Wordle #402 answer for Tuesday, July 26

Popular word-puzzle Wordle took over social media at the beginning of 2022, with millions of users visiting its website on a daily basis.

People love the game for its simple design and easy-to-understand rules. These features are a huge reason why the puzzle was able to gain such a huge player base.

Currently, close to 20,000 players regularly attempt to solve the puzzle. When the word of the day is very difficult, some of them even look for hints online. This article contains useful clues to help such players.

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The solution for Wordle #402 rhymes with "pinch"

1) The word begins with the letter C

2) The word contains the letter N

3) The word contains only one vowel in it

4) The word ends with the letter H

Tuesday's answer is a fairly uncommon word that rhymes with "pinch."

The solution for July 26 is "cinch."

According to Merriam Webster, cinch is "a strap that holds a saddle on a horse." It is also used to refer to a "tight grip" or to be able to "do something with ease."

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The history of Wordle

Wordle is the brainchild of Brooklyn-based software engineer Josh Wardle, who created it for his wife, Palak Shah. Shah has an affinity for puzzles and quizzes, which became the inspiration behind creating the game.

The couple worked together to come up with a prototype for the game in 2013 and asked their friends to review it. Sadly, their peers did not enjoy the game and complained that it was filled with absurd and archaic words. Additionally, because they could play it as many times as they wanted, players often got bored.

Looking at the bad reviews, they decided to drop the project for a while and went on with their lives. Wardle went to work for Reddit and created two successful experiments for the platform, called Button and Place.

The duo returned to Wordle after spending a majority of their free time solving crosswords during the COVID-19 lockdown. The quizzes fired them up to re-work on their old project.

They decided to modify the game, remove difficult words, and make small fixes. Most importantly, Wardle added a one-game per day limit, which proved to be very beneficial in the long term, since players kept returning to guess the "word of the day," thereby helping the player base grow in size, encouraging Wardle to release the game to the public in October 2021.

The game's popularity shot through the roof after its public release, attracting media mogul, New York Times, who bought the game for a seven-figure amount in January 2022.

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Tips to solve Wordle easily

While there isn't a foolproof way to win every game, players can follow a few steps to make it easier to find a solution. Here are some tips to remember before solving the daily challenge:

1) Begin the game with a vowel-heavy word like "adieu." This helps filter out the vowels in the words. Similarly, players can also start the game with the word "crane," which according to WordleBot is the best way to begin the game.

2) Do not fill the first few rows with words containing repeating letters. The first two rows should be used to figure out the letters present and absent from the solution.

3) Do not ignore words containing repeating letters, as the game doesn't have any extra indication for a repeating alphabet and it is completely dependent on the player's intuition.

4) Practice the game on other portals or spin-offs.

While following these tips can help make it easier for players to solve a game, one must remember that the main goal of Wordle or any other similar quiz is to have fun.

Even if players fail to land upon the correct answer in their first attempt, there's always the next day to try with a new word.