Today's Wordle Answer #498 - October 30, 2022 Solution And Hints

Like yesterday, today's Wordle puzzle is a bit of a head-scratcher. WordleBot says it took most players five tries to get the word, and that's likely because it contains the least frequently used letter in the alphabet. To make things easier for you, here are some hints that'll help you unravel the mystery, and you can skip straight to the second section for the answer if you don't mind the spoiler.

Today's word can function as a noun and a verb, and as the former, it is the name of a ballroom dance, or a piece of music with a rhythm pattern of three beats per bar written for such a dance. As a verb, it is a close synonym of the word saunter, in the sense of approaching something or someone boldly, often to the annoyance of other people. The word has one vowel, A, as its second letter, and there are no repeated letters.

The solution to today's Wordle puzzle (#498 – October 30, 2022) is waltz. The word is of German origin, from "waltzer" or "walzen," which trace back to Old High German "walzan," which means to turn, roll, or revolve (via Etymonline). Although it's now considered a sophisticated dance, the Waltz has very humble beginnings. Its exact origins are unknown, but LoveToKnow reports that it evolved from a peasant dance called the landler, popular in Bohemia, Austria, and Bavaria around the 18th century. 

At the time, upper class folks were dancing to the minuet at their balls, but waltz was so much more enjoyable that some noblemen would go to the lower class events just to partake in it. At first, the waltz was considered indecent and scandalous, because the dance was too physically intimate for the modesty standards of the time. In fact, as at 1825, the dance was so notorious that an Oxford English Dictionary entry described it as "riotous and indecent." There's no exact report of when or how the reputation of the waltz went from scandalous to cultured, but it's an interesting evolution all the same.

We hope you arrived at today's answer in record time. If you're feeling like more of a mental challenge this Sunday, there are more puzzles like Wordle to get your brain in gear.