Thousands of people across the world have made completing Wordle part of their daily routine, with the word game showing few signs of losing its viral popularity.
The rules of Wordle are very simple, doubtless helping to explain its viral growth after first being released to the public in October 2021.
Each day the player has to guess a new five-letter word, in six attempts or less. After each guess the letters change color, letting you know how close to the answer you were. If a letter goes green it is both in the word, and in the position you put it. Yellow means the letter features, but not where you placed it, whilst gray tells you it isn’t included at all.
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Wordle was originally developed by New York software engineer Josh Wardle, during coronavirus lockdown, as a game “for me and my partner to enjoy.”
In January 2022, Wardle sold Wordle to The New York Times, for an undisclosed seven-figure fee.
In an interview with Newsweek, Erhan Aslan, an associate professor of applied linguistics at the University of Reading in the U.K., gave some hints for playing the game.
He said: “One thing that I think is important in this game is the starting word chosen. Starting off with words that include commonly used vowels (e.g., e, a), consonants (e.g., r, t) and sound sequences might be helpful. Choosing a word that starts with q, z, j, or x, for instance, may not be the best choice.
“As you get more feedback after a few guesses, users need to draw on some knowledge of phonics to narrow down or eliminate some words that they might be thinking. For example, if the second letter of the target word is L (indicated by green) and the player feels that the word starts with a consonant, they will need to know that there are only a few consonant cluster possibilities (e.g., bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl).”
The answer to today’s puzzle will be revealed at the end of this article, so scroll down with caution if you want to work it out for yourself. To help you solve today’s Wordle, Newsweek has provided some tips.
‘Wordle’ #585 Tips and Clues for Wednesday, January 25
Wordle players can use these five hints to solve puzzle #585.
Hint #1: The answer contains three vowels. Yes three!
Hint #2: There are no repeated letters.
Hint #3: The second and third letters are both vowels.
Hint #4: A farmer might grow this in his fields.
Hint #5: Indigenous to the Americas.
‘Wordle’ #585 Answer for Wednesday, January 25
The answer to today’s Wordle is “Maize.”
With no less than three vowels this wasn’t the toughest puzzle Wordle has yet thrown our way, though the relatively uncommon word meant it was still a good brainteaser.
Did you get it? Congratulations if so, but please don’t worry if not. One of our favorite things about Wordle is seeing if we can improve our results over time.
What Does ‘Maize’ Mean?
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “maize” as “a tall annual cereal grass originally domesticated in Mexico and widely grown for its large elongated ears of starchy seeds.”
For example: “We’re going to meet Steve after school, by the field of maize.”
The next Wordle puzzle will be available at 7 p.m. ET, when the daily update occurs.
