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It's finally Friday, and with it comes a new daily Wordlepuzzle for you to ponder — as well as our tips and hints to help you solve it.

If you'd rather jump straight to the answer, you can scroll to the bottom of this article to find December 16's Wordle solution revealed. Otherwise, keep on reading for some tips, tricks, and hints to help you figure it out yourself. 

SEE ALSO: Best 'Wordle' starting word? Step up your game today.

Where did Wordle come from?

Wordlewas originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner. It quickly exploded in popularity, becoming a global phenomenon enjoyed by thousands of players around the world every day. Some Wordlefans even began creating alternate versions of the daily word puzzle game themselves, such as battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations such as Dordleand Quordlethat make you guess multiple words at once. 

TikTok creators have even live streamed themselves playing Wordle, and the puzzle game eventually grew so big that the New York Times bought it earlier this year.

Not the day you're after? Here's the Wordleanswer for December 15.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

There is no objectively best Wordlestarting word, as Wordleis a game, games are meant to be fun, and fun is extremely subjective. However, if strategy and tactics are what you find fun, we have a few ideas to help you optimise your first move. Some helpful tips include choosing a word that has at least two different vowels in it, and making sure there are some common consonants like S, T, R, or N mixed in.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

Once upon a time the entire archive of past Wordles was openly available for any puzzle enthusiast to plunder and play whenever their hearts desired. Unfortunately this bounty has since been erased from the internet, with the website's creator saying its removal was at the New York Times' request.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL.

Is Wordle getting harder?

Though it may feel as though solving Wordle's puzzles is more of a struggle than it used to be, the game isn't getting any harder. You are able to make it more difficult though, as Wordlehas a Hard Mode you can enable.

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Why are there two different Wordle answers some days?

While Wordle law usually dictates that there can only ever be one correct solution per day, the word puzzle game does occasionally violate this law and accept two different answers. This is because the New York Timesmade changes to Wordleafter acquiring it, swapping out some answers for new ones.

The Timeshas since added its own updated word list, so this should happen even less frequently than before. To avoid any confusion, it's a good idea to refresh your browser before getting stuck into a new puzzle.

Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

Today's Wordlesolution is both a noun and a verb, and concerns investigations.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There aren't any double letters in today's Wordleanswer, so there's no need to worry about that!

Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordlestarts with the letter P, as in "Pacemaker" by Stray Kids.

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Related Stories

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• The Wordle archive is gone, but you can still find past Wordle answers here
• What is 'Wordle'? Here's everything you need to know.
• Google's Year in Search 2022 was dominated by, of course, 'Wordle'
• 'SNL' turned Donald Trump's stream of consciousness rants into a 'Wordle' gag
• Wordle today: Here's the answer, hints for December 15

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Featured Video For You

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Wordle 101: The best starting words to use and why

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What's the answer to Wordle today?

Get your last guesses in, because we're about to reveal today's Wordleanswer!

Are you ready?

The solution to Wordle #545 is...

PROBE.

Don't feel bad if you didn't guess it this time! There will be a new Wordlepuzzle for you to try tomorrow, and we'll be back again with more tips and tricks to help you out.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Wordle.

Topics Gaming Wordle