Wordle: don’t tell me the answer yet.

A Wordle grid can make a small disaster quite easy to read. Several rows in, the player has found some letters but apparently has no idea what order to put them in. Then the final row turns green. You don’t know what the word was, but you can imagine the relief.

In early 2022, those little coloured squares became a recognisable kind of post. To somebody who hadn’t tried the puzzle, they required an explanation. To somebody who had, they could invite a comparison before either person mentioned the answer.

There was also a fairly important question to settle before discussing it: had the other person played yet?

One word to argue with each day

Wordle gives you six guesses at a five-letter word. Colour feedback tells you which letters belong and whether they are in the right positions. The daily puzzle meant that two players could be working on the same problem, rather than comparing progress through different levels.

Josh Wardle made the game for his partner, Palak Shah, who liked word games. In his February 2022 TIME interview (opens in a new tab), he discussed its unexpected growth and sale to The New York Times, announced at the end of January. The sharing format developed from a player’s way of posting results without giving the word away.

That was a useful compromise. You could display an achievement and leave everyone else something to do. You could also reveal that the achievement had required nearly every attempt available.

Even a political post could borrow the format

NDTV’s January 2022 Hindi coverage (opens in a new tab) explained the rules alongside a Wordle-style post from Rahul Gandhi. The visual arrangement was already recognisable enough to borrow for a political message.

For ordinary players, the shared puzzle made a smaller conversation possible. A result in three guesses could look very respectable until somebody else posted a solve in two. Suddenly your opening word might need defending.

There is an agreeable limit to that kind of comparison. Once the day’s word is finished, you cannot put in another hour and overtake the other person. You can reconsider your strategy, congratulate yourself or remain annoyed. The next attempt is tomorrow’s business.

It was an English-language puzzle with a documented Indian reception, rather than a pastime every Indian feed or household shared. Its appeal didn’t need that sort of universal participation. A few people comparing the same word was enough to make it social.

There were more squares after the first craze

The early attention didn’t mark the end of the idea. AP’s 2024 reporting on Wordle-inspired games (opens in a new tab) describes its longer afterlife and disputes around imitators.

The original sharing arrangement remains the detail that makes the craze easy to recognise. A screenshot of the answer would have ruined the puzzle for somebody else. A grid left the word hidden while making your experience available for inspection.

A result in six attempts still meant you had solved it. You just had to hope the person replying hadn’t managed it in two.