Well it’s finally arrived. Wordle #700! Momentous occasion!
The number 7 is something of a special number. For one thing, it’s the number of days in a week—every week, all year round, forever. Also:
- Prime Number: 7 is a prime number. This means it can only be divided by itself and the number 1.
- Religious Meaning: In many customs and religions and various spiritual and mystic traditions, the number 7 has sacred or symbolic meaning. In Christianity, it’s associated with the seventh day when God finished creating the heavens and earth. In Judaism, the menorah has seven branches. In Islam there are seven heavens and seven earths. Even in George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones universe, there is the Seven-Faced God—a single god comprised of seven different entities such as The Father, The Smith, The Crone and so forth. It’s similar to the Trinity in Christianity, but with a few extra members.
- Cultural Shorthand: We often group important things into sevens: The Seven Wonders Of The World, the Seven Seas and so forth.
- Celestial Bodies: There are seven celestial bodies visible to the naked eye: The Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn, which is why many ancient civilizations, from the Romans to the Babylonians, used these for names of the days of the week (and for gods).
- Miller’s Law: Psychologists have argued that humans have a cognitive bias toward the number 7, which is often called the “magical number seven.” Some psychologists have argued that people have a tendency to remember roughly seven items or pieces of information. This is based on the paper The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits On Our Capacity For Processing Information, which argues that people can really only remember and/or process roughly 7 pieces of information plus or minus two.
- Rainbow: Sir Isaac Newton came up with the concept of 7 colors in the rainbow: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Of course, color actually exists on a spectrum so there are many more than that, but as we know, 7 is a handy number for this sort of thing!
- Sins: There are also 7 Deadly Sins: Pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth.
So there’s a list of 7 things that make the number 7 interesting and unique! Many of these are sort of tied together—days of the week, planets, religion, symbolism etc.—but that’s also what makes it so interesting.
Alright, let’s do this Wordle!
How To Solve Today’s Wordle
The Hint: The best way to transport whiskey.
The Clue: This word has far more consonants than vowels in it.
The Answer:
.
.
.
Today’s Wordle Etymology
The word “flask” has an interesting etymology. It derives from the Middle English word “flaske,” which came from the Old English word “flasce” or “flaxe.” The Old English word was ultimately derived from the Late Latin word “flasco” or “flasconem,” which meant a bottle or container.
The Late Latin term, in turn, can be traced back to the Frankish word “flask,” which meant a bottle or a container made of leather. The Frankish word was influenced by the Old High German word “flaska,” meaning a bottle or flagon.
The root of the word “flask” can be traced even further to the Proto-Germanic word “flaskō,” which meant a container or bottle. It is believed that this Proto-Germanic word is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root “bhlesk,” meaning to blow or swell. This root is also associated with other words related to swelling or inflation.
Over time, the term “flask” has been used to refer to various types of containers, including those made of glass, metal, or other materials. Today, it commonly refers to a small, narrow-necked container used for carrying liquids, often with a screw-top or a stopper.
Wordle Bot Analysis
After I complete a Wordle I always head over to check in with Wordle Bot to see how I scored, both in terms of each individual guess and whether or not I outsmarted the Bot.
Today’s word really eluded me despite what ended up being a great opening guess. I suppose I should have been a bit more strategic. After getting two boxes in yellow with my first word, spoil, it would have behooved me to guess something with all new letters, thus culling the field a bit more. But I wanted to get the yellows into green, so I guessed clash and ended up with three green boxes—and four remaining words.
All four remaining words—blast, blase, flask and glass—were equally likely options but I figured I’d go with one of the two that started with the same letter so I chose blast which narrowed it down to just two: glass or flask, two things that you can use to hold whiskey. I chose flask simply because it’s more fun, and that ended up being lucky. Flask for the win! Huzzah!
Today’s Score: Well, definitely not as good as yesterday’s! I get zero points for guessing in 4 and -1 for losing to Wordle Bot for a grand total of -1. Sad!
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
You can either keep a running tally of your score if that’s your jam or just play day-to-day if you prefer.
I’d love it if you gave me a follow on Twitter or Facebook dearest Wordlers. Have a lovely day!
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2023/05/19/todays-wordle-700-hints-clues-and-answer-for-saturday-may-20th/