And the Wordle backlash begins: ‘Blaming this on the Americans’

Wordle players in Britain have taken offense — or “offence,” according to them — to the game’s preference for American English.

The free word-logic puzzle, developed by New York City-based software engineer Josh Wardle, is the latest viral trend among English language puzzlers on social media. The purpose of the game is to guess the correct five-letter word in only six attempts, using only the letters on the board as hints.

First released in October 2021, the game platform has launched one new puzzle for each day — but only recently has it sparked debate over spelling, with No. 235.

“The Brits are gonna have a tough time with today’s wordle,” warned one Twitter user on Wednesday.

“Na, not having this. Americans spell the word wrong! No one outside the US is going to get this,” said one British user, insisting that theirs is the dominant English dialect outside of the US.

Spoiler alert: The word in question is “humor,” or “humour,” as they write on the other side of the pond.

It happened once before last month, the Independent reported, over the word “favor/favour.”

Of course, there are dozens of discrepancies between American and British English. But this latest spat between the sister nations proves that the feud won’t end anytime soon. Indeed, Yanks certainly won’t be “apologising” for the game’s American origins, despite Britain’s “pretence” that their dictionary is more accurate than ours — because a country that insists they “manoeuvre” the vowel-heavy French spelling in any way possible has no “licence” to “criticise.”

As journalist Robert Peston put it to his followers: “Thank you Wordle for helping me understand with dazzling clarity what it is to be British. I solved you, but I felt cheapened in the process. I think I am done with you.”

Spelling is just the latest controversy over the buzzy new game, which now boasts millions of daily users. Earlier this month, some accused its creator, Wardle, who recently sold the game to the New York Times for an undisclosed seven-figure paycheck, of ripping off the TV game show “Lingo.”

Suggested one shrewd viewer, “Can someone simply rip off old game shows for app ideas? New app idea: wheel of fortune, but call it ‘prize wheel.’ ”