Wordle to reuse answers starting Feb 2 - NYT claims necessity, math suggests otherwise
The New York Times announced through its Gameplay newsletter that Wordle will begin reusing previous answers starting February 2, 2026. The announcement characterized the change as "exciting news" that will create "magical, serendipitous moments." The community response has been less enthusiastic.
The numbers don't add up
The Times acquired Wordle with approximately 2,309 approved five-letter words and has added 32 more. At one puzzle per day, estimates suggest this pool would last roughly two years before exhaustion.
Independent analysis paints a different picture. Starting from English's 22,949 five-letter words, then excluding plurals, proper nouns, and uncommon words (using spell-check as a proxy for commonality), yields approximately 5,437 viable Wordle candidates. That's nearly 15 years of daily puzzles at current rates.
Wordle has run approximately 1,685 puzzles since October 2021. Even with the Times' conservative curation approach, the word supply constraint appears manageable.
What this means in practice
The change fundamentally alters strategy. Players who referenced historical answers previously gained a computational edge as the remaining pool shrank. That advantage now disappears.
The announcement's language matters: "begin adding previously run words back into play" leaves unclear whether repeats will be random or thematically selected. That ambiguity affects both strategy and perception.
The real question
Why introduce repeats now rather than exhaust the original list first, then expand the approved vocabulary? The Times could have added from that 5,437-word pool, maintaining the no-repeat policy while buying years of runway.
The vocabulary constraint was solvable. The decision to reuse answers instead suggests other considerations—perhaps engagement metrics, perhaps editorial preference for familiar words over uncommon ones.
We'll see how retention numbers track over the next quarter. Players vote with their daily streak.