2 days ago
3
Opinion
February 11, 2026 — 5:00am
“What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” The question hails from weatherman, Phil Connors, trapped in a time-loop in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, waiting for a groundhog to emerge from its burrow.
Groundhog Day, the 1993 film, starred Bill Murray as Phil, and Andie MacDowell as his stoic producer, Rita. Together, they live in a déjà vu diorama: each morning the same banter, the same pre-written script, the same radio song. It’s a nightmare, much like Wordle repeating CIGAR on February 2 – Groundhog Day.
The stink from solvers matched a cheap Havana. Gerry from Canada wanted to quit, while MD Beck from Minnesota posted: “I’m really discouraged to learn the game will now reuse past solutions. Why????” Nor was Jan happy, joining the New York Times forum to add, “It ruins the game for me.”
Really, Jan? English is vast but not that vast. What’s wrong with a few faint echoes from the database? In a warming world, green is the new black. For mine, the real deal-breaker was HUMOR in February 2022. Enough to spur Mike Peston, the English journalist to declare on Twitter: “Thank you Wordle for helping me understand with dazzling clarity what it is to be British. I solved you but felt cheapened in the process. I think I am done with you.”
As was I. Almost, but not quite. Despite the subsequent VIGOR in October that year, then ARBOR in February 2023. Not that I’m counting but some players do, logging the PU list, where PU means Previously Used, and deploying that intel as a solving tool.
I call them bankers, archivists who can minimise the second-move options, depending on the colour-coding their first guess receives. The tactic feels too strenuous for a breakfast routine. Simpler to have a crack – plucking a word from the ether, or trusting your mothballed gambits (hello CRANE, SLING, PROSE) to see what fate brings.
To date, the puzzle Josh Wardle invented for his girlfriend back in 2021 has used some 1600 unique answers, from CIGAR on Day 1 to SPINY, the day before CIGAR’s redux, sparking the flame war. Tracy Bennett, the feature’s NY editor explained, “I plan to continue to feature first-time words in 2026, as there are still many beautiful new words to run.”
After the forum erupted, she later added, “When selecting words for a week, I’ll be taking into account the balance of new versus previously used solutions, with an ongoing preference for words that haven’t appeared before.” Dandy by me, compared to CANDY. Or FIBER, or other ex-answers we don’t need to recycle.
Imagine CRWTH, the Welsh lyre, being a solution instead of a reborn REBUT. Or JALEO, a Spanish dance, usurping USURP because the latter appeared in 2022. CHAOS (as seen on 31/5/24) WOULD (14/12/23) REIGN (yet to appear).
Some fans have lobbied for a six-letter rebuild (not happening). Others have pushed for plurals, or past-tense verbs, to deepen the database, but give me duplicated DITTO (24/4/23) any day. Forecaster Phil may despair at life’s circularity, but sometimes a cigar is only a previously used solution, to paraphrase Freud.
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