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:

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

RULES FOR THE ANSWER LIST:

  1. There are no rules about what part of speech a Wordle answer can be, except that it CAN’T be a proper noun.
  2. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions can be used as Wordle answers, as long as it’s a five-letter word.
  3. Wordle answers can be plural nouns, but not if they end in S or ES.
  4. Wordle answers can be past tense verbs, but not if they end in ED.
  5. Plural nouns and past tense words can be used as Wordle guesses (on the Guess List) even if they aren’t valid Wordle answers.

Hope that helps a bit?

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) because Japan and China are common nouns and Korea is a Proper noun (you’ll have to read up on that yourself)