Bill Gates Has Been Playing Wordle For A Year, Here's His Favorite 4 Vowel Starter Word

One of the richest people in the world starts his morning routine by playing a popular word game. Bill Gates is addicted to Wordle and other guessing games. In August 2022, he revealed more about his habits and some strategies.

What Happened: The Microsoft Corporation co-founder shared that he “can’t stop playing Wordle” in a recent blog post.

“I’ve started every day since February or March doing the same thing. Not long after I wake up, I grab my phone or laptop and solve Wordle, the puzzle where you get six chances to guess a five-letter English word,” Gates said.

Gates also plays Quordle, a four-word puzzle game, and Octordle, an eight-word puzzle game, which are both similar to the play style of Wordle.

Along with playing the games, Gates admitted he’s competitive and checked daily to see how he stacked up with friends and family at the number of turns or guesses it took to solve each puzzle game.

Gates said unlike some other “time stinks,” puzzle games such as Wordle are a great way to connect with people.

Wordle was launched in 2021 by Josh Wardle and went viral in late 2021 with strong mentions and shares on social media with many celebrities playing the game and sharing it with their followers. The puzzle game company was sold to the New York Times Co NYT in January 2022 in a low seven-figure deal, according to reports.

Gates said he might have an advantage with Wordle from reading a lot of English literature.

“Every once in a while, there’ll be a word where you’re like I’ve never used that word,” he said.

Gates said he knew the word Smite because he read the Bible and Duchy because of reading English literature.

Gates also said there’s a website that offers Wordle in 64 languages including some made up from Star Trek and Lord of the Rings.

“I consider myself a nerd, but anyone who can solve a Wordle in Klingon or Elvish is on a whole other level,” he said.

Gates noted he usually solved the Wordle within four guesses or sometimes five. For Octordle, Gates once solved the eight words in 10 guesses on practice mode but admits he’s never done that well in the normal puzzles.

Along with word puzzle games, Gates also plays Nerdle, an equation guessing game that uses digits 1 through 9 and operators (+, -, x and /). Like Worlde, you get six guesses and tiles show if they are correct, or correct but in a different location.

“As a math-oriented person, I’m probably better at Nerdle than the word-related versions, though I don’t have as many friends and family members who like to do it.”

Gates said he usually gets Nerdle in three or four guesses.

“It’s a lot of fun.”

“I like to start with a word that contains lots of vowels, like Audio or Ounce. Adieu is a good one too,” Gates said.

Gates added it's important to learn patterns and know which consonants can pair well next to each other.

“I like to look for C and H, for example, or S and L. Then the consonants that are almost never paired with others — like Q, V, X, and Z — really jump out.”

“There’s a lot of strategy in it. You always want to be gaining as much new information.”

While some words can start with vowels, Gates liked to use vowels in the second and fourth positions when he has two vowels.

Words that have no vowels can be tricky, like Tryst, a word that Gates said he only got until he realized it had to have a Y.

One of the cardinal rules of Wordle according to Gates is that “letters can be used more than once.” Gates lost on the word Tasty after having the final four letters correct but guessed Pasty instead of Tasty on his final guess.

The hardest part of the game is when you have four of the five letters but there are multiple potential answers, Gates added. Gates cited "ight" as an example with potential answers being Light, Tight, Fight, Sight and Right. Gates said a bit of luck is needed to get the guess right before running out of turns.

Gates liked the practice modes that allow multiple puzzles and the chance to waste time.

“I’m the kind of person who will play an addictive game over and over if I give myself the chance,” he noted.

Originally published Aug. 31, 2022.

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