Wordle #398 answer for Friday, July 22

The fan-favorite quiz, Wordle, has been updated with a new challenge. The game was released sometime last year and took over the internet within a few months.

During its peak popularity, Wordle attracted millions of daily players. While many of these players have since abandoned the game, a huge number have made it a part of their lives and make sure to take some time out from their routine to solve the mini quiz.

Once in a while, the words in the game end up being too difficult for people to guess, pushing them to take help from the internet. This article contains useful clues for such players.

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The solution for Wordle #398 rhymes with "crest"

1) The word begins with the letter T

2) The word contains the letter R

3) The word contains a Y acting as a vowel

4) The word ends with the letter T

Friday's answer is a fairly uncommon word that rhymes with "crest."

The solution for July 22 is "tryst."

According to Merriam Webster, tryst is "an appointment to meet at a certain time and place, especially one made somewhat secretly by lovers." In simpler words, it is "an appointed place of meeting."

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The history of Wordle

The game was created by Brooklyn-based software engineer Josh Wardle for his wife, Palak Shah. Shah is a puzzle enthusiast and this affection of hers became the inspiration behind creating the game.

Wardle and Shah asked their friends to review a 2013 prototype for the game, but it did not get the reception they expected.

Players complained that the game was filled with absurd and archaic words. Additionally, they could play it as many times as they wanted, which often led to boredom.

Owing to all the negative comments, the game was dropped by the pair and forgotten for almost 10 years. Wordle collected dust while Wardle went on to work at Reddit, where he created two successful experiments called Button and Place.

In 2020, when the pandemic locked everyone indoors and the couple started spending a majority of their free time playing NYT's Crossword, they decided to take a look at their old project and modify it for a better gaming experience.

Shah filtered the word list and removed unrecognizable words, while Wardle added a one-game per day limit.

The new version of the game was a hit among the duo's friends and slowly created a community for itself. Looking at the growing numbers, Wardle decided to release the game to the public in October, after which the game was acquired by the New York Times in January 2022.

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Battle Royale version of Wordle

Squabble was launched a few months after the original game went viral. It has no connection to Fortnite, but players call it Fortnite or the Battle Royale version of the game. The reason behind this is a unique feature in the game.

In this version, players are required to compete against 99 other users, who are solving the grids alongside them. The race continues until the winner is the last one standing.

Players can continue playing back-to-back Wordle grids if they keep solving the quiz without getting kicked out of the game.

Squabble comes with a shorter version of Battle Royale called the "Blitz." The section lets five players compete head-on against each other.

The game also has a unique element called the health bar that fills with health after every correct guess and gets diminished with every wrong attempt.

Squabble adds a sense of competition to the game that players seem to love.