QUILL

DEFINITION — ETYMOLOGY

Pun Play: He waved and said HOLLOW.

My Gameplay: TRASH, PLONK, DUMMY, BULGE, QUILL

⭐ Wordle 1556 — September 22, 2025 — Answer & Analysis ⭐

Intro

Today’s Wordle lands on QUILL, the kind of solution that sneaks up with a rare opener and a sly double letter. The early guesses burned gray, the L kept teasing from the shadows, and the Q didn’t announce itself until the home stretch. If your board felt stubborn, that’s because it was.

🧭 Step-By-Step Solve Path

• TRASH — Full gray. Hard reset vibes.
• PLONK — Nopes except a misplaced L; useful, but slippery.
• DUMMY — The U locks; the rest whiffs. Information gained.
• BULGE — Confirms the L is in but not there; funnels options.
• QUILL — Clean sweep. Every tile lights up green. ✅

🔎 Why This Felt Hard

Two booby traps: a rare Q-starter and a double L ending. Many players over-index on common consonants after locking U, drifting toward words like GUILD, BUILD, or PULPY that don’t resolve. The stranded L signal tempts mid-slot placements (—ULL—, —L—), but the answer demands —UILL. Once you permit Q + U up front, the search space collapses fast.

🚧 Common Traps & Near-Misses

QUILT (tempting T), GUILD (wrong consonant frame), PULPY (shape looks right, letters don’t), and QUAIL (misplaced vowel) soak up guesses. Hard mode punishes early misplacements of the L because you keep chasing the wrong slot.

📜 Word Origin & Little Lore

A quill is a feather pen, prized for flexible nibs and fine control. They were the go-to writing tools across Europe for centuries; even foundational documents like constitutions and treaties were penned with them. The word itself traces through Middle English to Latin roots tied to “spine” or “shaft.”

🧠 Strategy Notes

After confirming U, always consider the Q-combo before cycling common consonants. Then probe for doubles: try patterns like —U—LL with safe consonant sweeps (Q, F, G, T, N) to collapse candidates. Avoid anchoring bias from early yellows—L fooled plenty of boards today by refusing the middle slot.

🎮 Gameplay

TRASH → PLONK → DUMMY → BULGE → QUILL

📌 Summary

Today’s puzzle looked ordinary until the rare opener and late double snapped into focus. Locking the U without respecting the Q burned a lot of time. The L’s misplacement created false trails, which is exactly why so many boards stalled on guess four. Once you test Q + U and visualize the —UILL frame, the finish writes itself. Clean solving, crisp logic, and a feather-light flourish at the end. Have a marvelous Monday. On to tomorrow!