The New York Times slices rude words from the Wordle dictionary

This page was translated using AI and machine learning.

(Pocket-lint) – Wordle’s popularity seems to have endured since the major shake-up of its purchase by The New York Times, especially as the paper’s team ironed out some teething issues with the transfer of people’s stats to its new URL.

After claiming upon purchase that it wouldn’t change the game, The Times just made an intriguing adjustment, removing a series of rude words from the list of acceptable guesses and, presumably, solutions the game accepts.

This means that five-letter words like ‘whore’ or ‘sluts’ are no longer valid – but, just as strangely, there are still tolerances for words including ‘fucks’ and ‘shits’. The gap isn’t clearly explained at this point, but it looks like the coarse options still available might not last long.

According to the NYT spokesperson speaking to Eurogamer, “Offensive words will still be omitted. As we have just begun the transition from Wordle to the Times website, we are still in the process of removing these words from the game.”

This isn’t new to the NYT’s pun section, which is pretty chaste, but it might dismay some who were hoping Wordle would be completely untouched. Still, it’s not a crippling change and we don’t know how many people guessed the words in the first place.

Written by Max Freeman-Mills.