Today's Wordle Answer #540 - December 11, 2022 Solution And Hints

We had better luck with today's Wordle puzzle than yesterday's, solving it in only three tries. To help you land the same feat, or even better, here are some hints to nudge you toward the answer. If you'd rather not do the brain-racking, you can skip to the second section where we reveal the answer word in full.

The word you're looking for is an adjective with three vowels — A, I, and E — as its second, third, and fifth letters respectively. There are no repeated letters, and the word rhymes with Tel Aviv. It means to be painfully innocent, simple, or unsophisticated, and it is sometimes used as a sweet, positive description but it mostly has a negative connotation. If you replaced the first letter of the word with W, you'd have a verb that means to forgo or forfeit the exercise of a right. Got it? If you're still unsure and don't mind the spoiler, check out the full answer below.

The solution to today's Wordle puzzle (#540 – December 11, 2022) is naïve. A person is naïve if they're childish, idealistic or overly innocent, and do not have enough experience to properly judge and interact with reality. You can also describe art as naïve if it is produced in a style that openly defies sophisticated art rules or techniques.

The word is of French origin, from a root word of the same spelling, itself from Old French "naif," which means natural, newly born, foolish, or unspoiled. It also traces back to Latin "nativus," which literally translates as born, innate, or natural (via Etymonline).

Our starting word today, "shout," was particularly unlucky — WordleBot said it left 802 possible answers. But the second guess, aline, eliminated 801 words from that pool, giving us the very satisfying opportunity of cracking the code on the third try. We hope you do even better.