A while back I wrote about how the New York Times excluded certain words from Wordle. It wouldn’t recognize “slave,” “lynch,” and “COVID,” though other potentially alarming words were allowed.

Now “fetus” has joined the list of banned words. The Times changed the puzzle in the middle of the day and apologized. It’s not clear what it was apologizing for, but its statement said, “We want Wordle to remain distinct from the news.” This is a hopeless goal. The Times’ news stories and Wordle draw on the same vocabulary.

People who didn’t refresh their browsers might have seen the earlier puzzle even after it was withdrawn.