How to play Hanzi Wordle using Pleco

After apparently having lived under a rock, I haved learned about Wordle just recently. Of course, one of my first thoughts about this game was, does it exist in Chinese?? Would be cool!

And yes, Wordle does exist in several languages. I found an article about the 汉子 Wordle on the Ninchanese blog (https://ninchanese.com/blog/2022/01/28/chinese-wordle-play-and-learn-chinese-chengyus/), and thus the game site https://handle.antfu.me/. There, the game is played with four-character 成语 Chengyus (idioms), and then I - didn't get very far. There had to be a way, though.

Fortunately, Pleco offers the Add-On "DGN Chengyu Dictionary". I installed it and asked the support for guidance on how to use it, received a swift reply (thanks, Michael Love 🙏) and almost solved my first 汉子 Wordle 😅 It had gotten too late in the evening, though... and there is always a new Wordle at midnight. Since then, I am cultivating my streak 😊

If you want to solve 汉子 Wordle, be sure to check "sticky search" in the dictionary’s settings, in order to, by default, search the DGN CY instead of all available dictionaries. While searching for words, use * wildcards. 

The DGN CY is very comprehensive but it doesn't contain all possible Chengyus. It has about 9.000, and there are about 20.000 Chengyus, so statistically, you have to second-guess about every second Chengyu... Well, otherwise it might become too easy 😁 E.g. today, I had to substitute one of the four characters, looking for a similar meaning but the same tone, to complete the Chengyu. Now, let's have some fun sorting out the other few thousand 成语 😄