Don't Wordle • Hacker News Board

Re: Don't Wordle

#101

Post by inigyou » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:24 PM UTC

awsglkhj wrote: post #97

gpvos wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting opinion, but EU law says the opposite.

EU law only matters to those subject to it.

Which is why I questioned American websites complying with GDPR, and pointed out that HN doesn't feel any need to.

Re: Don't Wordle

#102

Post by wafflebot » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:36 PM UTC

got it on 2nd turn. I am terrible at this.

Re: Don't Wordle

#103

Post by forbiddenvoid » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:42 PM UTC

gpvos wrote: post #94

SkiFire13 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sadly there's a rule not letting you use a known letter more than once in a word (once A is known, you can't write ALPHA) This is not entirely correct (or at least it's worded a bit weirdly). If you know that A goes in a certain place you can still try a word using A more than once. It's only once you know that A does not appear twice (because you tried a word containing A twice, and the second A way gray!) then yo…

Are there no words with the same letter three or more times?

If there was a second of the same letter, but in the wrong place, it would be yellow. If it's gray, that means there is no repetition of that letter. So once you've seen that the second one is gray, you have the information you need to know that letter is not repeated.

Re: Don't Wordle

#104

Post by ErikCorry » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:58 PM UTC

amiga386 wrote: post #49

amiga386 wrote: post #38

12935 -> TIZZY (5625) -> OXBOW (2674) -> GRUFF (858) -> MAMMA (195) and I'll let you guess the rest but my next choice left 43 words, and I survived with only 4 words possible. The rules not letting use a letter you know isn't in the target word drastically cuts your choices, your best bet is to use as few unique letters per word as you can, and as uncommon letters as you can, but as all normal words need vowels you'…

The best I could do with today's word, and the wordlist, but no scoring function to minmax the rules: - FUFFY (8159) (shipping of Faith and Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) - IMMIX (4544) (to mix or blend) - ZOCCO (2142) (low plinth, from the Italian word for sock) - QAJAQ (530) (alternative form of kayak) - TRATT (155) (clipping of trattoria) - KHAPH (7) (alternative form of khaf, the 11th letter of the Hebrew a…

Theoretically, you could still win today's if there were 8 steps. The ninth is the word you have to avoid.

I haven't found a way to win today with 9 steps.

https://gist.github.com/erikcorry/b21723a0ba49c044b03a6030dc...

Edit: Using some of your words you can get to 9 steps (10 including the word you have to avoid): https://gist.github.com/erikcorry/d55d263b129eb7a56c8c212296...

Re: Don't Wordle

#105

Post by stirfish » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:59 PM UTC

gpvos wrote: post #94

SkiFire13 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sadly there's a rule not letting you use a known letter more than once in a word (once A is known, you can't write ALPHA) This is not entirely correct (or at least it's worded a bit weirdly). If you know that A goes in a certain place you can still try a word using A more than once. It's only once you know that A does not appear twice (because you tried a word containing A twice, and the second A way gray!) then yo…

Are there no words with the same letter three or more times?

Grepping /usr/share/dict/words shows 110 words that have five letters and the same letter 3 or more times, e.g. sassy, added, daddy, nanny, melee, levee, mummy

Re: Don't Wordle

#106

Post by MarioMan » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 7:23 PM UTC

In the same vein, last year I took on a good old fashioned optimization problem for Worlde. Given a guess list and answer list, find all of the “perfectly bad” Worlde games in the shortest time. This means never reusing letters or finding any of the letters in the word. I got it from over 35 hours down to a mere 20 seconds.

Results and code here: https://github.com/SMarioMan/worst-wordle

Re: Don't Wordle

#107

Post by dontwordle » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 7:25 PM UTC

rhplus wrote: post #90

I sense this is not winnable for all Wordle dictionary words. Is that provably the case?

There are actually a very large number of solutions for every word. I once wrote an algorithm to enumerate all possible solutions for a given word and I was surprised at the results.

Re: Don't Wordle

#108

Post by Velocifyer » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 7:29 PM UTC

Why is the word “satan” not allowed?

Re: Don't Wordle

#109

Post by hnlmorg » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 7:49 PM UTC

xigoi wrote: post #84

hnlmorg wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t there more exceptions to that rule than there are examples where it’s correct?

Only if you forget the final part, “…when it sounds like ‘ee’”.

That’s a recent addendum and is far from universally taught.

Re: Don't Wordle

#110

Post by fwip » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 7:50 PM UTC

gpvos wrote: post #94

SkiFire13 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sadly there's a rule not letting you use a known letter more than once in a word (once A is known, you can't write ALPHA) This is not entirely correct (or at least it's worded a bit weirdly). If you know that A goes in a certain place you can still try a word using A more than once. It's only once you know that A does not appear twice (because you tried a word containing A twice, and the second A way gray!) then yo…

Are there no words with the same letter three or more times?

Mamma has 3 M's.