On Groundhog Day, Wordle Started Reusing Words With an Iconic Repeat Answer
Wordplayers, did you know today’s answer was a repeat? And a famous one too.
Spoiler: The answer is CIGAR, which was also the answer to the very first puzzle on June 19, 2021, when game creator Josh Wardle first launched the entertaining puzzle. This was also the response when The New York Times first hosted the puzzle on February 10, 2022.
Talk about Groundhog Day!
Wordle gives you six chances to guess a five-letter word. As you guess different words, it tells you whether those letters appear in the final answer or not at all, and whether they are in the same place or need to be rearranged. CNET publishes answers for Wordle every day, as well as answers for Connections, Strands, Connections: Sports Edition and Mini Crossword.
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The Times announced the change in its NYT Gameplay newsletter, sent on January 28, noting that Wordle would begin reusing previous responses. This isn’t a complete surprise. Wordle editor-in-chief Tracy Bennett once said on TikTok that the game should eventually expand beyond its original 2,000-word answer list.
Recycling answers seems like a smart option, although other possible options include adding words in the plural or past tense, which are not currently used as Wordle answers. The puzzle could always expand to six-letter words, but it looks like that won’t happen anytime soon.
Fittingly, the puzzle began reusing words about Groundhog Day – the famous holiday featured in Bill Murray’s 1993 comedy, in which Murray’s character is trapped in a time loop and relives February 2nd over and over again.
Fittingly, the game’s editors selected the very first Wordle word to reuse. As mentioned above, CIGAR was Wardle’s first response when only his family and friends knew about the puzzle. It was also the first official word after the Times began reporting the game in 2022.
Don’t expect repeated responses
A player successfully answered the February 2 response, scoring a Wordle-in-one. They commented: “I thought it would be fun to use Wordle Zero’s solution as an introduction. To my surprise, this is the first solution reused. Hats off to the editors for this beautiful piece of symmetry.
Bennett replied: “What a lucky (very intuitive) guess! The Wordle editor went on to say, “It’s very rare that we give this kind of nod to the importance of a day, but this one seemed like a fun and inspired way to showcase this evolution of the game.”
However, in the future, Wordle’s answers will not be limited to repeated words used in past puzzles.
“I plan to continue introducing words for the first time in 2026, as there are still many beautiful new words to present,” Bennett wrote. “Aside from today’s nod to Groundhog Day, I don’t intend to tie future solutions to holidays and special events. While there’s no hard and fast rule, I’ll probably prefer words that haven’t been used very recently.”
