NYT Wordle #1147 : How I solved it

 

Image courtesy: www.nytimes.com/

Today, the 9th of August 2024, is game 1147 of NYT Wordle. I try to solve this daily and have completed 316 of these over the last couple of years. So here is my Wordle journey for today, which includes my guesses, thought process, some statistics, and, of course, the ANSWER!

I always start my Wordle with 'Trace'. Let's see what that led to:

After the first guess:

⬛⬛⬛🟩🟩

Even though I got 2 greens, this is not going to be that easy. Unless I get lucky, I can already see myself taking 4, or even 5 attempts to solve this one. So let's analyze this. 

So obviously, this is a ✖✖✖🅒🅔 word. So what kind of structure can this follow?

One possibility is:

✖✖(Vowel)🅒🅔

Within this pattern, there can be several possibilities such as:

✖(Consonant)🅘🅒🅔

Spice

Slice

OR,

✖(Vowel)🅘🅒🅔

Voice

Juice

OR,

✖(Vowel)🅔🅒🅔

Piece

Niece

The other possibility is:

✖✖(Consonant)🅒🅔

Within this pattern, the most likely consonants are 'N' and 'L'. In either case, the sequence of preceding letters will always be consonant-vowel-nce as per my analysis. So let's explore that as well:

(Consonant)(Vowel)🅽🅒🅔

Mince

Wince

Pence

Fence

Hence

(Consonant)(Vowel)🅻🅒🅔

Can't think of any at the moment

Of course, the words and sequences mentioned above are not exhaustive, but are the ones which are more commonly seen in my experience. 

So the real question is: what should be my ideal second guess, which would eliminate as many words as possible? The list of alphabets present in one word or another is huge, but let's see if we can use those which occur more often than others. 

So what I want to do is as follows:

• If I am using an 'E', I should have it either in 2nd or 3rd place
• Having an 'I' wouldn't be too bad, preferably either in the 2nd or 3rd spot
• In terms of consonants, I would ideally like to include 'S', 'P' and 'N'. Slightly lower on the priority list, but still important ones would be perhaps 'L', 'M', 'F', or 'W'.

Right off the bat, I can see that 'Penis' fulfils some of the criteria, but if 'I' were at the 3rd place instead of the 4th, it would have been perfect. 

Ok, hypothetically speaking, if I use 'Penis', the we can deduce the following:

• A yellow 'P', with yellow 'I' and 'S', could indicate the word might be 'Spice'. A green 'P' could indicate Piece or Pence, but it would be clear looking at the outcome of 'E'. 
• A yellow 'E' will not help much in determining whether the word has two 'E's or not. A green 'E', however, will narrow it down to 'Fence' or 'Hence.
• A yellow 'N' will almost certainly indicate that the word is 'Niece', provided it yields a yellow 'I' as well. A green 'N' will again narrow it down to about 2-3 possibilities. Not bad.
• Now a black 'I' should be accompanied by a green 'N'. If not, we'll explore other possibilities. A yellow 'I' however, will not narrow it down much. As I said, if only it was in spot 3!
• A yellow 'S' will narrow it down to probably just 1 word, but a black will not help much. 

Analyzing all of that, I think 'Penis' is not a bad guess after all. Let's try that and hope for the best!

 

After the second guess:

⬛🟨🟩⬛⬛

 

Ok, not too bad I suppose. Oh wait, it rules out every possible guesses I mentioned above. I think that's good. Let's analyze.

So the sequence should be as follows:

(Consonant)(Vowel)🅽🅒🅔

The vowel in 2nd place cannot be 'A' 'I' or 'E'. It has to be either 'O' or 'U'. 

(Consonant)🅾🅽🅒🅔

Unless 'Wonce' and 'Conce' are words, I can't think of any word with this arrangement of alphabets

(Consonant)🅤🅽🅒🅔

Don't think there is anything here

Or, it can be something like this:

(Vowel)🅤🅽🅒🅔

Ounce

Just to be sure, let me consider something like

(Vowel)(Consonant)🅽🅒🅔

I really don't think there are any possibilities like this

Even if I am missing anything, I feel like 'Ounce' is the best guess I have. It will provide clarity on the presence of 'U' or 'O' at the very least. As the possibilities of either are low (if not 0), I should be able to get it on the next try hopefully. 

After the third guess:

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Great! I am actually happy with this one. And Wordlebot agrees! 99/99 on skill.

Based on the statistics, it wasn't too difficult, wasn't that easy either. Feel like this is one where it could frustratingly go from 'Maybe I can do it in 3' to 'How did that take me 6 attempts'. Glad I got my 197th 3/6.

See you tomorrow!