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By James Bickerton
News Reporter
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Wordle shows few signs of losing its immense global popularity, more than a year after it was first released to the public in October 2021.
Invented by Josh Wardle, a New York-based software developer originally from the U.K., the game was sold to the New York Times in January 2022.
The game's popularity is surely linked to its simplicity, which means almost anyone can play, even if they have no prior experience with word puzzles.
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Each day the player has to work out a new five-letter word, in six attempts or less. After each guess the letters light up, indicating how accurate the prediction was. If a letter goes green it is both in the word, and has been put in the correct place. Yellow means the letter features, but not where you put it, while gray tells you it isn't included at all.
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Speaking to Newsweek in January Wardle admitted that, despite inventing Wordle, he sometimes still struggles with the game.
He said: "Well, I did create Wordle and I'm not very good at it, so there's your answer! I'm afraid I'm not really the best.
"[My partner] and I play it on the couch together each morning. She will consistently get it in three goes, which is way, way better than I can ever hope to achieve. I normally need at least four or five attempts."
Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Reading in England, Erhan Aslan, gave Newsweek some tips on how to solve the puzzles.
While admitting he doesn't play the game regularly himself, 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 (such as e or a), consonants (such as r or 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 popularity of Wordle has helped inspire a number of other online puzzles, including Nerdle for math fans and Worldle for geography enthusiasts.
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. Some hints and tips to help you solve today's Wordle follow.
'Wordle' #503 Tips and Clues for Friday, November 4
Wordle players can use these five hints to solve puzzle #503.
Hint #1: The answer contains two vowels.
Hint #2: The third and fifth letters are the same.
Hint #3: Synonyms for the word include "image," "picture" and "snapshot."
Hint #4: Good for preserving memories.
'Wordle' #503 Answer for Friday, November 4
The answer to today's Wordle is "photo."
A commonly used word, with a double vowel, means today's Wordle wasn't the toughest we've yet faced, but it was certainly still a good brainteaser. Did you get it? If so, congratulations! But don't worry if not. One of the best things about Wordle is seeing if you can improve your score over time. Either way, we hope you join us tomorrow for more hints and tips.
The next Wordle puzzle will be available at 7 p.m. ET, when the daily update occurs.
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