Does Wordle use American spellings? Why game doesn’t use English 5 letter words - and spelling row explained

Previous answers like ‘favor’ have had UK-based Wordle players up in arms - but why is the game this way?
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Earlier this year, Wordle used the word ‘favour’ as one of its answers.

Nothing wrong with that, you’d think...

But the game that has brought so many people together suddenly opened a gaping, transatlantic rift.

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That’s because the game actually used the word ‘favor’, the American spelling of the word that omits the U of the British English version so as to make it a five-letter word.

The spelling caught many Brits out, who vented their ire all across social media - the furore was so widespread, YouGov even commissioned a poll on the matter.

“As far as you are aware, does Wordle use British English or American English for its words?” they asked to over 1,000 players.

The survey revealed over half of players were unaware of the States’ creeping influence on the world’s beloved game.

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So does Wordle use American-English spellings, and if it does... why?!

Here is everything you need to know about it.

Does Wordle use American spellings?

Frustratingly (at least for players in the UK) Wordle does make use of American spellings.

Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to happen all that often. From what we can decipher, only a handful of previous answers have been American spellings so far.

Taking a sneaky look at the game’s code, we can see that there are likely around 10 upcoming answers to look forward to.

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However, we conducted a very rough, unscientific count to reach this figure, and it’s unsure how much Wordle’s word list will be altered and added to following the game’s acquisition by the New York Times.

Why does Wordle use American spellings?

(Photo: Twitter/@powerlanguish)(Photo: Twitter/@powerlanguish)
(Photo: Twitter/@powerlanguish)

Wordle was developed by Josh Wardle, a British software engineer originally from Abergavenny in Wales, though he now resides in New York.

The game is also registered to a UK domain name: powerlanguage.co.uk.

So why does it make use of American spellings?

One obvious answer is because doing so opens up even more of the English language to the game, reducing a good number of words by a letter or two until they fit Wordle’s five-letter format.

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But there are already more than enough words for Wordle to work with - over 13,00, in fact - so surely that’s not the reason?

The real reason is to do with Wardle’s partner, for whom he created the game when the couple were bored during lockdown.

Discussing the game - and the ‘favor’ debacle - with Slate, Wardle said since he made the game for his partner, “it’s very focused on what she knows and doesn’t know.”

“I was chatting with her this morning actually about, ‘How do you feel about the favor thing?’ And she was like, ‘I’m American. You made the game for me.’”

Is there a version that only uses UK spellings?

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Many of these have adapted the game into other global languages, helpfully opening the game up to more players around the world.

So has somebody kindly created a second version, one that omits those pesky American spellings?

Thankfully, yes.

While it might not have quite the same polish as the original (and best) version of the game, wordlegame.org hosts a Wordle version in which players can select the dictionary from which answer words are taken from. Including UK English!

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