Thank you for the question @SamSam. This is going to be a long response…
I started playing Wordle sometime in January 2022. I discovered the Spanish version in February 2022.
On November 19th, 2022, it occurred to me to challenge myself to start with the same exact word in both Spanish and English. At the time, I figured I could come up with new words on the spot every morning. And yes, at the beginning it was fairly easy; starter words were readily available in my mind as they were fairly common words (e.g., RADIO, MORAL, AUDIO, VISTA, PIANO, MOTEL, IDEAL, etc.). For the most part, they were true perfect cognates (same meaning in both languages).
By the beginning of 2023, this self-imposed challenge was getting tough; for instance, on March 10th, 2023, I used BEIGE as a starter word, wasting one letter, simply because I couldn’t come up with anything else on the spot. On May 10th, 2023, @GagHalfrunt asked if I would ever run out of starter words.
This made me realize that I should start a backup list, just in case. So, whenever I stumble upon a five-letter word that works in both languages, I add it to my list.
So, most mornings I just pick a random starter word from my list.
Initially, the list grew fairly fast (I would use one word per day, but I would add two to four words on that same day). Some months ago, I noticed that the list wasn’t growing as fast as before. I started randomly checking two dictionaries to see if I could find some fairly obscure semi-cognate words (not necessarily the same meaning). This is why you now see some esoteric words.
But sometimes, I don’t use the list, as I come up with a new word on the spot, or I get reminded of a word by a recent Wordle (by me or others). If recently you see a fairly common word like HAIKU (which I used as a starter word last week), it is because it wasn’t on the list.
So far there has been only one word that was on my list that didn’t work on both Wordles. So on that day, I had to use two different (but close) starter words.
It’s been a bit over a year and a half… I am now running low on words. I wonder if I have found most of them. Currently, my list is shrinking at an alarming rate; I now have only about two month’s worth (but I still come up with new ones, maybe once a week or so).
I haven’t decided what I will do when the list runs out. Maybe I will start using plurals, maybe I will use words that use the same letter twice. Maybe I will just quit Wordle altogether. We’ll see…
