The New York Times bought Wordle in 2022 and it subsequently provided a lot of game analysis to help its players be better at solving the daily puzzle.
Two of its staff, Josh Katz and Aatish Bhatia, analyzed 515 million Wordle games and found that one of the most popular first-word choices was “Adieu.” Although it was in the top 30 most used starting words, it was actually not that helpful in the long run when it came solving the daily puzzle.
“The strategy seems to make sense: Figure out the vowels, and the other letters will fall into place,” wrote Katz and Bhatia in The New York Times in December 2023. “Our new analysis, though, shows that starting with ADIEU or AUDIO does actually put human players at a disadvantage.”
Katz and Bhatia continued: “On average, players who started with ADIEU needed about a third of a turn more to solve their Wordles compared with players who started with SLATE, adding up to 132 extra turns over the course of a year.”
The concept of Wordle is simple enough. Players must guess a five-letter word within six attempts or less. A color-coded tile system provides feedback to help you along the way.
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.
If you need some help working out Thursday’s Wordle answer, check out our collection of clues below. But scroll with caution because the answer is revealed at the end of this article.
‘Wordle’ #1,167, Clues for Thursday, August 29
Newsweek has put together five hints to help you figure out today’s Wordle puzzle.
Hint #1: Today’s Wordle answer is a verb and a noun.
Hint #2: There are no repeated letters.
Hint #3: The word contains one vowel.
Hint #4: This word can be used when you don’t do well in an exam.
Hint #5: Synonyms include “bomb” and “collapse.”
Today’s average difficulty for the puzzle is 4.6 guesses out of 6, or moderately challenging, according to The New York Times.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
‘Wordle’ #1,167, Answer for Thursday, August 29
The answer to today’s Wordle is “flunk.”
The Merriam-Webster dictionary says as a verb it means “to fail especially in an examination or course,” and to give (or get) a failing grade. As an noun, flunk means “an act or instance of flunking.”
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. 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.