Today's Wordle Answer #573 - January 13, 2023 Solution And Hints

You're surrounded by the answer to today's Wordle puzzle. There are billions of them on earth, and more added everyday. But sometimes, the things closest to us can be the most out of reach, so if you're struggling to figure out the mystery word, we're here to help. We'll provide some clues that should lead you toward the answer, and if you'd rather not do the head-scratching, you can skip to the second section for the full reveal.

The answer you're looking for has two vowels, "U" and "A," as its second and fourth letters, respectively — and there are no repeated letters. It contains a lot of water, and it is also sustained by water. Without it, there would be no art, music, poetry, or civilization. The word is synonymous with person, and if you added the prefix "-IN," you'd have an adjective that describes harsh, cruel, or barbaric behavior.

Still unsure of the answer? It's "human," which you probably are one if you're reading this (although in this age, with the rise of artificial intelligence, we can't be too sure). The word human has an interesting origin, as do the beings it describes: According to Etymonline, it's from the Old French word "humain" or "umain," and Latin "humanus," meaning "of or belonging to man." 

Both words are partly based on Proto-Indo-European "(dh)ghomon," which literally translates as "earthling" or "earthly being." The Proto-Indo-European word is itself from the root word "dhghem," — meaning "earth or ground" — which is the same root of words like "exhume" (to excavate or dig something out of the ground) and "humus" (decomposed matter in soil).

We solved the puzzle in three tries today, kicking off with the starting word "count," which was a super lucky opener — it cut down possible answers from 2315 to a mere 44! After the second word, "drake," there were only five possible answers left, and we made a lucky third guess. WordleBot solved the puzzle one try later, and it was quite pleasing to have finished faster than it did. We hope you do even better, and if you'd like more puzzles, here are other games like Wordle to keep the action going.