Wordle Bans Several Words After New York Times Takes Control

thegamer.com:

Last Thursday, the New York Times officially began hosting the Wordle site. Thus far, it seems that fears of Wordle going behind a paywall have been unfounded, but that doesn't mean The New York Times hasn't already begun changing Wordle to suit its needs.

To start, Wordle has banned some words that many consider being offensive. As noted by Polygon, gendered slurs such as “bitch,” “whore,” and “sluts” have already been removed as well as other five-letter curse words. If you try typing them into Wordle, you'll just get a "not in word list" error message.

“Offensive words will always be omitted from consideration,” The New York Times told Polygon. “As we have just started Wordle’s transition to The Times website, we are still in the process of removing those words from the gameplay.”

Related: Don’t Forget Wordle For Your Game Of The Year Lists Later This Year

This isn't too surprising, given The New York Times rarely publishes anything even remotely profane outside of a direct quote. The Times' other word games also don't have any offensive language in them either. Still, some might consider censoring Wordle the first sign of the game's decline under new management.

Wordle's explosive growth has been nothing short of miraculous. What started as a simple word game developed by a programmer as a gift to his wife has ballooned over 900,000% in terms of daily visitors, from around 5,000 visits in October to 45 million in December. With that kind of growth, its no wonder The New York Times purchased the site for a seven-figure sum.

Its popularity has also spawned several spinoff sites. For Magic: The Gathering fans there's Moxle, while those seeking a greater challenge can give Absurdle a try. And for those looking for words