Wordle Bans 'Slave' As New York Times Stops Users Entering Offensive Words

The word ‘SLAVE’ has been banned from Wordle after the New York Times, who now own the wildly popular game, prohibited 'offensive' words.

If you’re not familiar with Wordle yet, you probably haven’t been on the internet in recent times.

It’s the word game that has captured the imagination of seemingly billions around the globe.

The idea is that you have six guesses to work out what the five letter word is.

Getting a letter correct in the right position will show up green, whereas getting it right but in the wrong spot turns it yellow.

To make matters more interesting, there’s only one word every day for everyone in the whole world.

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The game was created by programmer Josh Wardle as a way of keeping his family entertained, but after it took off the game was acquired for a tidy fee by the New York Times.

This week, fans of the game have started noticing that words such as ‘SLAVE’ as well as ‘WHORE’ and ‘BITCH’ have been removed from the lexicon.

Search for one of those and you’ll receive a message telling you that the word is ‘not in the word list’.

That’s because the NYT have removed – according to a spokesperson – any words that are deemed ‘insensitive or offensive’.

Jordan Cohen told Newsweek: "We are updating the word list over time to remove obscure words to keep the puzzles accessible to more people, as well as insensitive or offensive words.”

Should you wish to use offensive words – exclusively, of course – you can check out Lewdle, which is a rude version of the game.

There have been many imitations pop up, spurred on by the incredible success of the original Wordle.

Some players have criticised the NYT for removing the words.

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Journalist Patrick Kidd tweeted: "Baffling that the NY Times has banned people from guessing words like 'slave' on Wordle in case it causes offence (to who?),

"Fair enough not to have it as an answer, if they must, but to erase it as a valid word is a touch thought-crimey. I'll stick to the Ancient Greek Wordle."

Another journalist, Ryan J. Rusak, said: "Oh FFS, the words 'slave' or 'wench' can't be in a word game now?

"Is the Times not going to use them in stories? So dumb."

Still, there are plenty of words out there if you want to play on.

After all, how are you going to share your score on Twitter if you don’t play?