I love Wordle. I play it daily to write my Worddle response column today, but even if you get a new work as an astronaut or secret agent, I would still play it, I would still analyze my results, I still got obsessed with my average score.
However, I hate today’s game. I hate so much that I need to use capital letters for emphasis.
Don’t worry, I didn’t fail. My streak is still undefeated in 1,134. Well, theoretically at least: in practice it was lost a long time before the failure of the application of NYT games, but HE I have played it every day since January 2022 and HE I have never lost. What’s that? Wasn’t you worried about my streak? Well, thanks.
No, I hate it because it has a particular format that acts as my personal Kriptonite. And I’m not Superman.
Seriously, it seems that I have a mental blind spot when it comes to solving Wordles like this. And I am not the only one, because today’s game has an incredibly high average score of 4.9.
Obviously, I can’t say more about it without spoilers, so stop reading now if you haven’t played. Go and get some Wordle suggestions if you need them, complete the puzzle, then return and discover why I hate it so much. Maybe you hate it too.
The spoilers of the Loddle today, Monday, February 10, 2025, continue below.
My less favorite Wordle format
Wordle is by its nature a pattern game. Certain letters are more common than others; Some appear more regularly in specific places; Some combine more easily with others. These rules create patterns and if you play regularly you can learn to detect them. I caught all this in my analysis of each Wordle response.
Today’s game has a good example of a particular pattern, and as I said before, it is horrible.
The pattern in question is OO, as in Brook, Goose, Groom, flood and more or more than 50 words that have been or will be answers.
Spoilers comes now!
Today’s loma’s response is Goody, and it is almost The most difficult word we have had so far, with an average of 4.9 according to Worddlebot, the AI analysis tool in the game.
The only most difficult game was Kazoo (5.1), which really does not count since it also has a unusual K and Z, it is also a stupid word that the NYT added without another reason other than troll people.
Goody is simply terrible, right? It is not a good word, word game. I mean, what kind of person does ‘Goody’ say? A three -year -old boy, maybe, and should be looking Color Or something instead of playing Wordle.
I would probably not care if I had easily completed it, but I got a five, shame! – And it reminded me once again that I have a complete mental block when it comes to solving these words.
To show how much I fight with them, I made a small number of numbers. I have maintained a record of each chord that I have completed (yes, I am a fun guy) and my average at 1,136 games so far is 3.67. Not too bad.
However, looking only at OO’s words, jump to 4.19, more than half assumption! That is even worse than my record in ER Games, that other Wordle Dastardly format, for which my average is 4.18.
I’m not just me, honest!
And I’m not alone either. I have also maintained a registration of the Wordlebot average score for each game since it was launched in April 2022, and the global average is currently in 3.96. But for the words OO jumps to a powerful 4.29.
It is true that everyone else considers that ER words are even more difficult to solve: the average there is 4.41. So, while the rest of you also fight with OO’s responses, you don’t hate them as much as those nasties.
Of course, the worst possible format for anyone, therefore, would be a combination of OO and ER, right? Oh yes.
We have only had one of those words so far, Wooer, in September 2021 (game #78). That was long before someone was playing Wordle, so I only completed it through the Wordle file. And I lost.
In fact, that is my only loss so far, of the 1,333 Wordles. It is not an adequate loss, because it was not played ‘live’, but still occupies it. Maybe now you can see why I hate the words so much.
What is the problem here anyway?
Why are words so difficult? Well, any repeated letter makes a Wordle more difficult, but I don’t think that is as such. Or not only that. After all, as my analysis of each Loma response shows, or it is the second most likely letter that is repeated, only behind A.
No, I suspect that the problem is simply that it is a repeated vowel, and that they are next to each other instead of separating.
The vowels can go to the side of any other letter, generally, which makes it much harder to reduce the characters on each side. And because you generally do not get two ‘a’, i’s or ‘u’s together’, or ‘e’ e are the only vowels that create this problem.
As an example, if you have a word with two LS together, also very common, they will know that they are almost surely preceded and followed by a vowel, or one and (which is sometimes a vowel anyway). You would not receive a word that will spend or something, there will always be a vowel on both sides of those ls. The same for most other letters.
But with one or repeated, it will have consonants on at least one side, probably both, and there are many more of them. Is it going to be an oom word like the gloom? A word oon like fainting? A word Oop like Scoop? Is it going to be preceded by an R as in the broom or a t as in standing? There are too many options.
There is a similar problem in the game with ER words, where it is incredibly difficult to find the first two consonants for Cower or Boxer or whatever. But at least I know to look for words from ER. With words, they always catch me by surprise, although today it is 29 so far.
So there you have it: that’s why I hate OO’s words. Let me know in the comments below if you also hate them. I bet you do.
