Maintaining a long Wordle streak is without a doubt a testament to one’s prowess in the popular word game. This streak, however, becomes a must-win scenario with each game, causing high tension when unusual words come into play, as was the case in the recent game 1244 on the 14th of November.
The answer ‘UVULA’ proved to be a tricky word for many players, largely due to the word’s relative obscurity and a unique starting format of ‘UVU’, something not seen in any other Wordle answer. It also contained two letter Us, a rarity in the game. This lead to the average score for this game resting at 4.9, a bit higher than what usually tends to be observed, placing it nearly within the top 20 most difficult games.
The word UVULA, referring to the soft dangly bit between tonsils, extended the gameplay time for many, including the writer who reports spending nearly two hours in finding a solution. Had it not been for his commitment to his daily Wordle column, he might have abandoned the game.
Worth noting, this marks the second consecutive day the New York Times selected a non-canon Wordle answer, not originally in the game’s creator, Josh Wardle’s set of 2309 solutions. This implies a trend of increasing challenge in the game’s difficulty. A comparison of averages supports this claim, showing that the average score across 956 games stood at 3.964, while the 10 words added by the New York Times had an average of 4.35.