p.enthalabs

Don't Wordle

393 points · 50 visible top comments · 2026-08-25 11:49:48 UTC

dontwordle.com · Read Story HN original

Comments

embedding-shape · 2026-08-25 12:35:30 UTC
This is amazing, and incredible difficult (or I'm terrible), after ~10 minutes I can't even get in a third guess!
rylando · 2026-08-25 12:35:37 UTC
Well this sure makes Wordle feel a lot easier!
whoisnjogu · 2026-08-25 12:43:00 UTC
and I still can't believe it took me more than 3 guesses
massimodeluisa · 2026-08-25 12:38:39 UTC
Ahahhaha funny! xD
MDTHLN · 2026-08-25 12:40:03 UTC
This is quite fun, but I can’t believe the amount of cookies it wants to set!
whstl · 2026-08-25 12:41:43 UTC
I had my ad blocker turned off temporarily and it was a strange experience.
grocery_stores · 2026-08-25 12:41:34 UTC
One thing I find odd about the rules: it forces you to respect what you've learned via green or yellow tiles, but not gray tiles. The spirit of the rules suggests once you've learned a letter is not in the word, you shouldn't be able to reuse that letter. Perhaps that would simply make the game too difficult, though.
kevsim · 2026-08-25 12:42:17 UTC
It didn't let me guess things that had already been eliminated with gray tiles.
ChrisRR · 2026-08-25 12:43:46 UTC
Isn't that rule 3?
pbronez · 2026-08-25 12:55:55 UTC
It does - you can type them but it rejects the word when you submit it.

I think this DOES make it way harder than regular wordle.

hollylawly · 2026-08-25 12:42:01 UTC
Of course the one time I get it in 2 guesses is in this version
bonzini · 2026-08-25 13:00:25 UTC
Got to the sixth attempt, 2 words remaining, of course I picked the right one.
stavros · 2026-08-25 13:09:00 UTC
I picked the right one out of twelve.
amiga386 · 2026-08-25 13:32:46 UTC
Having 12 options possible on the last guess is actually very good.
stavros · 2026-08-25 13:35:21 UTC
It was only my last guess because I lost :P I had three remaining.
skerit · 2026-08-26 10:08:36 UTC
What the hell, same here. My initial guess was "CELLO", from there on I had 32 other possible words and somehow I got the right one?
zaik · 2026-08-26 11:49:55 UTC
My first guess got 3green+2gray. Should have undone immediately.
theanonymousone · 2026-08-25 12:44:08 UTC
I hope NYT lawyers don't come for you. They did for many other variants of this. Maybe reconsider the name?
lugao · 2026-08-25 12:47:51 UTC
Do they go after people using similar names or just any game with similar mechanics?
mh- · 2026-08-25 14:11:58 UTC
Just the trademark, that I've seen.
xigoi · 2026-08-25 16:32:59 UTC
IIUC, game mechanics are not copyrightable.
flexie · 2026-08-25 12:44:51 UTC
We are asked to allow hundreds of cookies, not just a few, to play the game.
Madmallard · 2026-08-25 13:18:04 UTC
yes top of hacker news and loaded with tracking information and a popular game so likely to garner lots of attention
inigyou · 2026-08-25 13:27:59 UTC
What website isn't?

The most shocking part is that Americans care about appearing to follow GDPR, for some reason. For example, HN blatantly doesn't comply and doesn't plan to.

VonGallifrey · 2026-08-25 13:34:43 UTC
> HN blatantly doesn't comply

What about HN doesn't comply with GDPR? It does not seem to have tracking cookies.

masfuerte · 2026-08-25 14:00:36 UTC
Apparently they won't delete your old comments if you ask them to.

I'm someone who goes to somewhat absurd lengths to avoid tracking, but HN's policy doesn't bother me because I know the data exists elsewhere and deleting it here won't make a jot of difference to that.

tialaramex · 2026-08-25 14:09:22 UTC
I'm not entirely sure they'd need to comply. The question is what the purpose of the data being collected was, but seems to me that if you emphasise the whole idea that this is a conversation (which HN does in several ways) then actually "We don't delete comments" is defensible.

If I'm reading a thread about a problem I'm having in a video game on Reddit and it goes "This is very frustrating because I can't get a rabbit to teleport", then a reply which is [deleted] and then "Oh! Thanks so much, I'd never have figured that out" I'm in exactly the same place as the original poster, but now with the additional agony of knowing that there was a correct solution and that it's hard to figure out what it is - ugh.

inigyou · 2026-08-25 14:12:47 UTC
Right to be forgotten is part of GDPR even though most people only think of cookie banners. There's no one-click export, either.
tialaramex · 2026-08-25 15:34:20 UTC
Like most of the GDPR "Right to be forgotten" is not an absolute right. As you'll quickly discover when you insist that the bank needs to "forget" that you owe them a lot of money, there are plenty of legitimate reasons they can decline to "forget" you despite your invocation of a "right".
awsglkhj · 2026-08-25 16:47:55 UTC
That's cute. Your records are yours. Barring some agreement to the contrary, I have no right to mess with them or inspect them, even if they contain information about me.
gpvos · 2026-08-25 17:54:58 UTC
That's an interesting opinion, but EU law says the opposite.
awsglkhj · 2026-08-25 18:03:52 UTC
EU law only matters to those subject to it.
inigyou · 2026-08-25 18:24:17 UTC
Which is why I questioned American websites complying with GDPR, and pointed out that HN doesn't feel any need to.
snowwrestler · 2026-08-25 15:02:59 UTC
There are now some U.S. state laws that impose requirements for notice and consent.
lugao · 2026-08-25 12:46:26 UTC
It is too hard to be fun :P
huhtenberg · 2026-08-25 12:50:47 UTC
Some of the suggested plays for yellow EA and green H after the first guess:

    ALMEH
    BEKAH
    BELAH
    DEASH
    OBEAH
    SELAH
Not much fun to play with a dictionary like this :-/
pimlottc · 2026-08-25 13:50:49 UTC
And yet it didn’t accept JORTS :/
MarkusQ · 2026-08-25 14:05:12 UTC
I can respect finding JORTS unacceptable.
taneq · 2026-08-25 22:48:37 UTC
Many places don’t accept jorts. :P
burnt-resistor · 2026-08-25 12:52:38 UTC
The goal isn't explained clearly and simply enough.
pasc1878 · 2026-08-25 13:02:27 UTC
The goal is to get mony from clicks in "legitimate interest"

What is legitimate here. You and the site why does any third party have an interest?

netsharc · 2026-08-25 12:53:01 UTC
I'd enjoy it if the rules with some graphics are displayed near the game, for newbies.

e.g. show a word with some green letters and that they have to be in the same spot in the other word. e.g. FUBAR with green B -> __B__

FUBAR with yellow R -> RRRR_ (with gray background and white R to signify "has to be placed somewhere here")

And for the gray letters, I guess.. show them next to the _____ in a trash can?

luciana1u · 2026-08-25 12:54:28 UTC
finally a game that respects that I already know all five-letter words and would rather be told not to use them
Folcon · 2026-08-25 12:54:58 UTC
Is the word list complete?

I tried WEIRD and it rejected it as not a word

zabzonk · 2026-08-25 13:08:28 UTC
that "i before e except after c" rule often gets taken too seriously
LuminousWzrd · 2026-08-25 13:14:39 UTC
Oh I've messed that one up before
bigfishrunning · 2026-08-25 13:17:35 UTC
i think it's kind of beautiful that weird is a weird word
hnlmorg · 2026-08-25 13:55:06 UTC
Isn’t there more exceptions to that rule than there are examples where it’s correct?
MarkusQ · 2026-08-25 14:08:02 UTC
Yep, at least on most static word lists.

It's a fun exercise to try and improve the rule by extending it compared to just switching to "E before I".

xigoi · 2026-08-25 16:38:11 UTC
Only if you forget the final part, “…when it sounds like ‘ee’”.
hnlmorg · 2026-08-25 19:49:59 UTC
That’s a recent addendum and is far from universally taught.
intrasight · 2026-08-25 12:56:01 UTC
What does "you have already eliminated the letter T" mean?
astura · 2026-08-25 13:01:06 UTC
The word doesn't contain the letter T.

It means you previously guessed a word with T in it and it wasn't marked at green (correct spot) or yellow (word contains letter in different spot).

codechicago277 · 2026-08-25 13:01:51 UTC
You already guessed a word that had a “T” in it, and the game confirmed that “T” is not in the word. So you can’t guess another word with a “T”.
Angostura · 2026-08-25 12:57:15 UTC
If you enjoy clicking things you can spend hours in their cookie consent boxes untickinv the several hundred individual ‘legitimate interest’ tick boxes for individual vendors
gear54rus · 2026-08-25 13:02:13 UTC
Ublock seems to work with this one.
dec0dedab0de · 2026-08-25 14:31:10 UTC
Yeah, I didn't even see the popup
thi2 · 2026-08-25 13:52:28 UTC
No reject all button means a closed tab.
mherdelight · 2026-08-26 07:12:59 UTC
It's not like a "reject all" button actually rejects all. They get to decide what "reject all" means in the, well, popup that you just rejected.
wlesieutre · 2026-08-25 14:24:33 UTC
Only hundreds? I ended up on Thingiverse by accident yesterday it’s

  RESPONSIBLE USE OF YOUR DATA
  We and our 1022 partners…
coldpie · 2026-08-25 14:30:02 UTC
It's your browser's job to protect you, not the website's. There's no guarantee that a "reject all" button does anything, anyway. Instead, just dismiss the banner however and clear the site's cookies in the browser when you're done. On Firefox, you can clear your cookies in 3 clicks, use the little button on the left side of the URL bar and hit "Clear cookies and site data" and then Confirm.
tedmiston · 2026-08-25 14:48:11 UTC
*browser extensions' job
pyrale · 2026-08-25 14:56:13 UTC
Cookie consent usually also covers fingerprinting. Clearing cookies won't protect you from that, not giving your consent may in some jurisdictions.
coldpie · 2026-08-25 15:28:47 UTC
Has that ever been enforced? I don't see any real reason to trust that clicking on a div actually does anything.
simonebrunozzi · 2026-08-27 14:48:08 UTC
Proof that regulation does not work.
mda · 2026-08-25 13:02:45 UTC
I see that terrible cookie permission window (62 legitimate interest) and I close the window,
phren0logy · 2026-08-25 13:09:15 UTC
Be happ-ole? (Insert whistling)
lucideer · 2026-08-25 13:13:39 UTC
I tried playing this as if its wordle & got it in 2 guesses. How do they do this ??? That's next to impossible in wordle & the probalities seem like they should be the same?
f2474l · 2026-08-25 14:11:45 UTC
The game is cheating I guess
tedmiston · 2026-08-25 14:53:06 UTC
By playing Wordle well, you are essentially eliminating as much unknown words as possible each turn, e.g., SALET alone takes 12974 words down to 34 here today.

But this is like Wordle hard mode with the forced letters, so the optimal strategy is probably to invert and eliminate as little words as possible each turn.

I got pretty far here using weird words, but PIZZA turned out to be a terrible first guess for Don't Wordle (eliminating ~75% of the words):

    *      12974
    PIZZA   3169
    AQUAS    290
    SAWED     17
    MEASE      7
    LEASH      0
lucideer · 2026-08-25 16:46:55 UTC
Wordle hard mode (which I play) generally limits you to a similar degree as this game - it's less strict programmatically, but anyone willingly opting into hard mode is likely following the same rules as are enforced here.

So it should be the same.

(assuming here that you're deliberately attempting to lose this game).

quietbritishjim · 2026-08-25 16:04:50 UTC
I think you really did just get lucky. It does pick a word up front at the start.
amiga386 · 2026-08-25 13:22:12 UTC
12935 -> TIZZY (5625) -> OXBOW (2674) -> GRUFF (858) -> MAMMA (195) and I'll let you guess the rest but my next choice left 43 words, and I survived with only 4 words possible.

The rules not letting use a letter you know isn't in the target word drastically cuts your choices, your best bet is to use as few unique letters per word as you can, and as uncommon letters as you can, but as all normal words need vowels you'll be forced into only picking a vowel from the target word soon enough. Try to find letters that are in the word as late as possible so you're not locked into having to use them.

Once you are forced to use letters from the target word, avoid placing them in the right place. Sadly there's a rule not letting you use a known letter more than once in a word (once A is known, you can't write ALPHA), and a rule for not letting you put a known letter in a place you know it doesn't go (so after MAMMA, you can't have HALVE because you know there's not an A in second place, nor ALPHA because you know there's not an A in fifth place).

amiga386 · 2026-08-25 14:06:29 UTC
The best I could do with today's word, and the wordlist, but no scoring function to minmax the rules:

- FUFFY (8159) (shipping of Faith and Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

- IMMIX (4544) (to mix or blend)

- ZOCCO (2142) (low plinth, from the Italian word for sock)

- QAJAQ (530) (alternative form of kayak)

- TRATT (155) (clipping of trattoria)

- KHAPH (7) (alternative form of khaf, the 11th letter of the Hebrew alphabet)

I get the feeling that if this game had 7 steps instead of 6, it would almost always be impossible.

Lerc · 2026-08-25 15:37:46 UTC
I had two word possibilities left at the end, so it's possible.
gowld · 2026-08-25 15:22:53 UTC
> Sadly there's a rule not letting you use a known letter more than once in a word (once A is known, you can't write ALPHA),

That rule doesn't make sense.

What if the answer is AORTA, and you want to guess ALBUM and then ALPHA?

amiga386 · 2026-08-25 15:42:24 UTC
The sibling comment pointed it out; MAMMA is revealed with one yellow A and one grey A, meaning it has told you there's only one A. If the answer was AORTA, then both As in MAMMA would be yellow.
dylan604 · 2026-08-25 16:31:40 UTC
> If the answer was AORTA, then both As in MAMMA would be yellow

Why would the last A be yellow and not green? It's the correct letter in the correct location. MAMMA should be gray, yellow, gray, gray, green.

amiga386 · 2026-08-25 19:52:07 UTC
Oops, yes. In that case, if the answer was AGAIN, both As in MAMMA would be yellow (as opposed to one yellow one grey)
SkiFire13 · 2026-08-25 15:29:00 UTC
> Sadly there's a rule not letting you use a known letter more than once in a word (once A is known, you can't write ALPHA)

This is not entirely correct (or at least it's worded a bit weirdly).

If you know that A goes in a certain place you can still try a word using A more than once. It's only once you know that A does not appear twice (because you tried a word containing A twice, and the second A way gray!) then you can no longer use A twice.

In your case you tried MAMMA which contained 2 As and the second one gave you the information that there's no second A.

gpvos · 2026-08-25 17:49:29 UTC
Are there no words with the same letter three or more times?
forbiddenvoid · 2026-08-25 18:42:33 UTC
If there was a second of the same letter, but in the wrong place, it would be yellow. If it's gray, that means there is no repetition of that letter. So once you've seen that the second one is gray, you have the information you need to know that letter is not repeated.
stirfish · 2026-08-25 18:59:15 UTC
Grepping /usr/share/dict/words shows 110 words that have five letters and the same letter 3 or more times, e.g. sassy, added, daddy, nanny, melee, levee, mummy
noknownsender · 2026-08-25 22:30:24 UTC
It also accepted GEESE
fwip · 2026-08-25 19:50:28 UTC
Mamma has 3 M's.
jibal · 2026-08-26 06:50:12 UTC
There obviously are, e.g., mamma.

What was the point in asking this (irrelevant) question?

gpvos · 2026-08-26 09:47:24 UTC
I read a bit too quickly over "It's only once you know that A does not appear twice", thinking it disregarded the case where A appears three or more times, but if read well that was addressed in the remainder of the sentence.
eptcyka · 2026-08-26 09:26:07 UTC
How many times do distinct letters appear in the word mamma? Do not write code to produce an answer.
tantalor · 2026-08-25 13:44:07 UTC
(meta comment) the chit chat about cookies is off topic and pointless