‘Fetus’ spells trouble for New York Times’ Wordle puzzle

THE New York Times was forced to change yesterday’s Wordle answer amid a proposed overhaul of abortion laws in the United States.

The newspaper scrambled to change the solution from “fetus” to “shine” but some users reported that the word – which has become politically charged as a result of the abortion rights debate – was still their correct solution.

Last week, a leaked draft opinion from the US Supreme Court signalled that the constitutional right to have an abortion could be overturned, and that states could make their own rules.

Protests erupted across America, bringing the issue to the forefront of American politics.

Yesterday, The New York Times said having the word “fetus” – the American spelling of “foetus” – was “[unintentional] and a coincidence”, adding that it was loaded into the game last year.

The newspaper acquired the game, which is played by millions worldwide, for a “low seven-figure sum” in January, three months after its launch.

It was designed by Josh Wardle, a Welsh software engineer based in Brooklyn, for his puzzle-loving girlfriend

‘We take our role seriously as a place to entertain and escape and we want Wordle to be distinct from the news’

in the pandemic. It gives players six attempts at guessing a five-letter word, with only one released each day.

A statement issued by the newspaper said that it was still discovering “new challenges”, as it switched to “the Times’s technology”.

“Today, for example, some users may see an outdated answer that seems closely connected to a major recent news event.

“This is entirely unintentional and a coincidence – today’s original answer was loaded into Wordle last year,” it said. “[We] take our role seriously as a place to entertain and escape, and we want Wordle to remain distinct from the news.

“But because of the current Wordle technology, it can be difficult to change words that have already been loaded into the game.

“[When] we discovered last week that this particular word would be featured today, we switched it for as many solvers as possible.”

Jordan Cohen, a spokesman for the newspaper, would not say whether it had received any complaints about “fetus”. The New York Times is revamping the technology to make sure every user is seeing the same word every day, the newspaper said.