Wordle Got a New Editor and Changed Its Rules

“After nearly a year of speculation, it will finally be our fault if Wordle is harder.” So says The New York Times, which just announced the appointment of a dedicated editor for the popular word game, as well as some minor changes to the rules.

The biggest change arrives with the addition of editor Tracy Bennett, who will now use a Times-curated list of five-letter words instead of a 2,500-word list crafted by Josh Wardle, the game’s creator.

Wordle is also slightly adjusting its rules, as plural forms of three- or four-letter words that end in “ES” or “S” will no longer be used as answers. You can use those types of words as guesses, but words like FOXES or SPOTS will no longer be used as a final answer. Interestingly, the answer could be a non-S plural like GEESE or FUNGI.

As well, some obscenities are now allowed as guesses (as noted by the Washington Post) though they also won’t be used as the answer word. “What solvers choose to use as guess words is their private choice,” the Times notes. (Possible proof: This writer just used FARTS as an opening guess and it was accepted, so there you go.)

Will this make the game easier or harder, as the newspaper joked? There were some worries that the viral word game had become more difficult once the Times bought it earlier this year, but that theory was debunked.