Players who have consistently played Wordle since it went viral and also got taken over by New York Times have seen that words/answers are different sometimes. If you are wondering why that happens, here’s everything you need to know.
Why are Wordle Answers Different Today for Players?
Ever since NYT acquired Wordle on 31 January 2022, the words change sometimes because the original word could be outdated. It is completely at the discretion of New York Times. And if they believe that an answer needs to be changed, they will.
For example, for the May 10 Wordle, NYT discovered the word “F*tus” in the list a week prior and they changed it for as many solvers as possible. This leaves the possibility that some might get the older word. As per NYT, you won’t get the outdated version if you have refreshed your browser window. But if you don’t do that, you will be asked to solve the older puzzle. And this is why the particular word might lead to widespread confusion and discussions worldwide.
This isn’t the first time this is happening. Before F*TUS was changed to SHINE, AGORA was changed to AROMA to make it easier to guess. HARRY was changed to STOVE. Harry is tough to guess because we don’t think of people’s names while trying to guess a word. But the intended meaning was an outdated one where HARRY meant to persistently carry out attacks on someone.
The word list was initially created by Josh Wardle, the creator of the viral word game. It was made for only his girlfriend because she loves solving word games. What started off as a sweet gesture for love, became a global phenomenon with millions of players joining in. With this in mind, it’s crucial that the word list for this game is updated to prevent hurting the sentiments of any user base.
Note that the full word list for Wordle is packed into a file in the code (don’t look for it if you don’t want the answers spoiled!). And as we can see, it is being updated by New York Times to ensure that the millions of players have a consistent experience daily.
To get all the updated Wordle answers in one place, be sure to head to our article here.