We invited mathematician and wordplay fan Ali Lloyd to share his thoughts on hit internet word game phenomenon Wordle. If you’re not familiar with the game, we recommend you go and have a play first.
![Photo of a mastermind board, showing coloured pegs in rows.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Mastermind.jpg/200px-Mastermind.jpg)
When I first saw Wordle I said what I saw many other people subsequently say: “Oh, so it’s a bit like Mastermind but with words? That’s a neat idea”.