Today’s ‘Wordle’ Answer #258: Friday, March 4th Solution

What makes a Wordle difficult to solve?

Sometimes it’s the word itself. It’s just obscure—like rupee or knoll. Sometimes it’s got a strange combination of letters—like vivid with its double V’s and double I’s. Sometimes, it’s just a word with lots of options. Nasty could just as easily be hasty or tasty.

See Thursday’s Wordle right here.

Today’s word was tricky but I got lucky with my first guess and, in some ways, even luckier with my second (which was the equivalent of throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks).

Wordle—the fun little puzzle word game created by Josh Wardle as a mid-pandemic gift for his wife—remains one of the biggest viral sensations of the year (overshadowed a bit now, alas, by the criminal invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, but then such is the news cycle).

In any case, we’ll get to the hint and the answer below. Newcomers and passersby, here are some helpful links:

An Introduction to Wordle

• For those new to the game, read our Wordle primer before you start playing and learn about how this fad got started.
• Then, if you want some advanced tactics to get those low guess answers, you can read our Wordle Tips and Tricks guide here.

Today’s Wordle #258 Answer

As always, before we progress to the next episode, a spoiler warning. A hint, followed by the answer itself, follows. You’ve been warned.

First, the hint: Not behind.

Maybe that hint was a little too good? It’s always hard to measure just how potent a hint ought to be.

In any case, I guessed ASHEN as my first word because, as readers of this column will know, I’m obsessed with the Dark Souls.

‘Ashen’ is actually a reference to Dark Souls 3—one of Japanese game developer FromSoftware’s phenomenal action-RPGs. Since I’m playing the crap out FromSoft’s newest game, Elden Ring, these days I figured I’d keep looking for good five-letter words to pay homage to those games.

Ashen gave me three letters: A (in the right spot) and H/E in the wrong spots. This actually was both a curse and a blessing. I honestly could not come up with a second guess, so I started guessing words that…might be words? Apeth and Aleth and then, eventually, Aleph which actually turns out to be a really cool word. It means, essentially, the ‘oneness of God’ and comes from Jewish mysticism. How cool to just sort of accidentally stumble on such a word while playing Wordle and swinging for the proverbial fences.

Once I had the A and E in the right spots it all clicked. Ahead popped into my head and voila! presto! I got the word in three. Praise the sun!

Thanks for reading, oh thou Wordlers! Have a wonderful Friday—Freya’s day, as it were. TGIF and all that rot . . . .

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