When Josh Wardle, a New York-based software developer originally from the United Kingdom, invented Wordle during the COVID-19 lockdown, he was initially just trying to create a game “for me and my partner to enjoy.”

Despite these humble origins, Wordle quickly developed into a global sensation after being released to the public in October 2021, with some players around the world taking to social media each day to share tips and their results.

Such was Wordle’s popularity that in January 2022 it was purchased by The New York Times for an undisclosed low seven-figure sum, though it remains free to play.

In a previous interview with Newsweek, Erhan Aslan, a linguistics expert who teaches at the University of Reading in the U.K., offered some advice for Wordle players.

“One thing that I think is important in this game is the starting word chosen. Starting off with words that include commonly used vowels, for example, e and a, consonants such as r and t, and sound sequences might be helpful. Choosing a word that starts with q, z, j, or x, for instance, may not be the best choice,” he said.

Aslan added: “As you get more feedback after a few guesses, users need to draw on some knowledge of phonics to narrow down or eliminate some words that they might be thinking,” Aslan added. “For example, if the second letter of the target word is l (indicated by green) and the player feels that the word starts with a consonant, they will need to know that there are only a few consonant cluster possibilities (such as bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl).”

The answer to Sunday’s puzzle will be revealed at the end of this article, so scroll down with caution if you want to work it out for yourself.

Wordle #1,107, Clues for Sunday, June 30

Hint #1: The answer contains two vowels, one of which functions as a consonant in a different word structure.

Hint #2: The third and fourth letters are the same.

Hint #3: Synonyms for Sunday’s Wordle include “chum,” “associate” and “crony.”

Hint #4: Associated with friendship.

Hint #5: One of the first three letters in the alphabet is included.

Wordle #1,107, Answer for Sunday, June 30

The answer to today’s Wordle puzzle is “buddy.”

That was a fun one! Did you figure it out? A relatively common word, though made trickier as it contains relatively unusual vowels. Congratulations if you got it, but don’t worry if not. One of the best things about Wordle is seeing if you can improve your performance over time and Newsweek will be back on Monday with another round of hints and tips.

What Does ‘Buddy’ Mean?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines “buddy” as “a person you know well and like.”