When Josh Wardle first designed Wordle for his puzzle-loving partner, he had no idea it would go on to be a global hit.
The Welsh-born, New York-based engineer released the daily game publicly in October 2021—and within a matter of weeks had thousands of players.
He eventually sold Wordle to The New York Times in early 2022. It still remains popular to this day, even with celebrities—such as Keegan-Michael Key, the Emmy award-winning star of Key & Peele and Wonka. He teamed up with the NYT in 2023 to invite players to compete against him in their game group chats.
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“There’s a fun sense of accomplishment that comes with starting the day solving a New York Times game,” Key said in 2023.
“It’s also a great reason to have a quick check-in with a few of my friends (and get in a little friendly competition). I’ve always been a fan of words and language and any game that can test my acumen.”
The answer to Friday’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.
But first, here’s how you play Wordle.
To solve the daily Wordle game, players need to figure out a mystery five-letter word in six guesses or less. Players are guided by a color-coded tile system to let them know if they are on the right track.
A green tile means the letter is correct, while yellow tells you the letter appears in the word, but is in the wrong spot. Finally, a gray tile shows that the letter does not appear in the word at all.
Wardle explained why he chose to use five-letter words for Wordle, as opposed to other word lengths.
“There is a reason that every word is five letters long and that you are allowed six attempts to guess it,” he said in an interview with Newsweek in January 2022. “That might seem arbitrary but, with the prototype version, I tested different word lengths and experimented with the number of tries that players were allowed.
“Through that process of refinement, I figured out that five letters and six tries was the ideal sweet spot. It’s just limited enough to feel challenging and to make you think, but most of the time, people still manage to solve it. So, you feel a real sense of real accomplishment.”
‘Wordle’ #1,154, Clues for Friday, August 16
Hint #1: Today’s Wordle answer is a noun and verb.
Hint #2: There are no repeated letters.
Hint #3: The word contains two vowels.
Hint #4: The answer has one syllable.
Hint #5: Today’s word is something you can wear and something you do in anticipation.
‘Wordle’ #1,154, Answer for Friday, August 16
The answer to today’s Wordle is “brace.”
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.