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Even Wordle creator Josh Wardle struggles with solving the game.

"[My partner] and I play it on the couch together each morning. She will consistently get it in three goes, which is way, way better than I can ever hope to achieve. I normally need at least 4 or 5 attempts," he said in an interview with Newsweek last year.

Wardle came up with the daily brainteaser in a bid to entertain his partner during coronavirus lockdowns.

It was released to the public in October 2021 and has since gone from just 90 active players to become a sensation that attracted millions of regular players. The New York Times acquired it in January 2022 for an undisclosed sum.

The premise is simple: there is one five-letter word per day, and just six attempts to guess it.

The color of the tiles change to show how close your guess was to the word of the day. If a letter is in the right place, the tile turns green. If it is in the wrong place, it turns yellow. If the letter is not in the word at all, the tile goes gray.

Seasoned Wordle players aim to guess the word of the day in as few tries as possible.

"One thing that I think is important in this game is the starting word chosen," Erhan Aslan, associate professor of applied linguistics at the University of Reading in the U.K., told Newsweek.

"Starting off with words that include commonly used vowels (e.g., e, a), consonants (e.g., r, t), and sound sequences might be helpful. Choosing a word that starts with q, z, j, or x, for instance, may not be the best choice.

"As you get more feedback after a few guesses, users need to draw on some knowledge of phonics to narrow down or eliminate some words that they might be thinking. For example, if the second letter of the target word is l (indicated by green) and the player feels that the word starts with a consonant, they will need to know that there are only a few consonant cluster possibilities (e.g., bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl)."

Wardle has encouraged people to find their own starting words "rather than just sticking to the same proven tactics over and over again."

But he has suggested that it can be more useful to get the incorrect gray letters than the ones that actually feature the word of the day, allowing you to eliminate possibilities and whittle things down.

Note: The answer for Wordle #680 can be found at the bottom of this page, so scroll down to Newsweek's tips and hints below with caution to avoid spoilers.

'Wordle' #680 Tips and Clues for Sunday, April 30, 2023

Players can attempt to solve Wordle #680 with the following five hints:

Hint #1: Today's Wordle is a noun.

Hint #2: The third and fifth letters are vowels.

Hint #3: Today's word has one repeated letter.

Hint #4: Merriam-Webster definitions of the word include "a public square in a city or town."

Hint #5: Synonyms or similar words to today's word include "square" and "atrium."

'Wordle' #680 Answer for Sunday, April 30, 2023

The answer to today's Wordle is "plaza."

Wordle resets daily at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT). While you wait for the next game, you could give the geography guessing game Worldle or other word puzzles a try.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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