Tracy Bennett will be programming Wordle every day.
After nearly a year of speculation, it will finally be our fault if Wordle is harder. Starting Nov. 7, Wordle will have a dedicated editor, just as the Crossword, Mini and Spelling Bee do.
The New York Times acquired Wordle, the viral game created by Josh Wardle, in January, and the months that followed were a whirlwind of rearranging all of our plans for the year. In the last 10 months, tens of millions of people have made their attempts at guessing the five-letter word of the day, based on a list crafted by Mr. Wardle. Meanwhile, our product design and engineering teams have worked diligently to integrate the game into our portfolio, adding it to the News app and the Crossword app this summer.
Now we can shift our work to editing the puzzle. Tracy Bennett, who joined The Times as an associate puzzle editor in 2020, will be the editor of Wordle. The game will have a Times-curated word list and will be programmed and tested like the Spelling Bee and the Crossword.
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Wordle’s gameplay will stay the same, and answers will be drawn from the same basic dictionary of answer words, with some editorial adjustments to ensure that the game stays focused on vocabulary that’s fun, accessible, lively and varied.
The answer list will consist of five-letter words that fit those criteria, with the exception of plural forms of three- or four-letter words that end in “ES” or “S.” That is, the answer will never be FOXES or SPOTS, but it might be GEESE or FUNGI. As the game is currently designed, FOXES or SPOTS can be used as a guess word to help narrow down the answer, but FOXES or SPOTS will not be the answer.
While the answer list is curated, the much larger dictionary of English words that are valid guesses will not be curated. What solvers choose to use as guess words is their private choice. If your answer word is different from others’, play on the app or refresh your browser.
We’re so excited to play this game with you!
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