'Wordle' #1,174 Answer, Clues and Hints for Thursday, September 5 Game

When The New York Times bought Wordle for a seven-figure sum in January 2022, it was already a global hit.

The five-letter word guessing game was created by welsh-born, Brooklyn-based software engineer Josh Wardle, who created it for his puzzle loving girlfriend. Wardle made the game public in October 2021. Within weeks it went from having just 90 users to thousands of players.

The game gives players six attempts to guess a five-letter word. Color-coded tiles that let players know if they are on the right track. A green tile means the correct letter is in the right place, while a gold tile means the letter is correct, and in the word, but is not currently in the correct place. A gray tile means the letter is not in the word at all.

Stock image of woman looking at a smartphone. Newsweek has some handy hints to help you solve Thursday’s “Wordle.”

Wiphop Sathawirawong/Getty Images

In an interview with Newsweek in January 2022, Wardle explained how he designed the format of the game.

“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.

“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.”

He might be the creator, but Wardle is loathe to tell anyone how they should play the game, insisting instead that players should develop their own tactics and five-letter starting word.

However, Wardle did have one piece of advice and it’s likely not what you were expecting. In his mind, gray tiles can be helpful.

“One thing I will say is that a lot of people tend to think that the game is just about finding those green and gold letters. If you get those, then you theoretically have the information you need, but you don’t want to get too hung up on that,” Wardle told Newsweek.