Another week, another septet of solutions. Seven more days of Wordle answers have come and gone, stretching our already limited patience, dictating the moods of our day, and sparking joy, rage, and smugness.
And, depending on how filthy your mind is, you’ve sent the day’s squares to your Wordle group chat with at least one smirking emoji. This felt like one of the spiciest weeks of Wordle yet, and not just because I’m deliciously close to a 69-day streak. So let us look back on the Wordles that were, as we rank the latest seven solution words — this week, by their potential for naughty connotations.
1. NASTY (Wednesday March 2)
I’m sorry, Ms. Jackson? At some point, NASTY lost some of its spoiled-British-child inflections and moved over the pond to become an all-purpose synonym for “dirty”, with all the semantic (ahem) flexibility that implies. Like so many of the words AAVE has enriched, the many context-dependent meanings are full of possibility: NASTY can imply filth, boldness, and transgression, and what’s hotter than having all that packaged up together?
This particular word also tricked plenty of folks who perhaps got the Y too late and then ran out the clock on TASTY, HASTY, and/or PASTY). It gets extra points for playing hard to get.
2. CHOKE (Monday Feb. 26)
Let’s be absolutely clear: this is not a sexy word for everyone. Even if it once was for some of us (with consent), there are only so many times you can witness people online telling some pop star or hulking actor to “choke me Daddy” before it loses its power. But we’re here not to kinkshame, nor to vanilla-shame — we’re here to have our brains pushed to the limit by this smart and saucy little word game that’s completely taken over our lives. If you X’d out on this one, the taunting imperative probably only made you want to get it more.
3. BRINE (Saturday March 5)
Sweat is a sort of brine, isn’t it? This one is a stretch, but if your sexy time doesn’t have at least a hint of salty, tangy flavour to it, you might be doing it wrong. Plus, you can’t make a dirty martini without olive brine. (Phew, saved it.)
4. AHEAD (Friday March 4)
Here for its proximity to “head”, obviously. But just a reminder: it’s not a race.
5. CLOTH (Sunday March 6)
There’s something about the word CLOTH that suggests rough-spun, homely textures, but it’s also just not a sexy word. That firm TH on the end feels like my childhood lisp, it’s far too close to “clot” and “clod”, and of course, you can’t be clothed without CLOTH. You can, of course, be sexy with clothes on, but if your clothes are sexy? That’s fabric, not cloth. Search your feelings — you know it to be true.
6. MOURN (Thursday March 3)
The only reason this isn’t #7 is because of the existence of grief/funeral/I-just-want-to-feel-alive sex. Look, they can’t all be winners, but in a week where we got CHOKE and NASTY, there was always going to be something that felt a little distasteful in this list.
7. RUPEE (Tuesday March 1)
Sorry to all the hopeful crypto bros out there, but no specific currency is or has ever been sexy. Although pound…