Welcome back to 2XP Friday, dearest Wordlers! For all those playing Competitive Wordle with yours truly (or against the Wordle Bot) today you can earn—or lose—double the points you’d normally mark on any other day of the week.
I’ve been doing manual labor, ripping up carpets and prepping one of kids’ rooms for some new wood flooring, and it’s a good reminder that writing Wordle guides and reviews of video games and TV shows is a pretty cushy job. Then again, I still think that the kind of tired you get working with your hands is very different than the kind of tired you get sitting at a desk all day.
In any case, I have more demolition to get to so I’ll cut this preamble short. Let’s do today’s Wordle!
How To Solve Today’s Word
The Hint: What you do with effort.
The Clue: This word has a double letter in it.
.
.
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See yesterday’s Wordle #817 right here.
Wordle Bot Analysis
After each Wordle I solve I head over to the Wordle Bot homepage to see how my guessing game was.
Not my finest hour, I admit. My opening guess, baron, left me with just one yellow box and—I learned when I checked Wordle Bot afterwards—234 remaining words. Ouch.
Riley cut that number down to 25, but that’s still far too many to narrow it down easily. I kept juggling the placement of the ‘R’ and ‘E’ instead and came up with crude as my third guess. Somehow both letters remained in yellow!
I could only think of two possible answers at this point, though Wordle Bot says there were four. I came up with exert and sperm, while the Bot added twerk and twerp to the list. I went with exert, and lucky me I finally got my first green box. All five green boxes!
Today’s Score
The stupid Wordle Bot got today’s in just three, so I get -1 point for losing to the Bot and 0 points for guessing in four, for a grand total of -1 x 2 (because it’s 2XP Friday). -2 for me today—yikes! There will be huzzah-ing this Friday.
Today’s Wordle Etymology
The word “exert” has its origins in Latin. It comes from the Latin word “exsertus,” which is the past participle of the verb “exserere.” “Exserere” is a combination of two Latin elements: “ex,” meaning “out,” and “serere,” meaning “to join” or “to connect.”
So, etymologically, “exert” essentially means “to thrust out” or “to put forth,” which aligns with its modern meaning of making a physical or mental effort to accomplish something. Over time, the word evolved from its Latin roots and entered the English language, retaining a similar sense of effort and action.
Play Competitive Wordle Against Me!
I’ve been playing a cutthroat game of PvP Wordle against my nemesis Wordle But. Now you should play against me! I can be your nemesis! (And your helpful Wordle guide, of course). You can also play against the Bot if you have a New York Times subscription.
- Here are the rules:
- 1 point for getting the Wordle in 3 guesses.
- 2 points for getting it in 2 guesses.
- 3 points for getting it in 1 guess.
- 1 point for beating me
- 0 points for getting it in 4 guesses.
- -1 point for getting it in 5 guesses.
- -2 points for getting it in 6 guesses.
- -3 points for losing.
- -1 point for losing to me
You can either keep a running tally of your score if that’s your jam or just play day-to-day if you prefer.
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Read the full article here