Iowans Are Cheaters! But Only With 1 Popular Online Game

Give me a five-letter word that contains the letters C-H-E-A-T!

A recent study has found that Iowans are cheating at the most popular online game in the world right now.

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Practically everyone is playing the popular word game Wordle these days.

It has a simple concept; try and guess the five-letter word of the day in less than six tries. Each guess gives you a hint at what the word is. If a letter turns yellow it means that the character selected is in the word, but not in the right place. If any letters turn green that means that the letter is both IN the word and in the right spot.

A recent study has revealed that ever since this web-based game was purchased by the New York Times, the number of people cheating at this daily word puzzle has skyrocketed.

A recent study from Wordfinerx and Google Trends both claim that since the major newspaper bought Wordle in January, the number of Google searches for correct answers has gone up considerably.

According to this and a report from an ABC news outlet, the number of Wordle-related searches have gone up throughout the country, and Iowa might be a pretty big offender.

Iowa is actually number THREE in the entire country when it comes to the number of Google searches of the word "Five letter word containing."

I'll have to be honest...I have TOTALLY searched this when I was struggling with a few of those puzzles! This doesn't count as cheating...right?

A few of these other search terms look a bit more suspicious to me. Luckily, Iowa is only on ONE of these lists of the five top states with these search terms, according to Google Analytics.

Search Term: "Worlde answers"

1. Arkansas
2. Iowa
3. Missouri
4. North Carolina
5. Ohio