Today's Wordle Answer #615 - February 24, 2023 Solution And Hints

Yesterday's Wordle answer was vague (literally), but it was still clearer than many of the words we've encountered in this month's puzzles. Today's answer is one of those words dividing players into two camps: those who think the term is obscure and those who think it is commonplace.

WordleBot reports that it took the average player five attempts to figure out the word, so it looks like there are more people in the former camp, although that might have more to do with the letter combination than its popularity. To help you unravel the mystery in fewer tries, we'll share some hints that should point you toward the solution word. If you'd rather not do the head-scratching, you can skip to the second section for a full reveal, no teasers.

The word of the day is a noun that describes an arch-shaped wooden shelter in a garden around which plants, usually climbing shrubs or vines, grow. You might see one at a garden or a garden wedding.

Our mystery word has two vowels, A and O — with O as the fourth letter. The word's second letter is also repeated as the fifth. It almost rhymes with a verb that means to loathe or detest something. If you add the letter H to the beginning of the word, you'd have the name for the place where ships or boats are docked.

If you're still unsure, the solution you seek is "arbor." An arbor is a pergola covered with creeping vines, used as shelter or decoration, usually in a garden. According to Merriam-Webster, the word also describes the axle of a wheel or a mounting shaft for a revolving cutting tool.

Per Etymonline, arbor originates in Old French "erbier," which means field, meadow, or kitchen garden, from the Latin "herba," meaning grass or herb. Around the 14th century, its meaning evolved to "a shaded nook" or "bower formed by intertwining of trees, shrubs, or vines," which is still used.

Interestingly, the use of the word in the sense of a structure covered with vegetation is not directly traced to the Latin "arbor," which means tree. However, some etymological sources propose that it might have influenced the spelling. This Latin "arbor" is the base of an alternate definition of today's word, "the main support or beam of a machine."

In solving today's puzzle, we chose "bland" as a starting word, but it took three more guesses — pasty, waive, and crook — before we arrived at the answer. WordleBot did it in four guesses, and we hope you finish faster.