Welcome to the start of another working week, and who can believe we're already in the middle of February?
Another surprise is that we are quickly reaching the 1000th Wordle daily word game since it went public in late 2021.
Josh Wardle originally created the game to play with his puzzle-loving girlfriend, but then released it to the world to help people through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wordle became an instant global hit and is still going strong more than two years later.
But just because it's popular does not mean it's always easy to solve, so Newsweek is here every day for our readers with tips to help them out.
The premise of the game is simple. You have six attempts to guess a mystery five-letter word. Colored tiles help you along the way, with green indicating a correct letter, yellow showing you that the letter appears in the word but is in the wrong spot and gray telling you that letter is not in the word at all.
Joel C. Wallenberg, a senior lecturer in language change at the University of York in the U.K., explained to Newsweek that the popularity of Wordle shows an inherent human interest in language.
"Language games poke at how conscious (or unconscious) we are of our own linguistic processes, and maybe give us a little more insight into them than we had before," he said. "That might be one reason why humans, maybe universally, have always invented and enjoyed language games."
'Wordle' #968, Clues for Monday, February 12
Newsweek has gathered a few clues to help you solve today's Wordle.
Hint #1: The answer is a noun.
Hint #2: Today's answer only has one vowel.
Hint #3: There is one repeated letter in today's puzzle.
Hint #4: Today's example comes in many forms.
Hint #5: It begins with the letter "P."
The answer to today's Wordle will be revealed at the end of this article, so make sure you scroll down with caution if you want to figure it out for yourself.
'Wordle' #968, Answer for Monday, February 12
The answer to today's Wordle puzzle is "Pasta."
Merriam-Webster defines it as a "paste in processed form (such as macaroni) or in the form of fresh dough (such as ravioli)" or "a dish of cooked pasta."
How many tries did it take for you to guess today's answer? According to Wordsrated, Wordle players typically solve the daily puzzles on their fourth try.
If you managed to figure out today's puzzle then congratulations but if you didn't, no need to worry, Newsweek will be back tomorrow with some more hints and tips for the latest offering of the game.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more
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