Today's Wordle #593 Hints and Answer for Thursday, February 2 Challenge

It's been over a year since The New York Times purchased Wordle for an undisclosed seven-figure sum, in January 2022, and the game continues to go from strength to strength.

Wordle was created during coronavirus lockdown by Josh Wardle, a New York based software engineer, who wanted to create a game "for me and my partner to enjoy."

In October 2021, Wardle released Wordle to the public and the game quickly gained a passionate fan base, with enthusiasts sharing their scores with other players across the English-speaking world.

Erhan Aslan, associate professor of applied linguistics at the University of Reading in the U.K., gave some advice on completing Wordle during an interview with Newsweek.

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' #593 Tips and Clues for Thursday, February 2

Wordle players can use these five hints to solve puzzle #593.

Hint #1: Thursday's answer only contains one vowel.

Hint #2: There are no repeated letters.

Hint #3: The first two letters are consonants.

Hint #4: Synonyms for today's word include "bypass," "avoid" and "sidestep."

Hint #5: None of the first three letters in the alphabet feature.

'Wordle' #593 Answer for Thursday, February 2

The answer to Thursday's Wordle is "Shirk."

A relatively uncommon word, with only one vowel, today's Wordle was a challenge even for experienced players of the game. Did you get it? If so, congratulations. But please don't worry if not. One of the best things about Wordle is seeing if you can improve your performance over time.

Either way, we hope to see you again tomorrow when Newsweek will be back with another round of Wordle hints and tips.

What Does 'Shirk' Mean?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines "shirk" as "to evade the performance of an obligation."

For example: "He chose to shirk his responsibilities as a parent."

The next Wordle puzzle will be available at 7 p.m. ET, when the daily update occurs.