Wordle, the viral guessing game explained

Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to tracing and better understanding what is going on in the world. Confused as to why you see your friends on social media posting colored blocks without any explanation? We are here to help you.

Wordle is set to be the last viral trend of 2021, if Twitter is anything to follow anyway. Over the past few weeks or so, you may have seen your friends on social media posting a bunch of different colored squares and bragging about their unlimited vocabulary. This is because a new game called Wordle has taken over social media.

But what exactly is Wordle? How can you play it? What do these colored squares mean? Here’s everything you need to know about Wordle.

So what is Wordle?

Wordle is a simple guessing game that you can play in your browser right now without having to download anything. The principle is also easy to understand: just try to guess the five-letter word per day in six attempts.

The game has been out for nearly 200 days, but it was only recently that the popularity of the game went viral on Twitter.

Why colored squares?

Trying to guess a five letter word without help will be very difficult and not fun at all, so Wordle helps its players with a color coding system. Once you guess a word, the letters in your guess will turn green, yellow or grey.

If the letter is green, then that letter is in the word and in the correct place. If it is yellow, then this letter is written in the word, but it is not in the right place. If the letter is grey, the letter will not appear in the word of the day at all.

It is a very clever way to help players find the right word while not revealing it. You can also turn on the hard mode, which forces players to use the clues given to them, preventing you from guessing random words.

Is this why I keep seeing colored squares on Twitter?

Yes! Wordle brilliantly makes use of the lovable internet hobby of wanting to brag about your accomplishments, so once you’ve finished word of the day, you have the option to share what you’ve done on social media.

Not only do the blocks show your progress in finding the word of the day, but it’s also a great way to talk about games online without a suite.

You can also see your current stats on the site, along with a breakdown of how many guesses it took to get the word right. I only started a few days ago, but here’s my graph just for fun.

Anything else to know about Wordle?

Aside from the fact that Wordle of the day resets at midnight and there is only one per day, no! Now go and enjoy your new obsession.