Phoodle: Winning Tips and Strategies

The food word game Phoodle - the Wordle for food lovers - is proving hugely popular. Designed to function exactly like the general word game Wordle, it gives food lovers the chance to flex their food-related vocabularies and exercise their brains in the process. Perfect for chefs, front-of house staff and food lovers everywhere, Phoodle is something you can do on your break that is fun and will give you a sense of achievement - especially when sharing your results on social media. But how can you really smash it on Phoodle? Read on and find out.

How to play Phoodle?

You can download the Phoodle app from the app store or you can play it on your web browser at phoodle.net. The game works in exactly the same way that Wordle works - guess a five-letter word in six attempts or less. The game will display whether the letters in the word you have guessed exist in the solution, and where their position is with a green or yellow square. The game, just like Wordle, allows you to share your results on social media for the world to see - so you'll want to know how to master it. 

Tips and strategies for playing Phoodle

Start with the same word every time

Devotees to the word game Wordle swear by the strategy of starting with the same word every time, and it can work for Phoodle too. It will give a familiar baseline to work with. Pick a word with three different vowels like ‘anise' or ‘juice', which will give you the best chance of guessing correctly in the next turns. Eventually you might be able to guess the Phoodle word on the first attempt, which is the ultimate aim for any Phoodle enthusiast.

Use a different word every time

It may not be the ideal strategy for Phoodle, but using a word that you haven’t used before can keep your vocabulary exercised and may improve your long-term Phoodle prowess. Starting with the same word each time, may prove more successful in the short term, but the whole point of the game is to prove your word range and keep your brain sharp. So why not mix it up?

Use a different word for your second guess

The more you can vary your guessing, the more success you will have. Phoodle is all about the process of elimination. So remember to vary the consonants as well as the vowels, and you’ll be able to find the letters that don’t exist, so you can find the ones that do.

Brush up on your French and Italian

The majority of solutions to Phoodle so far have been very simple English language words. But the lexicon of food includes many French and Italian words. So far, the Italian words ‘frito’ and ‘pizza’ have appeared, and the French word for beef, ‘boeuf’, has appeared. Familiarise yourself with the order of Italian and French vowels as well as double consonants, and you’ll get a sense of when a word might come from one of these two languages.

Letters may appear in other places

A double letter may appear in another place in a word, but not be indicated by a green square. Just because you guess a letter right in one place, doesn’t mean Phoodle will help you by showing you that it appears twice. Double letters make your guesses less efficient, so it’s something to keep in mind.

Write it down

We all learned to write with a pen and paper, and not by tapping screens, so by picking up a pen you are activating a part of your brain that is far more familiar with expressing your vocabulary in writing. We all played 'hangman' growing up, and Phoodle is essentially the same game, albeit more sophisticated. So write it down, use an underscore for the letters that are missing, and the solution might just jump out at you.

Share your results

Sharing your successes is more than just bragging. It’s actually rewarding your brain with a bump of serotonin for guessing the solution correctly. By rewarding your brain, you will become more invested in the game and be able to give it more concentration. Plus, you might get to annoy your friends.