Today’s Wordle Answer #244: Friday, Feb. 18, 2022
If you feel driven to search for a clue for today’s Wordle answer, don’t feel bad—it’s a bit of a challenge[r], and it seems like it’s been evasive to many. We began with a new Wordle starting word today: “ENTRY,” for no real reason other than to mix it up a bit. In theory, this would be a good one: the vowel E, plus frequently used letters N, R, T (remember the “Wheel of Fortune” method of starting with letters R, S, T, L, N and E?), plus Y. Unfortunately, theory and practice didn’t align today. We only got E out of that, and it wasn’t in the right place. Having used T and R already, our usual go-to words like “TEARS” or “STEAM” would go to waste this time, so we opted for a word with S, A, E, and M, plus another consonant in D, settling on “DAMES.” From there, we knew our Wordle solution began with D and had an E somewhere within it, narrowed down by two spots. Inspired by what happens when our face mask and glasses don’t properly align, especially on a muggy day like this morning—and just working with the most common letters we had left—we tested out “DEFOG” for the first time in our personal Wordle-playing history. It ended up being a relatively good move, as O and G were in play, and we further narrowed down the placement of the letter E. Assuming E would be the final letter of the Wordle solution and D the starting letter, with O likely the second, we just had to fill in the center. There aren’t too many combinations you can come up with from there, so we opted for “DODGE.” Voila! That said, if you’ve found Wordle to be at least slightly more challenging since The New York Times purchased the game, you aren’t alone: Many other Wordle players have speculated that the Grey Lady made the game harder. The Times, however, denies it. A rep for the newspaper told PEOPLE, “Since acquiring Wordle, The Times has not made the puzzle harder. We have not added any words to the solutions list, which was already predetermined by the game’s original creator.” In fact, the spokesperson said, The New YorkTimes actually omitted some of the lesser-known solutions “in an effort to make the puzzle more accessible.” The rep added, “As an example, we removed “AGORA” this week … We will continue to review the solutions, and remove obscure or potentially insensitive words.” (If you’re wondering “WTF does ‘AGORA’ have to do with anything?!”: For the Tuesday’s Wordle answer this week, “AROMA,” players accessing the old version of Wordle from the game’s original URL had “AGORA” as their solution. That won’t happen again, as the old URL now automatically re-directs to The New York Times Wordle puzzle. Next, try out these Wordle tips and tricks (including recommended Wordle starting words) to get a leg up on tomorrow’s puzzle!
