In Pairdle every tile is two letters, and each box in the answer row takes one tile. After a guess, a blue tile is the right pair in the right box, a red tile is in the word but in a different box, and a grey tile is not in the word at all.
Jump to: Standard, Pro, Expert.
Pairdle Standard: ORNATE
Twelve tiles, three boxes, solved in three guesses.
Sunday's Pairdle board had twelve tiles and three boxes, so the answer had six letters. The tiles spelled four words: LITANY, ORNATE, STURDY and TUMBLE. No other word could be made from them, so there was no trap, and no two board words shared a tile. That meant a wrong guess could only clear one word at a time.
The first guess was STURDY. ST, UR and DY all came back grey, and those three tiles left the board. The second guess was LITANY. LI, TA and NY came back grey too.
That left TUMBLE and ORNATE, with nothing on the board to separate them. The third guess was ORNATE. OR, NA and TE all turned blue. Three guesses.
Shout-outs to the one-guess winners are in the video.
Pairdle Pro: CONGRATS
Sixteen tiles, four boxes, solved in two guesses.
Sunday's Pro board had sixteen tiles and four boxes, so the answer had eight letters. The tiles spelled four words: CAUCUSES, CONGRATS, POSSIBLE and SOLITARY. They could also spell TANGIBLE, and that was the trap. TANGIBLE borrows TA from SOLITARY, NG from CONGRATS, and IB and LE from POSSIBLE.
The first guess was TANGIBLE. TA, IB and LE came back grey, and those three tiles left the board. Losing TA ruled out SOLITARY, and losing IB and LE ruled out POSSIBLE. NG turned blue in the second box.
Only one board word has NG in its second box, and that is CONGRATS. CAUCUSES has no NG at all. The second guess put CO, RA and TS around the blue tile, and all three turned blue. Two guesses.
Every word the Pro tiles could spell
The board is built from four words. Any other word the same tiles can spell is a trap: it looks right, but it was never on the board.
- CAUCUSES, on the board
- CONGRATS, the answer
- POSSIBLE, on the board
- SOLITARY, on the board
- TANGIBLE, trap word (not on the board)
Shout-outs to the one-guess winners are in the video.
Pairdle Expert: MOTORCYCLE
Twenty tiles, five boxes, solved in two guesses.
Sunday's Expert board had twenty tiles and five boxes, so the answer had ten letters. The tiles spelled four words: MOTORCYCLE, PREJUDICES, SUBJECTIVE and WINDSHIELD. No other word could be made from them, so there was no trap, and no two words shared a tile.
A whole-word guess on a board like this can only test one word. The first guess tested two instead. It took WI and ND from the front of WINDSHIELD and RC, YC and LE from the back of MOTORCYCLE, each in the box it holds in its own word, so the guess was not a word itself.
WI and ND came back grey, and those two tiles left the board, which ruled out WINDSHIELD. RC, YC and LE all turned blue. Three tiles from MOTORCYCLE in their right boxes settled it before PREJUDICES or SUBJECTIVE had to be tried.
The second guess was MOTORCYCLE. MO and TO went in the first two boxes and turned blue beside the three already in place. Two guesses.
Shout-outs to the one-guess winners are in the video.
Play today's puzzle
A new board goes up every day at midnight Pacific time. Play today's Pairdle. If you want a method for finding the answer faster, read how to solve Pairdle column by column, and for the full rules see how to play Pairdle.