If you're not a Twitter fan you might not have even heard of Wordle. Wordle is not an App for your phone. Wordle is a website with a game. It is a brilliant game!

It’s a super basic website, with no adverts, just the game, beautifully and simply presented in its design.

Everyday there is a new word that you need to work out by a series of letter eliminations. There really is only one word a day, and once you’ve got it, you must wait another 24-hours to play again. 

It is always a 5-letter word you need to discover, and you only have six chances to guess the word. It reminds me of Mastermind, where you must try to fathom the colour-code that the other player has chosen. Potentially easy, but there are so many variations and possibilities.

It does sound quite simple, and it can be – then again sometimes it’s almost impossible. It totally depends on the word you start with and a lot of that is down to luck. Some people like to use the same word each day to start the game. Others change the word. Some appear to have game plans. I am not sure anything helps, but I’ve found using a variety of letters and as many vowels as possible is helpful. And did I mention luck?

Wordle was created by a software engineer living in Brooklyn, New York - Josh Wardle (Wardle/Wordle - there's a great play on words!). He designed the game for his partner, who loves word games. Originally just they and their family played the game, but in October 2021 it was launched to the rest of the world. It didn’t take long to take off.

How you play Wordle: You simply input a 5-letter word and press ENTER. If Wordle doesn’t recognise your chosen word as a word you get to try again. If the letters you have guessed are not in the word of the day, they will remain grey; if they are in the word, but in the wrong position, they will go yellow; and if the right letter is in the correct position for that word the letter will go green. A point to note is that letters can be used twice in a word (e.g., happy, jolly, funny). And you just keep on guessing, keeping your green letters in the same place, moving your yellow letters around, and not using the grey letters again, until hopefully you strike lucky.

It is a game that really makes you think. You only have 6 attempts at getting the word correct – and within our family it causes some serious competition! Though we have all managed to get the word daily well within the 6 attempts. 

And whilst the game might have started off small, there are now a few million playing Wordle every day – lots of them sharing their grids most enthusiastically on Twitter via the ‘Share’ button – the only thing shared is how many attempts you took to guess the word – NEVER the actual Wordle word. You can also see your recent game statistics and there is a countdown timer to the ‘Next Wordle’.

It is quite simply just a wonderful game. It creates friendly competition and makes you think. When you open the website, you go immediately to the instructions, which you do only need to read once. Wordle is fantastic!