Josh Wardle wasn’t to know that when he first created Wordle during the coronavirus lockdown it would become a worldwide sensation.
His initial aim was remarkably modest, with the software engineer saying he simply wanted to create a game “for me and my partner to enjoy.”
Wardle made Wordle available to the broader public in October 2021 and it quickly gained a devoted global audience. The game was so popular that The New York Times purchased it in January 2022 for an undisclosed low seven-figure sum.
“The game has gotten bigger than I ever imagined,” Wardle said in a statement following the sale. “I’d be lying if I said this hasn’t been a little overwhelming. After all, I am just one person.”
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Wordle is still popular to this day, as it remains The New York Times‘ number one game.
To play, people must guess the day’s five-letter word in six attempts or fewer, with feedback given for each guess in the form of colored tiles indicating when letters match or occupy the correct position. A green tile indicates the correct letter in the correct position, while a yellow tile signifies the letter is in the word but in the wrong place. A gray tile means the letter is not in the word at all.
A new word appears at midnight in players’ respective time zones, but if one game a day is not enough for you, The New York Times now allows subscribers access to more than 1,000 past puzzles from the official Wordle archive on the web and in the NYT Games app.
“We are thrilled to unlock the official Wordle archive for our subscribers,” Jonathan Knight, head of games at The New York Times, said in May. “This expansion is not just about playing past puzzles; it’s about deepening the connection our community has with Wordle and with each other.”
‘Wordle’ #1,153, Clues for Thursday, August 15
Hint #1: Today’s Wordle answer is a noun.
Hint #2: There are no repeated letters.
Hint #3: The word contains two vowels.
Hint #4: The answer has two syllables.
Hint #5: When thinking of this word, you may think of squirrels.
‘Wordle’ #1,153, Answer for Thursday, August 15
The answer to today’s Wordle is “acorn.”
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word is defined as “the nut of the oak usually seated in or surrounded by a hard woody cupule of indurated bracts.”
Congratulations if you got it right, but don’t worry if you didn’t. Wordle updates every day at midnight in your local time zone, at which point the next puzzle becomes available. Newsweek will be back with another round of hints and tips for each new game.
Players who would like something to keep themselves busy while they wait can have a go at other word-based puzzles such as Typochondria and Spellspire.