I’ll admit that when it comes to word games, I am an enthusiastic participant and a terribly sore loser. I actually quit playing Wordle last year after some word that I’ve long forgotten ruined my streak. It was mine, and I loved that streak! I’d worked so hard on it. I was able to learn another language because I felt the warm embrace of Duolingo. (I’ve just reached one year!)
This puzzle began with the word CRANE. I think it’s the best one to use. Back when I played Wordle more regularly, I loved using the bot to analyze my game, but it also made me feel kind of bad — as if I weren’t logical enough or careful enough in my gameplay. Please know that this has happened several times.
CRANNE gave me an N in green (Yay!) And a yellow N (Boo.). When a vowel gets marked as yellow, and it’s an A, that is so frustrating. What if there were more than one A in the word, such as SAUNA? I took a deep breathe and focused on the process. I was trying desperately not to use any letters that were grayed-out or accidentally move the N. So I decided to use HAUNT. This put the A into a new location and eliminated H, T, and U. Another yellow letter and no new letters revealed. Ugh.
Here’s where I got lost. Either it begins with A, or ends with A. When I’m down bad like this in Wordle, I start putting X’s in any spaces where I don’t know the letter because it helps me visualize. AXXNX and XXXNA. All that X work inspired me to try AXONS, which according to Encyclopaedia Britannica is a “portion of a nerve cell (neuron) that carries nerve impulses away from the cell body.” Thank you, ninth-grade biology.
Now I had three GREEN BOXES. The word was definitely A, and there was a N before the O. It’s easy as pie. It was definitely among. I’ve never been more sure of anything. I was reminded of the mobile game Among Us which played a major role in my early pandemic. As in Among Us I was stabbed by a word that I trusted.
