Wordle 698 baffles players with hard challenge, 'Too difficult and obscure!'

Wordle 698 has stumped a number of players who struggled to work out the tricky challenge set by the New York Times on Thursday, May 18, 2023.

Wordle players have been totally stumped by yet another tricky five-letter word as the game makers at the New York Times challenged players to solve yet another unfamiliar word.

And this isn't the first time players have been thrown a curveball - as words such as; kayak, guano, horde, and circa have caused a lot of frustration for fans in the past. However, today's challenge on May 18, has posed a particularly hard challenge for fans, with many complaining that it was not a particularly common word.

Warning! There are spoilers ahead! So if you don't want to know what the answer is, please click away!

The answer to the Wordle challenge on May 18, is 'shorn'. The word divided fans and while some figured out this challenge without breaking a sweat, others found this to be a very tricky challenge. 

While some were pleased to learn a new word - "Wordle 698 3/6 #TIL a new word" - others were not impressed by the difficulty this caused, "Wordle 698 4/6 Kind of hard for me. It is not part of my daily lingo."

Other players agreed that this was rather tricky. "A less common word. Wordle 698 4/6," said one player. "Never knew a word like this existed Wordle 698 6/6," said another."Wordle 698 4/6 Too difficult and obscure!" complained yet another.

Others were confused about Wordle's use of a word in the past tense. "Wordle 698 X 4/6 Wait I thought second or third forms of verbs weren't in the wordle's solutions. Can someone confirm please?"

Others just complained that there were too many options and guessed words like 'short' long before they guessed 'shorn.' "Lots of options today, Wordlers xx Wordle 698 5/6," said one player. "So many options again. Wordle 698 X/6*," said another.

Shorn Meaning

Some players struggled to solve the puzzle because there were too many options, but some struggled with today's challenge because they were unfamiliar with the word. The word is not particularly common in everyday life, so what does the word shorn mean?

The word 'shorn' is the past participle of the verb 'shear.' Shorn means 'cut the wool off (a sheep or other animal)'. To use this word in a sentence you could say, "Ewes are normally shorn prior to lambing in the warmer months".

If you struggled to solve this Wordle challenge, don't worry, you are not alone! This was a particularly tough challenge that stumped a lot of players. However, if you want to improve at this game, there are a number of Wordle hacks and Wordle tricks, that may help.

If you fancy something a little different instead, there are a number of Wordle alternatives that are just like Wordle, but with a slightly different twist to keep things interesting!