If you want to win today's Wordle, I can help you do that, and if you want to take the time to think about the clues for the puzzle on October 20 (853), everything you need is here.

A typo in my second solution helped me find a letter that I thought was missing from today's solution. On top of that, it turned out to be green. This, and the fact that the yellow I thought I had typed in was still there in the beginning attempt, meant that it didn't take me too long to solve today's Wordle. Fingers crossed that my lucky fingers will slip again tomorrow.

You might _____ suddenly have an idea, or you might describe an accident as being _____ on a nearby road. Today's word is often used as a substitute for "happen[ed]."

Yes, the letters are repeated in today's puzzle.

It is the starting word that makes the difference between winning and losing in daily puzzles. There is nothing like a small victory to enhance the rest of your day:

There is no race against time in Wordle, so there is no need to rush through the answers. Treating the game like a casual newspaper crossword is also a good way to go. Going away for a while may be the difference between winning and losing.

Be sure to win; the answer to the October 20 (853) Wordle is OCCUR.

Past Wordle answers give you great ideas for fun starting words to keep your daily puzzle solving fresh. It is also a good way to eliminate guesswork for today's Wordle, since the same answers are unlikely to be repeated.

Here are some recent Wordle answers:

Wordle offers five boxes in six columns each day, so to keep the winning streak going, you need to find the secret five-letter word hidden in them.

You should start with strong words like ARISE or other words that have a good mix of common consonants and multiple vowels. You also do not want to start with words that begin with repeated letters, as this wastes the chance to delete or check for extra letters; pressing Enter will tell you which ones are right or wrong. If the box goes to ⬛️, it means that the character is not in the secret word at all. A ? means the letter is in the word but not in that position. ? means that the correct letter is in the correct position.

The second guess should complement the starting word, using another "good" word to cover the common letter missed last time, while avoiding the letter that we now know for sure is not present in today's answer. With any luck, a few colored squares will be created and you will be on the right track.

Then it is just a matter of using what you have learned to narrow down the correct words. You can try six times in all, and you can only use actual words (you cannot fill in the box with EEEEE to see if there is an E). Letters may be repeated (e.g. BOOKS).

If you need further advice, see Wordle's tips. Also, if you want to know which words are already in use, scroll to the relevant section above.

Wordle was originally conceived by software engineer Josh Wardle as a surprise for his partner, who liked word games. From there it spread to his family and was finally released to the public. Since then, the word puzzle game has spawned a slew of Wordle-like games, focusing the daily gimmicks on music, math, and geography; it wasn't long before Wordle became so popular that it was sold to the New York Times for a seven-figure sum. Indeed, it would only be a matter of time before we would be communicating solely through tricolored boxes.