The myriad five-letter combinations took the internet by storm in 2022, when the online puzzler called Wordle dominated social media feeds, pop culture, and even named the Cambridge Dictionary word of the year.
In 2022, the word “homer” was queried over 79,000 times on the Cambridge Dictionary website, with 65,401 searches performed in just one day – May 5.
The reason? On this day, that was Wordle’s response, which sparked frustration for non-US users unfamiliar with the term as they tried to win a match and guess the word within the game’s six-guess limit.
“Homer” is an informal American English term for a “home run” in baseball, the Cambridge Dictionary clarified in a press release on Wednesday.
Others may know the word as the name of one of the Simpsons characters, or an ancient Greek poet (Homer, in Portuguese).
“Many users outside the US have never heard this word before,” the statement added. “A large number of gamers have expressed their frustration and annoyance on social media, but many have also turned to the Cambridge Dictionary to find out more.”
“Still pissed off about ‘homer’,” one person tweeted on May 31. “It’s been weeks! Furious.”
The “Wordle Effect”
Several other American English words that appeared in Wordle also caused search spikes on the Cambridge Dictionary website – a fact described by the dictionary’s press release as the “Wordle effect”.
The American spelling of “humor” (compared to the English spelling, “humor”) drove traffic up, with nearly 30,000 searches the day it was Wordle’s response, and more unusual words like “caulk” (caulk, in free translation) and “bayou” (stream, in Portuguese) were also searched thousands of times.
The word of the year chosen by the Cambridge Dictionary illustrates the popularity of a simple game that could be shared online when the restrictions imposed by the pandemic limited social interactions for millions of people around the world.
“No wonder people enjoy the mental challenge of a simple word game that can be a shared experience with family and friends, whether they are physically together or not, in a time of volatility and slow recovery from a pandemic. ,” commented Wendalyn Nichols of the Cambridge Dictionary in the statement.
“Even the complaints about word choice seem to be part of the fun.”
After going viral, Wordle was bought by The New York Times and delivered the best quarter ever for new subscriptions to the gaming section, CEO Meredith Kopit Levien said in the newspaper’s May earnings release.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
