If you’re still unsure, the solution you seek is “arbor.” An arbor is a pergola covered with creeping vines, used as shelter or decoration, usually in a garden. According to Merriam-Webster, the word also describes the axle of a wheel or a mounting shaft for a revolving cutting tool.
Per Etymonline, arbor originates in Old French “erbier,” which means field, meadow, or kitchen garden, from the Latin “herba,” meaning grass or herb. Around the 14th century, its meaning evolved to “a shaded nook” or “bower formed by intertwining of trees, shrubs, or vines,” which is still used.
Interestingly, the use of the word in the sense of a structure covered with vegetation is not directly traced to the Latin “arbor,” which means tree. However, some etymological sources propose that it might have influenced the spelling. This Latin “arbor” is the base of an alternate definition of today’s word, “the main support or beam of a machine.”
In solving today’s puzzle, we chose “bland” as a starting word, but it took three more guesses — pasty, waive, and crook — before we arrived at the answer. WordleBot did it in four guesses, and we hope you finish faster.