EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is for Wordle answer #245; the February 20th Wordle answer is available now.
February 19th brings another difficult Wordle word to puzzle-loving players. Wordle is a once-a-day word-guessing game that gained popularity in 2022 due to its simple gameplay and excellent social media sharing abilities. The easy-to-understand instructions and short playtime make Wordle a perfect game to do in the morning with a cup of coffee, or as a quick distraction in the middle of the workday.
The goal of Wordle is to guess a five-letter word within six guesses. The game is played on a 5x6 grid and players will start by using any word they wish. Wordle will provide information with each guess by highlighting certain letters green if they are correct, yellow if they are correct but in the wrong spot, or grey if they are not in the word at all. Using these clues players will need to adjust their future guesses until the correct answer is found, or they run out of chances. Wordle also provides a 'Hard Mode' which can be turned on in the options menu. This mode locks letters into place based on the information given. Letters that have already been proven correct must be incorporated in any future guesses, just as letters proven incorrect can no longer be used. This requires a little more critical thinking from the player as they can't just use a random word after information has been revealed.
Arguably the popularity of Wordle comes down to its social media sharing feature. After a puzzle is completed, players can copy and paste their attempt into their favorite social site. Wordle shows the progression of attempts by using a collection of colored emoji boxes representing the player's journey. These boxes are the perfect way to show how the player came to win, or lose, without actually spoiling any of the letters for others.
Wordle’s February 19th, 2022 (#245) Hints & Answer
Some players may not want the direct answer to today's Wordle puzzle, and for those people, we've provided a few hints to help solve the daily word.
- Hint 1: This Wordle could be a pig's favorite mess of a meal.
- Hint 2: The dreaded double-letter exists in today's answer.
- Hint 3: Pirates will sometimes do today's Wordle answer with their rum.
Wordle 245 Answer (February 19)
If the clues didn't give it away, today's Wordle answer is SWILL. Our starting word today was IRATE which only removed some common vowels and left us with an incorrectly placed 'I'. The next guess was an attempt to find more obscure letters so we used PICKY. This didn't provide much more information than what was already shown. DOING was used next giving us the proper placement of the 'I' and a few more unused letters. With so many letters removed from today's puzzle, we tried a double letter word in our fourth attempt, SHILL. This gave us exactly what we needed for the answer and we completed the puzzle in five attempts.
Even with its recent acquisition by the New York Times, Wordle has continued to be the perfect little puzzle for a morning routine.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This guide is for the New York Times version of the game, daily answers may vary if players haven't refreshed their browsers.