The solution to today’s Wordle puzzle (#650 – March 31, 2023) is EVERY. The word is quite popular, and that’s all the more reason why you might have never questioned its origins. Thankfully, Wordle provides us the perfect opportunity to do so, and as always, Etymonline had the answers we sought. The word history site reports that “every” is derived from a contraction of Old English “æfre,” itself from “ælc,” which means “each of a group.”
Per the same source, the original usage of the word was “ever each,” which was written for emphasis and is why the word every is used to emphasize the entirety or completeness of a statement or idea.
For such an everyday word, it took us, and most players, four tries to figure it out today. We stuck with our recently favorite winning starter word, great, which turned out to be a good –- no, a “great” choice. It left only 14 possible answers, but we tried curse and billy before honing in on the solution. We hope you do much better, and if you’re up for more mind games, here are other puzzles like Wordle to try.
