The rules are simple but the tactics to get the right answer can be anything but. You have six attempts to get the word and if you get a correct letter in the right place, the tile goes green.

If you have a correct letter but in the wrong place, the tile goes yellow. An incorrect letter goes gray. If you manage to solve it, a box appears showing your track record, which you can share with others for bragging rights.

Created by software engineer Josh Wardle, who started work on it in 2013 and completed it during COVID lockdown, the game has gone from being played by a few dozen people, to being the daily fix for millions.

The game is a pun on Wardle’s name although his partner Palak Shah played a key role in its development, which included whittling the number of possible words used down to around 2,500.

Released to the public in October 2021, the game’s global reach was assured when Wardle sold it to The New York Times in February.

The graph below provided by Statista shows the game’s growth in popularity Since November 2021.

Wardle’s own suggestions are that players’ first attempts to eliminate as much of the alphabet as possible. This could be done by choosing words with multiple vowels and to avoid words that contain letters such as X, W, Z, until you are clearer on what the word could be.

It has inspired other games such as the music-based Heardle, the math-based Nerdle, and the trickier Quordle, which asks players to guess four words at once in nine tries.

The daily Wordle for July 9 is a little tricky to solve, but do not worry, Newsweek is here to unfurrow those brows.

‘Wordle’ #385 — Five Hints for Saturday, July 9, 2022

Wordle players can use the following five clues to crack puzzle #385.

Hint #1: Today’s Wordle #385 is a noun, and has two vowels. Hint #2: The answer for today’s brain teaser has one syllable. “Fear” would give you a good start. Hint #3 Rhyming with today’s Wordle is an adjective for the word that means “not alive. “Hint #4: A version of today’s Wordle can mean “in place of” and is preceded with “in. “Hint #5: Merriam-Webster defines Wordle #385 as “the office, place, or function ordinarily occupied or carried out by someone or something else. "

‘Wordle’ #385 Answer for Saturday, July 9, 2022

The answer to today’s Wordle is “stead”

Wordle will automatically reset at 7:00 p.m. ET. If you would like to give another puzzle a go before then, try these similar games.