Almost three years since it was released to the world, Wordle still has an incredibly loyal fan base.
The popular brainteaser was invented by Josh Wardle, a Welsh-born software engineer based in New York City. He perfected Wordle during the COVID-19 lockdowns before releasing it to the public in October 2021.
Following its public debut, the word-based game exploded from 90 users on November 1, 2021, to 300,000 on January 2, 2022, according to figures by Statista. The New York Times purchased it for an undisclosed seven-figure fee and, soon after, it became the publication’s most popular game.
For the uninitiated, Wordle players get six attempts to guess a five-letter word. Gray tiles behind each letter indicate that they are not in the word at all; yellow means the letter features, but is in the wrong position; while green lets players know the letter is in the word and in the correct place.
Today, Wordle remains the newspaper’s most popular word game. What drives its enduring success? Wardle attributes it to the game’s format of five-letter words and six guesses.
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“There is a reason that every word is five letters long and that you are allowed six attempts to guess it. 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,” he told Newsweek in January 2022.
“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 accomplishment.”
Newsweek has provided some clues below for Tuesday’s Wordle puzzle. The answer will be revealed at the end of this article, so please scroll down with caution if you want to work it out for yourself.
Wordle #1,186, Hints for Tuesday, September 17 Game
Hint #1: Tuesday’s answer is a noun and an adjective.
Hint #2: It contains no repeated letters.
Hint #3: The answer contains three vowels.
Hint #4: Tuesday’s Wordle has no repeated letters.
Hint #5: It is a shorter version of another word.
Wordle #1,186, Answer for Tuesday, September 17 Game
Tuesday’s Wordle answer is “beaut.”
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.