Wordle, February 3, 2024

I solved Wordle 959 without help, my streak is now 97. I see another opportunity to write a large regular expression that could get the answer.

Other than eliminating a, n, e, k, y, d and t, the yellow letters o and r can be accounted for.

• o in column 1 or 5
• r in column 4 or 5
• if o is in column 5, r is in column 4, but not vice versa.

A regular expression composed by alternation seems in order. Here’s my sub-expressions:

• oicr[^anekydt], o in column 1, r in column 4, all the black letters ruled out for column 5
• oic[^anekydto]r, o in column 1, r in column 5, black letters plus o ruled out for column 4
• [^anekydtcr]icro
  • Column 1: not all the black letters I’ve guessed so far, also not c and r
  • Column 2 and 3, ic, they’re green
  • Column 4 r, put an o in column 5

Small Linux shell script (you should be using Linux):

#!/bin/bash
set -eou pipefail

grep '^.....$' /usr/share/dict/words |
tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]' |
grep -E '^([^anekydtcr]icro|oicr[^anekydt]|oic[^anekydto]r)$'

The script gives back micro as the only dictionary word fitting the pattern, which is indeed Wordle 959’s answer.

Looks like alternation is the answer to yellow letters.