Today’s Wordle #656 Hints, Clues And Answer For Thursday, April 6th

Another day, another Wordle. Today, before we get started I thought I’d comment briefly on this piece by Luke Winkie over at Slate. It’s certainly true that Wordle guides—like the ones I write here every day—drive an inordinate amount of traffic. But I do think the piece in question is a little sneering for my taste, as though it’s some shameful thing to write what people actually want to read—not to mention the digs at people who read and enjoy the guides or like to get a hint or two before guessing.

What dismays me most, however, is that so many of my fellow guide-writers apparently just cheat, looking up the answers in advance and writing guides for puzzles they didn’t even solve themselves! I understand that for something wildly complex where even guide-writers may need a little help, but for a Wordle it seems the least we can do is actually try to solve it ourselves. For shame!

Besides, it’s not like you can’t make these daily guides a little more interesting for everyone involved. I’ve begun doing Wordle Wednesdays, for instance, which include an extra challenge: Riddles!

Here’s yesterday’s riddle and the answer:

Where is the only place where today comes before yesterday?

The answer is . . . the dictionary!

Okay, time to do this Wordle!

How To Solve Today’s Wordle

The Hint: Make like a tree.

The Clue: This word begins with a consonant.

The Answer:

.

.

.

I should buy a lottery ticket because holy hell was that first guess lucky. I blame Elden Ring for this one. I was thinking about the game after chatting with a YouTube content creator about it for an upcoming article I’m working on and there’s an incantation called the Flame of Frenzy in it and I was thinking about how that reminded me of the First Flame in Dark Souls and I was just pondering the nature of fire and bonfires and the way these themes of darkened, extinguished worlds kept creeping up and weaving their way through the worlds developer FromSoftware creates and so when I went to do the Wordle, flame was on the tip of my brain.

With three yellow boxes and one green box I had almost every letter I needed. Of course, I didn’t realize at first that just one word remained, and it took me quite a while to come up with it, but finally I thought of leafy and guessed it for the win. Huzzah! Let’s just hope those flames don’t reach the leaves or it won’t be leafy anymore.

I beat Wordle Bot by one today which equals 1 point. 2 points for guessing in 2 for a grand total of 3 points! Too bad it’s not Friday since Fridays are 2XP!

I think I’m going to add to my competitive Wordle rules (see below) to create some kind of ranking and leveling system so that you can “level up” as you go and get wins and earn points. Stay tuned…

Today’s Wordle Etymology (Via ChatGPT)

The word “leaf” comes from the Old English word “lēaf,” which originally meant “leaf” or “foliage.” This word is also related to other Germanic words for “leaf,” such as the German “Laub” and the Dutch “blad.” The Proto-Germanic root word from which these words derive is “*laubaz,” which meant “leaf” or “tree.”

Interestingly, the word “leaf” is also related to the word “love” in Old English, which was spelled “lufu.” Both words derive from the Proto-Germanic root “*leubh-” which meant “to care for” or “to desire.” The connection between “leaf” and “love” is thought to be related to the concept of leaves being the object of desire for herbivorous animals, or to the idea that leaves were valued and cared for as a source of food and shelter.

The word “leafy” is derived from the Old English word “lēaf,” which meant “leaf.” In Middle English, the word evolved to “leef” and “leve,” both of which meant “having leaves” or “abounding in leaves.” By the 16th century, “leafy” had emerged as an adjective to describe things that had many leaves, such as trees or plants, and it has since been used to describe anything covered in or resembling leaves.

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 Erik
• 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 Erik

I’d love it if you gave me a follow on Twitter or Facebook dearest Wordlers. Cheers!