What is Wordle and why is it popular?

wordle featured ecran partage

What are the ingredients of wordle’s recipe?

A free game, accessible with a click on your favorite internet browser, whose concept is to find a word of 5 letters per day and this, in 6 trials. A countdown timer accompanies THE word of the day to the next word. A rather nice concept to create a community. Too easy, you might say? I would answer you that with the pinch of difficulty cleverly dosed, the recipe of Wordle is refined, but successful, with a result actually rather addictive and fun.

It can therefore be said that the simplicity of the game probably contributed to its dazzling success. Indeed, no need to download an application. We connect to the site and let’s go to stir our brains, alone or with family, all without any advertising or use of your personal data!

Being able to share your successes on social networks is also interesting. This does not imply any spoilers for other players who have not yet taken part in their little daily ritual.

History of the game

Josh Wardle created this game in the United States for his girlfriend. Watching her busy with the New York Times crossword puzzles during the first lockdowns of 2020 and with the inspiration of the TV show Lingo, whose goal was to guess a 5-letter word, he developed this game so popular today. Regarding the name of the game, it is simply a contraction of its last name and “Word”. Wordle was born.

Thanks to word of mouth, media coverage (including that of the New York Times) and social networks, Wordle quickly became a real international success. However, its author does not wish to monetize it.

I draw your attention to an important point: the notoriety of this game has resulted in many copies of it, including malicious applications. If you are asked for money or your personal data, go your way.

The only official websites for desktop and mobile are:

www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle for the original English version inspired by the American game show Lingo

https://sutom.nocle.fr/ for the French version inspired by the original Wordle game and surfing on the nostalgia of the late French game show Motus (Sutom = Motus upside down)

Indeed, the concept quickly inspired a French-language version, developed by Jonathan Magano. Based on the same idea, with a word to be found each day, however, there are very slight differences.

I explain this in a small illustrated comparison:

Wordle

In the original English version, there are several modes that can be selected:

  • A difficult mode
  • A dark mode, convenient when playing in the evening for example
  • A mode, whose initiative can be welcomed, for people suffering from color blindness

For the principle of the game, there are therefore 6 attempts to guess a word of 5 letters.

Even if the tactic is to have the most different letters at the beginning, in order to guess the word more quickly, it is necessary to enter each attempt an existing word in the dictionary.

After each try, a color code will guide you to the word to find.

A letter surrounded by a green square means that it is well placed, while it will be yellow if it is in the word but in another place. Finally, gray will indicate that the letter is not in the word.

Screenshot of the game
Screenshot of the game

Sutom

If, just like in Wordle, there are 6 essays for which the words must exist in the dictionary and the gray numeric keypad as the letters do not appear in the word, some variations are to be noted.

In the French version, the first letter is already defined. The word to be found is longer than in the original version, namely 6 to 9 letters.

The color code here is the same as in the game show Motus: red for a well-placed letter, blue for a letter that does not appear in the word and a yellow circle surrounding a misplaced letter.

A fun aspect of this version is the possibility, for the most nostalgic, to activate the sound effects faithful to the TV show.

Screenshot of sutom game
Screenshot of the game

Wordle, just like its French-speaking counterpart, seems to be a game to recommend to the whole family. The level of difficulty makes this game target more adults or young people mastering enough vocabulary. However, it is interesting to accompany your child, who is old enough to read and write, in order to share a moment of complicity and fun while giving him the taste to play with words.

This game only takes a few minutes and can be started at any time of the day. An undeniable advantage to integrate it into your daily routine. Plus, the limit of one word a day around the world can put a strain on your patience… And make you want to come back the next day. And why not the day after…