Wordle answer (Sunday 21 August 2022): Wordle word of the day #428 and hints
Hints and the answer to today's Wordle word
Looking for the Wordle answer for Sunday 21 August 2022? We made it to another Sunday, which means there's time to squeeze in one last Wordle puzzle before it's back to the grind for new week. Wordle is a daily word puzzle phenomenon that's practically overtaken the world this year despite its simplicity, though no doubt helped along by remaining free-to-play to anyone with access to the internet. It's by no means always easy to arrive at the answer within the alloted six guesses, however. So if you're struggling a bit today, read on for a few clues to help you solve today's Wordle puzzle, or scroll down below the video for a spoileriffic definition of the full answer.
Looking for today's solution? Check out the Wordle hint and answer for Friday 26th July!
Wordle August 21 hints
Having trouble getting the Wordle answer today? Here's a few little clues to help you out:
- This word contains two vowels.
- The middle letter is "S".
- One of its many meanings is to use something up to no particular purpose or benefit.
Today's Wordle answer August 21
It's time to reveal the answer to today's Wordle. The word is...
WASTE.
As a fan of dystopian/apocalyptic fiction, I can't begin to tell you how many books I've read with "Wastelands" somewhere in the title. Waste (as either noun, verb, or adjective) can refer to many different things, but all of its uses generally run to a similar theme: degradation, withering, refuse, destruction, and worthlessness are among the cheery topics where this word tends to get used most frequently. And this is becoming kind of a miserable subject, so I'm not going to dwell on it. Instead, I'll just remind you to be courteous to other Wordle players and not share the answer publicly until tomorrow. Thank you kindly.
How to play Wordle
Wordle is a very straightforward word guessing game. The aim is to guess the correct five-letter word in just six guesses. With each guess, the individual letters of your chosen word will highlight green if they're in the correct place, or yellow if they're in the wrong place. If a letter doesn't appear in the solution word at all, it'll remain unhighlighted.
Using these clues you can start to narrow down the correct word by figuring out which letters are included in the word and in which positions they belong. Head over to the Wordle site to try it for yourself. Just remember: there's only one Wordle puzzle released per day, so if you want to play again, you'll have to wait until tomorrow.
How did Wordle begin?
Wordle began life as a little family game created by software engineer Josh Wardle. He created the game so that he and his partner could play a fun little word game together during the pandemic, and they quickly realised that there was something quite special in this simple little guessing game. So after a bit of refinement, Wardle released it to the public on his website, Power Language.
The game was released in October 2021, and by the end of the year the game had two million daily players. It became a viral hit, thanks in large part to the ease with which players could share their results in a spoiler-free manner on Twitter and other social media sites. In January 2022, Wardle accepted an offer form the New York Times to acquire Wordle for a seven-figure sum. Well done, Mr Wardle. Well done indeed.
Are any Wordle words not allowed?
You can type in pretty much any five-letter word in the English language and Wordle will accept it as a guess. However, the answer is picked each day from a much smaller list of more common five-letter words. There are still thousands of possible answers, of course, but it means the answer will never be a word as obscure as, say, "THIOL", or "CAIRD", or "MALIC" (yes, those are all real words).
There are very occasional words which the New York Times will choose not to publish as the day's Wordle answer, perhaps for reasons relating to recent news or politics. For example, shortly after news broke that Roe v Wade might be overturned in the United States, the NYT decided to change the March 30th word from "FETUS" to "SHINE", as the feeling was that the word "fetus" was too politically charged a word in the context of recent events.
The New York Times has also been careful never to allow what they consider to be rude words as the answer to a Wordle puzzle. But of course there's nothing stopping you from using even the dirtiest of words as guesses, as long as they're accepted words in the dictionary, and as long as you realise that they'll never end up being the answer.
Is Wordle getting too easy for you?
If Wordle is starting to get too easy, there are a few ways you can make the game more challenging for yourself. The first choice is to turn on Hard Mode. You can do this on the Wordle site by clicking the cog icon in the top-right of the screen. Hard Mode means that any highlighted letters must be used in all future guesses. This stops you from using the common tactic of choosing two words like "OUNCE" and "PAINS" to test all five vowels early on.
You can take it up another notch by playing by what we call "Ultra-Hard" rules. This means that every guess you enter must potentially be the answer. If you were just playing on Hard Mode, and you typed "MOIST", and the "O" appeared yellow, then nothing would stop you from making "POLAR" as your next word, even though it couldn't possibly be the answer because you already know the "O" is in the wrong place. If you play by "Ultra-Hard" rules, that's not allowed. You must adhere to every clue, and make sure every single word you enter is potentially the answer.
If after all that Wordle is still too easy for you, then you could always try one of the many other Wordle-inspired games online that have cropped up over the past year. One of our favourites is Worldle, in which you must guess a country of the world based on its shape. There's also Waffle, which is about swapping letters in a completed grid to complete all the words; Moviedle, which shows you an entire movie in a tiny space of time and challenges you to guess the movie within six guesses; and Quordle, which tasks you with solving four Wordles at once with the same guesses.
Want to spend a quiet Sunday brushing up on your Wordle technique? Then you should check out our guide to the best Wordle starting words and begin your training! Or if your idea of a relaxing weekend is reading a big long list of five-letter words, be sure to go and have a look at our list of all the past Wordle answers to date!
Use our Wordle Solver tool to help you figure out the answer to any Wordle in moments! Just pop your current guesses in the grid and watch the tool instantly give you all the potential answers.