrass learned about Wordle from his father. Snodgrass would play everyday and even had a streak for about 40 days. 

Mia Altenbach, REV sophomore, said, “It was during quarantine. I was bored so I got a bunch of word games and that was one of them.” 

In addition to being a brain teaser, Wordle also boosts one’s mental health and can serve as an outlet to free stress. 

Carlson said, “It’s like a release.”

“It just gives me something to focus on,” said Altenbach. 

Strategies

Many people have different words or strategies that they use when attempting to solve Wordle. Often times, people will begin with a word that has many vowels in order to see which vowels are in the word, if any. 

Buhrow said, “My go-to words are ‘mince’ or ‘teary.'”

Michelle Stover, who teaches AP Chemistry and regular chemistry at Citrus Valley, said, “I always start with either the word ‘route’ to eliminate vowels or ‘alter’ to eliminate consonants common in words.” 

Wordle variations 

The success of Wordle and the attraction to its daily challenge has prompted many variations of the game, especially to quench users’ thirst for more brain-teasers since Wordle only presents one word challenge per day. 

For example, some of the spinoff games amid the multitude of variations are in different languages, such as those in Spanish and French, those specific for math enthusiasts, like Nerdle and Numberle, and even more complex versions, like Absurdle and Sexaginta-quattuordle.