On Groundhog Day, Wordle Started Reusing Words With an Iconic Repeat Answer

Wordle players, did you know today’s answer was a repeat? And a famous one as well. 

Spoiler: The answer is CIGAR, which was also the answer to the first puzzle ever on June 19, 2021, when game creator Josh Wardle first launched the entertaining puzzle. It was also the answer when The New York Times first hosted the puzzle on Feb.10, 2022. 

Talk about Groundhog Day!

Wordle gives you six chances to guess a five-letter word. As you guess different words, it tells you whether those letters appear in the final answer or not at all, and whether they fall in the same place or need to be rearranged. CNET publishes answers for Wordle every day, as well as answers for Connections, Strands, Connections: Sports Edition and the Mini Crossword.

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The Times announced the change in its NYT Gameplay newsletter, sent out on Jan. 28, noting that Wordle would begin reusing previous answers. It’s not a complete surprise. Wordle Editor Tracy Bennett once said on TikTok that the game would eventually need to expand beyond its original 2,000-word answer list. 

Recycling answers seems like a smart option, though other possible options included adding plural or past-tense words, which are not currently used as Wordle answers. The puzzle could always expand to six-letter words, but that looks like it won’t be happening any time soon.

Fittingly, the puzzle began reusing words on Groundhog Day — the famous holiday featured in the 1993 Bill Murray comedy, in which Murray’s character becomes trapped in a time loop and relives Feb. 2 over and over again.

Also fittingly, game editors selected the very first Wordle word ever to use again. As mentioned above, CIGAR was Wardle’s first answer when only his family and friends knew about the puzzle. It was also the first official word after the Times began running the game in 2022.

Don’t expect only repeat answers

One player nailed the Feb. 2 answer, scoring a Wordle-in-one. They commented: “I thought it would be fun to use the solution to Wordle zero as my opener. To my surprise, it is the first reused solution. Hats off to the editors for this beautiful bit of symmetry.”

Bennett responded: “What a lucky (very intuitive) guess that was!” Wordle’s editor went on to say: “It’s very rare that we give this sort of wink to a day’s significance, but this one seemed like a fun and inspired way to introduce this evolution of the game.”

Going forward, however, Wordle answers won’t be limited to repeated words used in past puzzles.

“I plan to continue to feature first-time words in 2026, as there are still many beautiful new words to run,” Bennett wrote. “Outside of today’s wink to Groundhog Day, I’m not planning to tie future solutions to holidays and special events. Though there’s no strict rule, I will likely prefer words that haven’t run very recently.”