For so many people, waking up has become that bit easier with anticipation of each day’s new Wordle.  A five letter word that can leave you in the depths of despair, or give you the proud aura of triumph and superiority.


Invented to alleviate pandemic boredom; it has in my home, like many others across the world; become part of our daily routine; our breakfast and dinner conversations; and taken over our extended family WhatsApp.  No surprise to us that since the beginning of 2022, this game has gone viral.

Simply, the idea of Wordle is that every day a new 5 letter word is selected (which is seemingly irretrievable from any human brain, yet annoyingly well known), and players have to guess the word in 6 tries. You may enter any 5 letter word, and you are told whether each letter is in the word, and whether you have placed it correctly. A green tile denoting the letter is correct; a yellow that it is in the word but not in the right position; and a grey that it is not in the word.  Players are limited to one game a day and everyone gets the same word

This simple, very straight forward game seems pretty easy. Many people have asked, ‘How many 5 letter words can there be?’.

The answer: way too many.

But if it’s so simple, why is it so addictive?

Who knows. At first, I laughed at my family, unable to peel themselves away from a screen crammed with a bunch of green, yellow and grey squares. Yet the first time I played Wordle myself, my eyes were opened to the compelling nature of this game. I think the beauty of Wordle, is in fact its simplicity. In the few minutes you spend a day, foraging through your mind for a five letter word containing a selection of letters, the world around is quiet, and you can be completely focused on this one specific thing.  There is no app to download, there are no ads, no push notifications, it feels simple.  The only real question is: how was this not invented sooner?  If you’re not already a Wordle fanatic, I urge you to join the gang and give it a go, and I promise you, you’ll soon be hooked like the rest of us!


P.S. If you’re already a Wordle addict, I’d recommend scrolling through Twitter and you’ll be sure to find some hilarious and relatable tweets on there, which may lift your spirits slightly as you experience misery at failing today's challenge, or inflate your ego as you look down on all those who didn’t do as well as you...