Today's Wordle Answer #544 - December 15, 2022 Solution And Hints
Today's Wordle answer is an enemy, literally. To help you achieve victory over today's puzzle, here are some clues that'll nudge you towards the answer quickly. If you'd rather not do the brainstorming, you can skip to the second section where we do a full reveal of the answer.
The word of the day is a noun that can also function as a verb, and it has two vowels, "I" and "A," as its second and fourth letters, respectively. There are no repeated letters, and the word almost rhymes with "Eiffel." It describes an adversary or contender, or the act of competing or contending for something with someone else. The last letter of the word is "L," and if you replaced the first letter with "N," you'd have a new word — an adjective that describes a place, object, or organism that is characterized by, related to, or abounding with snow. Got it yet? If you're still unsure, and don't mind the spoiler, see the answer below.
You're at loggerheads with the answer
The answer to today's Wordle puzzle (#544 – December 15, 2022) is rival. The word is in common usage, and to our great pleasure, it opened up an interesting etymology mini-lesson. "Rival" is from the Latin word "rivalis," meaning one who is in pursuit of the same object as another, or "one who emulates or strives to equal or exceed another" — but originally translated as "of the same brook," from rivus "brook" (via Etymonline).
Of course, there's no immediate relation between a water body and antagonism, but Etymonline records that the connection might be based on the mostly friendly but sometimes confrontational competitiveness of neighbors, in the sense of "one who uses the same stream," or "one on the opposite side of the stream."
We cracked the code in three tries — our first two guesses, "cream" and "ouija," were effective starting words for today's Wordle in whittling down the possible answers to just three, and we made a lucky (and correct) third guess. We hope you finish quickly, and if you're looking to prolong the fun, here are some other games like Wordle to try.