How to solve today’s Wordle.
Looking for Sunday’s Wordle hints, clues and answer? You can find them here:
It’s the night before Christmas Eve and all through the house, not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse.
A Visit From St. Nicholas—more commonly known as The Night Before Christmas—was first published in 1823 as Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas, and its authorship remains in contention to this day. Arguably, no other single work of literature has done more to establish our modern conception of Santa Clause.
Clement Clarke Moore is often given credit for the poem, but he didn’t claim authorship until 1844 (having neither confirmed nor denied that he wrote it earlier). Some say it was actually written by poet Henry Livingston Jr, an argument made by his children and their children and their children’s children over the centuries.
The story of the poem’s true authorship might make for a good television series or film. Moore didn’t claim that he wrote it until 9 years after Livingston had died, for one thing, and many more years passed before Livingston’s family became aware of Moore’s claims in 1857. It wasn’t until 1899 that the family went public with claims of their own, when Livingston’s great-grandson published their version of events in his own Long Island newspaper.
The poem was first published on this day, December 23rd, 201 years ago in the Troy Sentinel. Livingston’s children claimed that their father read them the poem as early as 1807, many years before it was ever published, but failed to ever provide irrefutable evidence. While the poem was originally published anonymously, it was sent to the publisher by a friend of Moore’s, and it seems many at the time, including the publisher, believed he was the author. Livingston never made any claims that he was its author.
Historians to this day continue to fiercely debate the subject, with some offering textual analysis that Livingston is the likelier author based on his writing style, while others rebut these points, pointing to the wealth of documents in favor of Moore’s authorship. In all likelihood, we will never know the truth.
We will, however, discover the answer to today’s Wordle below!
How To Solve Today’s Wordle
The Hint: Steamy.
The Clue: This Wordle has more vowels than consonants.
Okay, spoilers below!
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The Answer:
Today’s Wordle
Wordle Analysis
Every day I check Wordle Bot to help analyze my guessing game. You can check your Wordles with Wordle Bot right here.
SABLE was a good opening guess today, leaving me with just 12 possible solutions. With the S and A in green, I immediately tried SANTA but Wordle did not accept that as a word—no proper nouns, unless it’s SPAIN, it seems. (SPAIN works for reasons that remain inscrutable). So I went with SAINT, as in SAINT NICHOLAS, and that gave me yet another green box. Only one word remained, though it took me a hot minute to come by it: SAUNA for the win!
Competitive Wordle Score
I get 1 point for guessing in three and 0 for tying the Bot.
How To Play Competitive Wordle
- Guessing in 1 is worth 3 points; guessing in 2 is worth 2 points; guessing in 3 is worth 1 point; guessing in 4 is worth 0 points; guessing in 5 is -1 points; guessing in 6 is -2 points and missing the Wordle is -3 points.
- If you beat your opponent you get 1 point. If you tie, you get 0 points. And if you lose to your opponent, you get -1 point. Add it up to get your score. Keep a daily running score or just play for a new score each day.
- Fridays are 2XP, meaning you double your points—positive or negative.
- You can keep a running tally or just play day-by-day. Enjoy!
Today’s Wordle Etymology
The word “sauna” comes from Finnish. It traces back to the Proto-Finnic word “savńa”, meaning “bath” or “bathhouse”, with roots possibly linked to words for “steam” or “smoke”. Traditionally, saunas were smoke-filled rooms where water was thrown onto heated stones to produce steam. This ancient practice evolved, but the core meaning of “sauna” has remained tied to the idea of a steam bath.
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