What Criteria / Rules Does Wordle Use for Its Answer List

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what criteria does worlde use for the answer sheet

AFTER DINGO YESTERDAY (21 May 2024), I started to wonder about what words are on the Wordle Answer List? I thought Dingo was a proper noun, and proper nouns can’t be used.

How did they get there? What criteria is used for them being there? I figured I might have gone with Dingo earlier if I had known. Probably not 🙂

wordle answer criteria
Here’s what I discovered:

WORDLE HAS TWO LISTS OF WORDS:

  • The Answer List: this list contains all the words that can possibly be an answer. All of these will be in the other list, which is the:
  • The Guess List: this list contains all the words you can use, to help you work out which letters work and don’t work. Note: not all words on this list will be on the Answer List.

RULES FOR THE ANSWER LIST:

  1. NO PROPER NOUNS: There are no rules about what part of speech a Wordle answer can be, except that it CAN’T be a proper noun.
  2. MUST BE A FIVE LETTER WORD: Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions can be used as Wordle answers, as long as it’s a five-letter word.
  3. PLURALS: Wordle answers can be plural nouns, but NOT if they end in ‘S’ or ‘ES’ (irregular plurals like ‘geese’ or ‘mice’ may be included).
  4. PAST TENSE: Wordle answers can be regular past tense verbs. However, if they end in ‘ED’ they are typically not used. Irregular past tense forms like ‘found’ or ‘slept’ can appear.
  5. REGULAR PLURAL NOUNS AND REGULAR PAST TENSE NOUNS: Regular plural nouns and regular past tense words can be used as Wordle guesses (they’re on the Guess List) even if they aren’t valid Wordle answers (not on the Answer List).
  6. AMERICAN ENGLISH SPELLING: Wordle uses the US English Dictionary.
  7. OFFENSIVE OR SENSITIVE WORDS: The New York Times, which manages Wordle, has removed certain words deemed offensive, insensitive, or too obscure to ensure the game remains appropriate for a wide audience.

Hope that helps a bit? The rules aren’t as definitive as some might like them to be.

BACK TO DINGO: 

Dingo is a common noun. Proper nouns refer to a very specific thing.

It can get confusing, and I’m still a little confused, although not as much. Here’s one example that I still struggle with: Japan and China are common nouns and Korea is a Proper noun. One explanation (which hasn’t helped me, come from the Washington Post:

Certain generic words are also absent from the game’s dictionary. “ASIAN” is not a valid entry. “KOREA” and “BURMA” cannot be used while “JAPAN” and “CHINA” can be.

“JAPAN and CHINA are both plain nouns in addition to being proper nouns,” wrote Cohen. “The same cannot be said of the other three examples, which are only proper nouns.”

TIPS AND TRICKS

TIPS AND TRICKS: If you’re looking for tips and tricks to get ahead on Wordle, there are plenty of pages to search for. Here’s just one found useful on CNet.