Welcome to 2XP Friday for Competitive Wordle enthusiasts! Today offers a chance to either double your victories or your defeats. This could be the pivotal day that determines if you claim the title of January Wordle champion or end up on the losing side. As the weekend approaches and February draws near, it’s time to put on your thinking caps and tackle today’s Wordle challenge!

P.S. Today’s word boasts a fascinating etymology that might surprise you as it did me. Quite intriguing!

Missed Thursday’s Wordle? Find our guide here.

With the ability to create custom Wordles now at our fingertips, I’m adding a bonus Wordle to each daily guide. These puzzles can range from 4 to 7 letters. I hope you find this an enjoyable extra challenge. Click the link below to try the Wordle I’ve specially crafted for you.

Today’s Bonus Wordle

Today’s Bonus Custom Wordle features 6 letters.

Explore Puzzles & Games on Forbes

The hint: A shield-bearer.

The clue: This Wordle the same amount of consonants and vowels.

Yesterday’s Custom Wordle Answer: SMUG

How To Solve Today’s Wordle

How To Play Wordle

Wordle is a daily word puzzle game where your goal is to guess a hidden five-letter word in six tries or fewer. After each guess, the game gives feedback to help you get closer to the answer:

• Green: The letter is in the word and in the correct spot.
• Yellow: The letter is in the word, but in the wrong spot.
• Gray: The letter is not in the word at all.

Use these clues to narrow down your guesses. Every day brings a new word, and everyone around the world is trying to solve the same puzzle. Some Wordlers also play Competitive Wordle against friends, family, the Wordle Bot or even against me, your humble narrator. See rules for Competitive Wordle toward the end of this post.

Today’s Wordle Hints And Answer

• Wordle Bot’s Starting Word: SLATE
• My Starting Word Today: CRATE (342 words remaining)
• The Hint: Quite large.
• The Clue: This Wordle ends with a vowel.

Okay, spoilers below! The answer is coming!

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The Answer:

Wordle Bot Analysis

Every day I check Wordle Bot to help analyze my guessing game. You can check your Wordle score with Wordle Bot right here.

CRATE was not very lucky, leaving me with 342 remaining words. LOUSY wasn’t lousy, but it wasn’t much better and with seven words remaining, I’d need luck to do well. I didn’t come up with seven words at this point (I didn’t know there were only seven left, either, until after) but I did come up with a few, and since two of these were JUMBO and GUMBO, and I decided why not. I didn’t expect it to be the Wordle, but I did hope it would get me close. Lucky for me, JUMBO shrimp were on the menu. I’ll take those with some GUMBO, thank you very much.

Competitive Wordle Score

I get 1 point for beating the Bot and 1 point for guessing in three. The Bot gets 0 for guessing in four and -1 for losing to me. Doubled for 2XP Friday that’s +4 for me and -2 for the Bot. We have one more day in January, but there’s no way the Wordle Bot wins, though it did take a lead a few days ago…

Erik: 22 points

Wordle Bot: 11 points

How To Play Competitive Wordle

• Guessing in 1 is worth 3 points; guessing in 2 is worth 2 points; guessing in 3 is worth 1 point; guessing in 4 is worth 0 points; guessing in 5 is -1 points; guessing in 6 is -2 points and missing the Wordle is -3 points.
• If you beat your opponent you get 1 point. If you tie, you get 0 points. And if you lose to your opponent, you get -1 point. Add it up to get your score. Keep a daily running score or just play for a new score each day.
• Fridays are 2XP, meaning you double your points—positive or negative.
• You can keep a running tally or just play day-by-day. Enjoy!

Today’s Wordle Etymology

Jumbo comes from the name Jumbo, a famous African elephant exhibited in the 19th century, whose name likely came from a Swahili word such as jambo (“hello”) or jumbe (“chief, spokesperson”). After the elephant’s fame, jumbo became a general term for anything very large.

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