This is the second issue of Wordle Highlights (WH-002)
The topic for today is “value of the list of Wordle target words used thus far”.

We are fast approaching the 1,000 mark in the number of Wordle games played since Wordle’s inception on June 19, 2021.

Caveats:
– I play Wordle in the regular mode
– I use word finder websites.
– I try to stick with the same seed word for at least 90 days. The reason is I don’t want to add one more source of variation/uncertainty to a game that has built in variation/uncertainty.
– I have created a database of useful frequencies based upon the Wordles published thus far. The simplest ones are the “letter frequency anywhere in the five positions” and “letter frequency specifically in each of the five positions”.  These come very handy.
– It is my understanding that Wordle doesn’t reuse the same target word. I have not found any duplication of target words published thus far (#1-#986)

I will be using Wordle #984 published on February 28, 2024, to illustrate my assertion on the value of knowing which words have already been used as target words.

My completed Wordle grid for that day is shown below:

Based on the seed word STARE and second word NOILY, I identified 6 possibilities for the third word as follows:
DEVIL, GELID, HELIX, IMPEL, LIBEL and PIXEL.

The last 4 words had already been used prior to this Wordle.  Hence, I had to decide between DEVIL and GELID only as the target word for the day.  In my judgement, the word DEVIL is more commonly used vs. GELID.  Luckily it proved to be the answer.

I am sure you would agree that having to decide between 2 words vs. 6 words is a much easier task.

I am planning to post the list of the 1,000 Wordle words used on my website (Wordleguru.com) soon after the release of Wordle #1000.

Please feel free to send me your questions.