NYT Wordle #1153: How I solved it

Image courtesy: www.nytimes.com/

Today, the 15th of August 2024, is game 1153 of NYT Wordle. I try to solve this daily and have completed 322 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:

⬛🟨🟨🟨⬛

More yellows mean more possibilities. Let's explore

R in the 1st spot:

🆁🅐🅒✖✖

-

🆁🅐✖✖🅒

-

🆁✖🅒🅐✖

-

🆁✖✖🅐🅒

-

🆁✖🅒✖🅐

-

A in the 1st spot:

🅐✖🆁✖🅒

-

🅐🅒🆁✖✖

Acrue (Or is the spelling 'Accrue', I can't remember)

🅐🅒✖🆁✖

Acorn

🅐✖🅒🆁✖

-

🅐✖✖🆁🅒

-

🅐🅒✖✖🆁

-

🅐✖🅒✖🆁

-

C in the 1st spot:

🅒🅐🆁✖✖

Cargo

Carol

🅒🅐✖🆁✖

-

🅒🅐✖✖🆁

-

🅒✖🆁🅐✖

Coral

🅒✖✖🅐🆁

-

🅒✖🆁✖🅐

-

🅒✖✖🆁🅐

Cobra

✖ in the 1st spot:

✖🅒🆁🅐✖

Scrap

Ocras (Probably not)

✖🅒🆁✖🅐

-

✖🅐🆁✖🅒

-

✖🅐🅒🆁✖

Macro

✖🅐🅒✖🆁

-

✖🅒✖🅐🆁

-

✖✖ in the 1st and 2nd spots:

✖✖🅒🆁🅐

-

✖✖🅒🅐🆁

-

✖✖🆁🅐🅒

-

As I mention this in other posts as well, the above list is not necessarily an exhaustive one. It is just a list of words I can think of at that moment. More often than not, the solution is actually some other word which I didn't even consider. But that's the fun of it. I am no Wordlebot, just a mere human being!

So the takeaways from the above list and the approach I should take based on that are:

• The word most likely starts with 'A' or 'C', and the probability of it being any other alphabet is low, if not 0
• It would be nice to know the exact position of 'O' if it does exist, so this factor will play a key role in choosing the next guess
• 'R' seems to occur everywhere, so that must be an alphabet I consider having in the next guess
• I think it would be smart to have 'A' and 'C' in my first 2 spots in any order

Usually for my 2nd guess, I focus more on getting maximum possible clues so that I can get it in my 3rd or 4th guess, so my guesses tend to be outside the list I make so that I can eliminate the most number of letters. But I think for this one, a guess from this list would be more prudent and efficient. I am leaning towards 'Carol' because it would provide me with a decent amount of information on whether the word starts with 'C', and if yes, could it be another 'C' word from the list. If not, I should still be able to understand what the word could be for my 3rd or 4th guess. Let's try 'Carol' and hope we get slightly lucky.

 

After the second guess:

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬛

Well, this does eliminate a lot of words from the list. As far as I can tell, the possible solution is just 'Acorn'. But let me be sure before I rush into it.

R in 1st spot:

I still can't think of any word

O in 1st spot:

Don't think there is any word like this

✖ in 1st spot:

Don't think there is any word fulfilling this criterion

A in 1st spot:

Nothing else makes sense

Hoping I did not miss out on any other possibilities, I will go with 'Acorn'

After the third guess:

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

This was not too difficult. Stats indicate the same, average guesses of 3.5 which is quite low.

The second consecutive 3/6 brings my Wordle average down to 3.257, which is great.

See you tomorrow!