Wordle tips—how to crack the game now it's been purchased by the New York Times

Some handy Wordle tips to help you navigate the online game that just got trickier since it was purchased by the New York Times

Wordle tips
(Image credit: photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

Since the New York Times bought Wordle, it seems that every player is desperately hunting for Wordle tips, so here is some of the best advice that we've discovered...

While it's easy to learn how to play Wordle, since being purchased by the New York Times, Wordle fans have complained that the fun online challenge has become a lot trickier.

So even if you are familiar with the best Wordle hacks, it can still be hard to solve the trickier challenges that have taken place over the past few weeks. Fans have taken to social media to share their annoyance with the most recent wordle conundrums. 

"Today's wordle was so hard I’m suing the new york times for what they just put me thru," said one fan on social media.

"The New York Times deciding that everyone's day needed a *little* more stress by upping the Wordle stakes," said another.

"Good morning to everyone except all of the staff at the New York Times, their families, friends, pets, and acquaintances. Wordle 240 X/6," said another angry Wordle player.

Wordle Tips to improve your score

Recently some of the words from Wordle have been more challenging. While we used to have words such as; frame, whack, or perky, more recently, players have been solving words such as; ulcer, ultra, and cynic.

These words are particularly challenging to guess in a game of Wordle. When letters are repeated, the tiles do not change color, so you may end up spending hours trying to figure out if a letter is repeated in the word or not. Similarly, when a letter, such as the letter 'y', appears in the middle of the word when it typically appears at the end of a five-letter word, fans can be thrown off completely and struggle to guess what the word may be. But what can we do to improve?

It seems that the best bet is to change your state of mind. Although the words used to be obvious, thinking outside of the box seems to be the order of the day so don't be afraid to use a letter twice in a word, or guess a word that isn't particularly well known.

'Aloft' and 'pleat' are not the most obvious words for a puzzle game, so don't try and think about what the game makers would set. Just try and think of any words that could fit the general pattern—no words are off-limits!

The New York Times also released some advice for fans who wish to up their game and Wordle score.


The advice from the outlet suggests that fans, "start with a word that has a lot of vowels." For example 'audio,' 'irate,' and 'adieu' have been fan-favorite words to begin the game with and often put people in a good starting point to work out which vowels are used in the word.

They also suggest, "Pick two very different words for the first two lines," so that by the process of elimination you can work out the remaining letters very quickly. 

"Go old school and break out a pen and paper," is another suggestion from the New York Times. This can help players work out their next move and visualize their next steps. 

Laura Harman

Laura is the Entertainment Editor for woman&home who primarily covers television, film, and celebrity news. Laura loves drinking and eating and can often be found trying to get reservations at London's trendiest restaurants. When she's not wining and dining, Laura can also be found travelling, baking, and hiking with her dog.