You might come across a Wordle hiccup on Monday, as there are actually two possible answers to the puzzle, depending on how you load your game. The New York Times, who acquired WORDLE from British inventor Josh Wardle, scrambled to change the solution to May 9’s puzzle after the planned word ended up being extremely timely to current events.
As you definitely know, Wordle is a simple guessing game where you have six tries to guess the day’s five-letter word. Before the Times took over Wordle, Wardle had programmed months’ worth of words for the daily guessing game. That makes’ the NYT’s job a lot easier, but Wardle had no way of knowing the future — and today’s word just happened to twin with some headlines lately in a way that could be seen as inflammatory. The NYT Games desk takes a lot of pride in keeping their games separate from the news but, this time, the news collided with the games headlong.
“At New York Times Games, we take our role seriously as a place to entertain and escape, and we want Wordle to remain distinct from the news,” wrote NYT Games chief Everdeen Mason. “But because of the current Wordle technology, it can be difficult to change words that have already been loaded into the game. When we discovered last week that this particular word would be featured today, we switched it for as many solvers as possible.”
If users refresh their Wordle page, they’ll play the new, amended game without the sensitive word. If they just stick with the same open tab, they’ll get the word in question.
If you’re not a Wordle player but are curious about what the word in question was, read on. But be warned there are SPOILERS for the Wordle of Monday, May 9. Turn back now if you don’t want to see the answer.
Ready?
Last chance.
No turning back now.
The word is: fetus.
If you want to know what the new word is, well, you’re on your own.
