Ashley is playing a game of Wordle. She is trying to guess a 5-letter word. A yellow highlit letter is in the word, but in the wrong position. A green highlit letter is in the correct position. She has guessed the following words.
SMILE
MODEL
PLAYS
BIRTH
What is the word?
The required word is LEAST
EXPLANATION
------------------------
L (yellow letter) occurs in the 2, 4, and 5 position, all of which are erroneous.
So, the correct positions for L is 1 or 3.
A (green) is placed in the 3rd position, which is accurate
S (yellow), in the problem text, occurs erroneously in the 1 and 4 positions.
So, correct positions for S must be 2,3, and 5.
Having regard the foregoing, we must have, the required word having the form:
L S A ? ? OR, L ? A S ?, where ? denotes the missing letters
The former CASE do not generate any valid English word.
The latter CASE gives 6 valid English words, of which only 'least' contains the letter T (yellow letter).
This, checks out since T is the 5th letter of 'least', and in terms of problem text, T is erroneously placed in the 4th position.
Consequently, the required word is LEAST.
Edited on August 1, 2022, 8:52 am