If you're not playing the new Internet word game, Wordle, then you're missing out on this year's first viral sensation.
It's a game that you can't really get too addicted to, because you can only play once a day. So, there's no wasting two or three or more hours of your life on it, like those of us who are watching videos on Tik Tok.
It's pretty simple. There is a mystery word and you get six guesses to figure it out. With each guess you get, you are told which letters you got right and whether they're in the right spot. That helps you narrow it down. After you guess, you share your score on social media, which is definitely how Wordle has become so popular. The quicker you can guess the word, the higher your score.
Here are tips to solve the daily Wordle puzzles in around three moves . . . maybe less.
1. Pick a starting word with lots of common letters. Since your goal on your first word is to identify as many correct letters as possible, try starting with words like "arise," "stare," "roast," and "irate." If you love vowels, how about "adieu"?
2. Remember there can be double letters. One of the toughest words so far since the Wordle sensation began was "abbey" . . . because lots of people didn't realize there could be double letters. So keep that in mind as you're trying out possible answers.
3. Instead of building off your first word, try a second word with all different letters. If you get a few letters right in your first guess, your instinct will be to use those letters in every guess. But . . . you could try a totally different second word instead.
For example, you could use the first word "notes" and the second word "acrid." Now you've hit most of the common English letters and may have four or five good letters ready for turn three. You probably weren't going to win on turn two after all.
A few other pairs of five-letter words that cover lots of common letters: "resin" and "loath" . . . "tares" and "chino" . . . and "senor" and "ducat."
By the way, there is no app for Wordle.... just CLICK HERE for the website. Each day, you'll get a new word.
Good luck!