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Not impressed with today's choice of word!

Me neither. Used X.

Indeed, same here!

...though x would make it a plural, which I don't think are allowed? I just tried to find the rules, but couldn't.

From the NYT…
“ Wordle now uses an answer list curated by the Times, and its pool of possible answers has shrunk to omit plural forms of three or four-letter words ending with “ES” or “S.” Words like MOLES or PANTS, for example, won’t ever be the right answers, but WOMEN or CACTI could still be correct.”

So the X word would be allowed.

Thanks jono

But as pants is nowadays an adjective meaning 'rubbish' they'll need to update that.
What I do find remarkable, on the other hand, is that 'satan' is banned whereas 'devil' is fine. I fail to see the difference

Yes, Polygon in The Times and similar 'word wheel' puzzles almost always disallow plurals. When faced with a Wordle choice I usually weigh up which word is more likely in American English. I got today's word in five but I associate more with Australia.

As for devil not Satan, this follows the Scrabble rule about words which have to be capitalised. You can't use England or English, for example.

When Mattel (company owning Scrabble) recently banned 419 words, mostly slurs considered racial or homophobic, I was amused that some words, such as dyke, escaped the ban because of an alternative 'acceptable' meaning. This attempt to make the game more 'family friendly' paradoxically still allows the four-letter f and c words.

In a recent game of online Scrabble my last opponent had played SHITE (permitted) going down to a triple word square. I had great delight in prefixing it with GOB from the triple word square above.

Yes, Polygon in The Times and similar 'word wheel' puzzles almost always disallow plurals. When faced with a Wordle choice I usually weigh up which word is more likely in American English. I got today's word in five but I associate more with Australia.

As for devil not Satan, this follows the Scrabble rule about words which have to be capitalised. You can't use England or English, for example.

When Mattel (company owning Scrabble) recently banned 419 words, mostly slurs considered racial or homophobic, I was amused that some words, such as dyke, escaped the ban because of an alternative 'acceptable' meaning. This attempt to make the game more 'family friendly' paradoxically still allows the four-letter f and c words.

In a recent game of online Scrabble my last opponent had played SHITE (permitted) going down to a triple word square. I had great delight in prefixing it with GOB from the triple word square above.

Thanks for the explanation PaulH. I thought it was some kind of religious censorship. Interesting that many of the words that were originally forbidden, such as bitch and slave, are now allowed.