Today’s Wordle Was Extra Tough. Here Are Tips for How to Win – CNET

(Warning: Hints ahead for Wednesday’s Wordle. But we don’t give the word away.)

Let’s talk about Wednesday’s Wordle puzzle, aka Wordle 270. This puzzle was one of those words with a very common ending and thus many possible answers. If you missed the word entirely, breaking your possibly treasured streak, you’re far from alone. Even if you got the last four letters correct — which I did finally, at guess No. 4 — you were still fighting an uphill battle.

Without revealing the word, I can say there are 12 common English words that end in the same four letters as today’s puzzle (they’re all listed here, if you do want that spoiler). Maybe you lucked out and discovered the word’s starting letter earlier, and so this was easy-breezy for you. But not for everyone. 

CNET sister site ComicBook.com put it bluntly: “Basically, even if players correctly guess the last four letters of the puzzle on the very first try, they only have a 50% chance of getting today’s puzzle correct.”

There are some ways to deal with the conundrum of the common word ending, though. Once you can tell there are a bunch of words that fit, you need to test as many unused letters as you can.

This won’t work if you’re playing on “Hard Mode,” where any revealed hints must be used in subsequent guesses. If not, you want to choose a word that uses as many not-yet-used consonants as possible, and that’s not always easy.

If you do have the final four letters and just need the first, you can, of course, go through the alphabet and try each letter to see if it will complete your word. (This always reminds me of Homer Simpson when he and Marge were trying to determine if Bart’s name had any rude nicknames — “Cart, Dart, E-art… nope, nothing rhymes with Bart!”)

Make a list of any starting letters that work for the word, especially letters you haven’t used. Then scramble those letters up with as few eliminated letters as possible. You want to play words that test as many possible starting letters as you can. 

Although the word could start with a vowel, look for words you can make using double consonants, like WH or CH or ST. I like “CHIMP” because my start words don’t use C, H, M or P. “WHELM” is another good one, since I don’t tend to use W, H, L or M, either. Both of those words test a lot of consonants for you and could give you your one missing letter.

This isn’t the first time Wordle has given players a word with a common ending, and it sure won’t be the last. The problem, of course, is that it might not become apparent the word has a common letter pattern until your final guess or two.

Fans shared their frustration on social media.

“Never ever playing again,” wrote one player.