Today's Wordle Answer #484 - October 16, 2022 Solution And Hints

Today's Wordle puzzle is a mellow start to the week, considering the difficulty of last week's puzzles. WordleBot says most players figured out the solution in an average of 3.7 guesses, so we're obviously not the only ones who think so. The answer is a common word, and the letter combination isn't unusual, either. Still, a Wordle game only allows you six guesses, and the odds of blowing it in so few attempts are pretty high. To help you eliminate your word options faster, here are some hints for today's puzzle. As always, we'll also reveal the answer in the second section, so you can skip to that if you'd rather not do the head-scratching.

Today's word has two vowels, "A" and "E," as the third and fifth letters, respectively. It's the name of a long-handled digging tool, and it's also one of the black suits in a deck of playing cards. If you wanted to tell someone the honest truth, you might say you're calling a [solution word] a [solution word]. If someone has an oblong beard with square ends, they have a [solution word] beard. Got it? If you're unsure, don't worry — the answer comes up next.

The solution to today's Wordle puzzle (#484 – October 16, 2022) is spade. Depending on how you use it, the word is a noun or a verb that most popularly refers to the digging tool that resembles a shovel. If something is done in spades, it is done to a very high degree. The word spade is from Old English's "spadu" or "spædu," which is from the German word "spaðōn" or Old Saxon word "spado," all of which means a digging implement. The word also has a history in Old Frisian's "spada," early Modern German's "Spaten," and Icelandic "spaði," which refers to any one of various tools with a blade (via Merriam-Webster).

One of the most popular uses of the word spade is in the idiom "call a spade a spade," which has an interesting history. The phrase originated in Greek in philosopher Plutarch's highly-quoted work "Apophthegmata Laconica" or "Sayings of Spartans." However, the original phrasing was "call a fig a fig," "call a trough a trough," and "call a bowl a bowl" (via Writing Explained). When the phrase was translated into English in 1542, the words fig and trough were replaced with spade, and that has stuck ever since.

Today would be a lucky day for any player who uses either of the starting words crane or slate, which are expert-recommended and WordleBot-endorsed. We didn't use any of these words and needed five guesses to figure out the answer, but we wish you better luck. Now that you've solved the puzzle, check out some of these other Wordle-like puzzle games.