US Vice President Kamala Harris might not strike the average American as someone with either the time or inclination to play video games, but the self-confessed Wordle obsessive told sports and pop culture news outlet The Ringer about some of her strategies when playing the wildly popular word-guessing game.
“I think that you have to have a healthy mix of consonants and vowels, and a lot of words come with an S,” Harris explained in an interview done on Friday but published on Monday.
So what word does the vice president begin every round of Wordle with? “Notes,” she told The Ringer. She also said she has a healthy rivalry with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
Wordle is a game of five-letter words and six guesses, with the only hints coming in the form of color-coded tiles. A green tile indicates the correct letter is in the correct spot to guess the day’s word, while a yellow square indicates the letter is in the day’s answer, but in the player’s guess that letter is not in the correct spot. With some 15,000 five-letter words in the English language, narrowing it down quickly enough can be a daunting challenge that has engrossed millions of loyal players.
However, British Commonwealth players should be aware the game uses American English, so leave those extra U’s at home.
The game was created by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle in November 2021, but it wasn’t until early January that it exploded in popularity. By the end of the month, the New York Times had bought the app for more than a million dollars. Despite fears the paper would ruin the game somehow, it pledged to keep Wordle free to play. However, users have recently reported encountering ads after playing a round of Wordle, which the NYT hasn’t elaborated upon.
The internet has proliferated with word-guessing strategies over the last few months, including how to pick the perfect word to start off each round. Harris told The Ringer she usually gets the answer in four guesses, but boasted “I’ve had six on the second word.”