Wordle answer changed to avoid fraught word, NY Times says

By DAVID BAUDER
AP Media Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times scrambled to change its Wordle game on Monday to avoid a puzzle answer that might be seen as some sort of commentary on the news. The Times says its game, which gives users six tries to guess a different five-letter word each day had “fetus” as its original answer on Monday. The newspaper said it was “entirely unintentional and a coincidence” that the word came up less than a week after a leaked report suggested the U.S. Supreme Court was about to change the nation’s abortion policy. The Times said ‘fetus’ had been loaded into the game before the newspaper even bought it, and changed to a different word because it intends games to be an escape from the news.