New Delhi, June 19 -- Quordle today arrives as game #1607, and it is the kind of Friday puzzle that looks gentle until the third board turns on you. Players chasing a long streak found themselves second-guessing a perfectly reasonable opener, and more than a few traded their last attempt for a word that felt obvious only in hindsight.

If you came here for a clean answer without the runaround, scroll to the bottom. If you want the case for how today's grid plays out, read on first.

What makes today's Quordle puzzle tricky

The daily Quordle game draws its difficulty from overlap, not obscurity. Five distinct vowels show up across the four words today, which sounds generous until you notice that none of the entries repeat a letter interna...