Yesterday was Wordle Wednesday, which meant I dished out yet another riddle for readers to solve. It was actually my first real soft ball, and tons of you messaged me with the correct answer. Rest assured, next week’s will be challenging. You’ve been warned.
The riddle was:
A plane crashes directly on the border of the United States and Canada. Taking international law into consideration, where do they bury the survivors?
This one, I’m afraid, works better when you say it out loud and people don’t have the written riddle to look over. You can sneak it past people. The answer, of course, is that you don’t bury survivors. I have other riddles like this that work okay when you rattle it off to people but not so well once it’s pen to paper. Good job, of course, you guys solved it with flying colors!
Okay, let’s do this Wordle!
How To Solve Today’s Word
The Hint: To live somewhere.
The Clue: This word has a double letter.
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See yesterday’s Wordle #809 right here.
Wordle Bot Analysis
After each Wordle I solve I head over to the Wordle Bot homepage to see how my guessing game was.
This was one of my better guessing games in a while. As I’ve said in the past, guessing in three is my personal favorite because it indicates some degree of skill, whereas guessing in 1 or 2 is almost always about luck. (I’d still rather guess in 1 or 2, obviously).
In any case, sadly left me with a yellow and a green box and later I learned, just 13 possible solutions remained. I did come up with quite a few possibilities, so I took as many of the letters from words like wield, drill, child, etc. and made one word out of them: weird. This was a good guess, leaving me with just two options: dwell and its past-tense form, dwelt. I figured I’d go with the base version of the word and guessed dwell for the win. Huzzah!
Today’s Score
I wish this was 2XP Friday, but I’m not complaining. I get 1 point for guessing in three and 1 for beating Wordle Bot, who took a whopping five guesses to get this one right today. 2 points for me! Huzzah!
Today’s Wordle Etymology
The word “dwell” has its origins in Old English. Here’s a breakdown of its etymology:
- Old English: The word “dwell” can be traced back to the Old English word “dwellan” (also spelled “dwellian” or “dwele”). In Old English, it meant “to go astray” or “to lead astray,” but over time, its meaning evolved.
- Middle English: By the Middle English period (around the 12th to 15th centuries), the word “dwell” had shifted in meaning to refer to the act of residing or living in a particular place. It retained this sense of “to live” or “to reside” as it passed into Middle English.
- Modern English: In Modern English, which developed from Middle English, “dwell” has continued to mean “to live” or “to reside” in a place. It is used to describe the act of inhabiting or staying in a particular location.
So, the word “dwell” has undergone a semantic shift over the centuries, transitioning from its Old English roots meaning “to go astray” to its current meaning of “to live” or “to reside.”
Play Competitive Wordle Against Me!
I’ve been playing a cutthroat game of PvP Wordle against my nemesis Wordle But. Now you should play against me! I can be your nemesis! (And your helpful Wordle guide, of course). You can also play against the Bot if you have a New York Times subscription.
- Here are the rules:
- 1 point for getting the Wordle in 3 guesses.
- 2 points for getting it in 2 guesses.
- 3 points for getting it in 1 guess.
- 1 point for beating me
- 0 points for getting it in 4 guesses.
- -1 point for getting it in 5 guesses.
- -2 points for getting it in 6 guesses.
- -3 points for losing.
- -1 point for losing to me
You can either keep a running tally of your score if that’s your jam or just play day-to-day if you prefer.
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