Monday Word is a tricky one, so don’t be dismayed if the puzzle leaves you baffled.

Even the game’s creator, Josh Wardle, a New York-based software engineer, has admitted to struggling with it. He told it Newsweek in 2022, he usually needs at least four or five tries to get the answer, while his partner can consistently find it in three tries.

Wardle made Word for his partner to play during the COVID-19 lockdown.

It quickly became an online sensation after being released to the public in October 2021. The New York Times bought Word for an undisclosed low seven-figure sum in 2022, and it will remain free to play via the publication’s website and the Games app.

The premise is simple: there is a different five-letter word every day and there are six attempts to guess it. If they think a letter is in the right place, the tile turns green. If it is in the wrong place, it will turn yellow. And if the letter does not appear in the word at all, the tile turns gray.

Word Enthusiasts aim to guess the word of the day in as few attempts as possible and play every day to maintain their winning streak.

Tactical play is the best way to solve everyday puzzles, says Erhan Aslan, an expert in applied linguistics who teaches at the University of Reading in Britain, in an interview with Newsweek.

“One thing I think is important in this game is the chosen starting letter. Starting with letters that contain common vowels, for example e and a, consonants such as r and t, and sound sequences can be helpful,” Aslan said.

“Choosing a word that starts with q, z, j, or limit or eliminate some words they might think.

“For example, if the second letter of the target word is l (indicated in green) and the player thinks the word starts with a consonant, they should know that only a few consonant clusters are possible, such as bl, cl, fl, gl, pl , sl.”

The answer for Monday Word can be found at the bottom of this page, so scroll down Newsweek‘s tips and pointers with caution to avoid revealing it if you want to figure it out for yourself.

Word #1,227 Directions for Monday, October 28

Newsweek has put together five clues to help you solve Monday’s problems Word puzzle.

Tip #1: The word is an adjective.

Tip #2: There are no repeated letters.

Hint #3: There is one vowel: the second letter.

Hint #4: Synonyms are vulgar, obscene and filthy.

Tip #5: Some of the work of William Shakespeare and Geoffrey Chaucer can be described with this word.

Word #1,227 Reply by Monday, October 28

The answer to Monday’s Word is “bawdy.”

Word resets at midnight in your time zone. While you wait for the next game, you can give the geography guessing game Worldly or Connectionsthe Times‘ second most popular game, a go.