February 1, 2026
Déjà Wordle, déjà drama
A Crisis comes to Wordle: Reusing old words
Wordle’s deja vu: cozy throwbacks or dumbed-down drama
TLDR: NYT will recycle old Wordle answers, calling it “exciting.” Comments split: casual players cheer accessibility and familiar words, purists cry “dumbed down,” and trolls declare “Connections is better.” It matters because Wordle’s daily ritual is culture, and even tiny tweaks spark big breakfast-table debates.
Wordle’s big twist: the New York Times says it’ll start reusing old answers, cheerfully calling it “exciting news.” The community’s reaction? A collective eyebrow raise. Some players grumbled about a “dumbed down” Wordle, while others shrugged: déjà vu is fine if it’s a friendly five-letter hug.
Fueling the fire, a blogger crunched the numbers and argued there are thousands of usable five‑letter words left, enough for years. That sparked a classic internet split. One camp says NYT is chasing the crowd-pleasing vibe: as tuwtuwtuwtuw put it, most people want common words. Another camp insists the puzzle should stay curated and accessible; hombre_fatal reminded everyone no one wants to guess “aahed,” and most players aren’t “card counting” past answers like Vegas pros.
Then came the “it’s not that deep” brigade: Aardwolf happily plays mega-Wordles and thinks a little repeat won’t ruin mornings. Trothamel added lore—early Wordle was vetted for everyday language, which many say is the soul of the game. And the jokers? They arrived with memes about Wordle reruns, and one blunt vibe check: “Connections is better anyway.”
Whether you see this as cozy nostalgia or creative bankruptcy, the comments turned a tiny rule tweak into a full-on breakfast-table brawl.
Key Points
- •The New York Times announced Wordle will reuse previously played answers starting February 2.
- •The author began with an English word list of 466,547 entries and narrowed it to 22,949 five-letter words.
- •After excluding plurals and proper nouns, the list was reduced to 10,784 words.
- •Using spellcheck to filter out uncommon terms produced a final pool of 5,437 potential Wordle answers.
- •At one word per day, 5,437 words could support nearly 15 years of unique puzzles, potentially lasting until 2036.