Today's Wordle Answer #496 - October 28, 2022 Solution And Hints
Like most of the Wordle answers this week, today's word is in common usage, but that doesn't always mean that the puzzle will be easy to solve. If you're having difficulty, here are some hints to help you unravel the answer, and you can check the second section for the full word reveal.
Today's word can function as a verb or adjective, and it means to do something secretly or stealthily. It has two vowels, "E" and "A," as third and fourth letters respectively, and there are no repeating letters. The word rhymes with pique, and like yesterday's Wordle answer, it's a football term as well.
Something or someone can [solution word] up on you if they approach you quietly and catch you unaware. In that context, the solution word is sometimes interchanged with the name of the hissing reptile with a long, limbless body. The word is also frequently paired with "peek," to describe an opportunity to look at a snippet of something before it is made available to the public.
The answer is a surprise
The solution to today's Wordle puzzle (#496 – October 28, 2022) is sneak. The etymology of the word is uncertain, but Etymonline reports that it is probably from some dialectal survival of the Middle English term "sniken," related to Old English "snican," both meaning to creep or crawl. It also traces back to Proto-Germanic "sneikanan," which is related to "snakon" of the same origin, which means "creeping thing" and is the root word of snake.
You'll find the word in phrases like "sneak thief," which describes a thief who only steals what is available and doesn't use violence or forced entry. In football, a "quarterback sneak" is a play in which the quarterback literally tries to advance into the middle of the offensive line before the defenders can catch up to him.
Today we played by the rule book and used crane, one of WordleBot's recommended starter words, as our first guess. It paid off nicely, since it included three out of the five letters in the solution word. Next we tried penal, which helped to further eliminate possible solutions. After we guessed husky, the answer was apparent.