If you're a Wordle addict, you might want to play today's round before reading this spoiler of a post — unless, that is, you're easily offended by certain politically charged words creeping into your gameplay. In that case, read on.
The New York Times, which tries to keep their daily Wordle word "distinct from the news," tried to yank a pre-loaded word scheduled for today that suddenly seemed in bad taste: "fetus." The word was programmed into the game a year ago, before the Times acquired it from Josh Wardle and before last week's bombshell Supreme Court Roe V. Wade draft ruling leak by Politico. Try as they might, the word still managed to reach some players.
"At New York Times Games, we take our role seriously as a place to entertain and escape, and we want Wordle to remain distinct from the news," the Times said in a statement. "But because of the current Wordle technology, it can be difficult to change words that have already been loaded into the game."
From CNN:
The Times said the word was loaded into the game last year — before the publisher acquired it — adding: "When we discovered last week that this particular word would be featured today, we switched it for as many solvers as possible."
However, some users who have not refreshed their browser window could still get the word from the "outdated puzzle", the statement added.
