Today's Wordle Answer #619 - February 28, 2023 Solution And Hints

The finale of this month's Wordle puzzles is a word in common usage, but with a letter combination that might take you a while to figure out. It's been a fun and challenging 27 days with the beloved brainteaser, and we'd like for you to finish strong.

So, to help you crack the code as quickly as possible, we'll share some hints that should make the solution clear to you. No matter what kind of player you are, we've got you covered — we keep the hints vague enough for the game to retain its challenge, for the sake of players who like that; and for those who don't mind the spoiler, we reveal the answer in the second section, no teasers.

The word of the day is a noun that describes a Bohemian dance and music, but is more popularly known as a black-and-white pattern with dots. It has two vowels, O and A, as its second and fifth letters respectively, there are no repeated letters, and the word rhymes with "mocha."

If you're still unsure, the solution you seek is "polka." Although the word is more common as a description of the black-and-white pattern consisting of dots of uniform size and arrangement, it was originally used as the name of a lively, fast-paced Czech dance. The dance is still around today, although it's not as popular as it used to be.

The origin of the word is indefinite, but Etymonline documents that it's possibly French, German, or Czech, which all have a word of the same spelling, although the latter is the most likely. The word is possibly an alteration of Czech "pulka," which means half, for the half-step rhythm of the original dance. The term "polka dot" is named after the dance, for no other reason than the fact that the fabric was popular around the same time the dance was.

It took four tries to crack the code today. We went with "fight" as our opening guess — it didn't turn any tiles green, but it did give us a fighting chance, narrowing down possible answers to 1,083. After "crony," the pool shrunk to just 67 words, and our third guess, "smoke," further cut the number to just two. By the fourth attempt, the answer was clear.