It’s time for your guide to today’s Wordle answer, featuring my commentary on the latest puzzle, plus a selection of hints designed to help you keep your streak going.
Don’t think you need any clues for Wordle today? No problem, just skip to my daily column. But remember: failure in this game is only ever six guesses away.
Want more word-based fun? TechRadar’s Quordle today page contains hints and answers for that game, and you can also take a look at our NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for our verdict on two of the New York Times’ other brainteasers.
SPOILER WARNING: Today’s Wordle answer and hints are below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to see them.
Wordle hints (game #1329) – clue #1 – Vowels
How many vowels does today’s Wordle have?
• Wordle today has a vowel in one places*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Wordle hints (game #1329) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is S.
S is the most common starting letter in the game, featuring in 365 of Wordle’s 2,309 answers. In fact, it’s almost twice as likely to begin an answer as the next most common starting letter, C.
Wordle hints (game #1329) – clue #3 – repeated letters
Does today’s Wordle have any repeated letters?
• There are no repeated letters in today’s Wordle.
Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it’s still more likely that a Wordle doesn’t have one.
Wordle hints (game #1329) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is H.
H is a regular visitor to the final spot in a Wordle word. It occurs 137 times at the end of a Wordle answer, making it the sixth most common letter there.
Wordle hints (game #1329) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1329.
- Today’s Wordle answer is a broad strip.
If you just want to know today’s Wordle answer now, simply scroll down – but I’d always recommend trying to solve it on your own first. We’ve got lots of Wordle tips and tricks to help you, including a guide to the best Wordle start words.
If you don’t want to know today’s answer then DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER BECAUSE IT IS PRINTED BELOW. So don’t say you weren’t warned!
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1329)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: SLATE (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: VALVE (286)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1329) is… SWATH.
There were low scores aplenty on offer today, for players of some of the best Wordle start words. SLATE – WordleBot’s second favorite opener and the seventh most popular among Wordlers today – left only a single answer and therefore a guaranteed two. STARE, the third most popular, left five. CRATE (2), PLATE (3) and STALE (4) were also big winners.
That goes some way to explaining why the average is a relatively benign 3.8 here. It’s not super simple, probably because that SW combination at the start is a lot less obvious that the ST or SH combos that lots of people will have played first. However, those start word successes will have brought the average back down again.
I suspect many players will have ended up with a four, even if their start word was not so lucky – there are no real traps here. It took me four, after my opening VALVE left 286 words. I wasn’t delighted to have to play a word with a pair of Vs in it, but at least it gave me a yellow A.
Regular readers (and regular Wordlers in general) will know that A is the most common letter to appear in both the second and third positions, so I moved it one square to the right and went with TRAIN next. This was a good guess, but not very lucky and left 10 answers.
I figured that yellow T would be paired with an S at the start for STAFF, STAMP, STACK or STASH, or at the end for COAST or BOAST. But T and H go together often too, and I also found SWATH. My searching was far from perfect, though, and I missed three: ADAPT, SHAFT and the less likely STAPH.
I couldn’t find a word that would guarantee me a four; WordleBot came closest with CHASM, which might have left a 50/50 but would otherwise have pointed the way to the solution. But I wanted to at least try for a three, so went with STACK instead. This might have left me with a three-way between STAFF, STAMP and STASH, but I haven’t scored a 3/6 since the end of January, so I took a risk.
It didn’t pay off – STACK was not the answer – but it wasn’t a disaster either, leaving only SWATH from my list. I played that next for my four.
But there’s an epilogue to this tale – because I realized afterwards that SHAFT could also have been the answer and that really I’d had a 50/50 all along. I’m sure if I’d spotted it I’d have played it over SWATH – although as it turns out it was a past answer anyway.
Now that would have been a frustrating conclusion to my game.
How did you do today? Send me an email or let me know in the comments.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1328)
In a different time zone where it’s still Thursday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1328, too.
- Wordle yesterday had vowels in two places.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
- The first letter in yesterday’s Wordle answer was P.
P is a very common first letter among Wordle answers. It’s the fifth most common in the alphabet and begins 141 solutions in total.
- There were repeated letters in yesterday’s Wordle.
Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it’s still more likely that a Wordle doesn’t have one.
- The last letter in yesterday’s Wordle was L.
L is a really common letter to find at the end of a Wordle. There are 155 games that finish with an L, and it ranks as the fifth most likely letter there.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1328.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is found in the eye, or in a classroom.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1328)
- NYT average score: 3.9
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: PLATE, PLANE (7 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: ADORN (401)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1328) was… PUPIL.
One of the things I love about Wordle is the little stories it throws up. I realize that I am a massive geek and that many people just play it because they, y’know, like to solve a word puzzle – but I enjoy the narrative around it too. It’s like a sport; nobody really enjoys baseball, right? You just like the stories and the stats. Wordle is like that for me. [Cue angry comments from baseball lovers].
Anyway, the story for yesterday’s Wordle is that PUPIL has exactly the same starting and ending letters as Wednesday’s PEDAL.
This is only the eighth time this has happened in Wordle’s 1,329 games – with the last such example being STAKE / SKATE in August last year. That was of course far more notable in that it merely involved the positional swapping of two letters, but the PUPIL / PEDAL thing is still interesting to me.
Okay, yes, I am ridiculously boring. But cut me some slack, eh? I’ve been writing about this game every single day for three years now, I need to find ways to make it exciting!
The other interesting thing about PUPIL is that it contains a repeated P that is not also a double P – as in HAPPY.
This is uncommon. P is not particularly likely to be repeated anyway (only 18 of the original 2,309 games contain more than one P), and in 11 of those 18 the Ps appear together.
PAPER (game #35 before anyone was playing), PULPY (#138, ditto), POLYP (#778), PIPER (#980), PAPAL (#1075) and PRIMP (#1275) have all appeared already, so that’s seven of the eight done – except it’s not, because PRIMP was an extra word added by the NYT. So there are at least two more of these repeated-but-not-doubled P-words to follow.
Fascinating stuff, eh?
It’s not a particularly tough Wordle; average score 3.9, according to WordleBot, so a little higher than PEDAL, most likely due to that repeat. I had a slightly better time of it, though, despite an even worse opening guess. I had high hopes for ADORN, but no – another blank return for me, and this time still 401 answers remaining.
My luck was a little better yesterday, however. SLICE – chosen for its common letters – gave me two yellows and cut the shortlist to 14. WordleBot said it preferred STILE, but only just (it gave them both a 99 skill rating).
Next, I employed a little trick I learned from the ‘Bot some time ago – namely repeating a letter in order to turn it green. On the one hand, playing LIMIT reduced the number of distinct letters from five to four, but few words end in an I, and not that many start with one, so putting it in both second and fourth spot almost guaranteed it would go green.
And it did – in the fourth spot. That immediately ruled out the likes of HILLY/FILLY/BLLY and WILLY, plus MILKY, FILMY (which I didn’t think of), LIGHT, IMPLY, VIGIL, FILTH and LIPPY. Meanwhile, the fact that the T stayed gray accounted for TULIP.
All of which that meant PUPIL was the only word left. I played it next for a straightforward four.
Wordle answers: The past 50
I’ve been playing Wordle every day for more than three years now and have tracked all of the previous answers so I can help you improve your game. Here are the last 50 solutions starting with yesterday’s answer, or check out my past Wordle answers page for the full list.
- Wordle #1328, Thursday 6 February: PUPIL
- Wordle #1327, Wednesday 5 February: PEDAL
- Wordle #1326, Tuesday 4 February: TOOTH
- Wordle #1325, Monday 3 February: REVUE
- Wordle #1324, Sunday 2 February: CHORE
- Wordle #1323, Saturday 1 February: RIVET
- Wordle #1322, Friday 31 January: TOAST
- Wordle #1321, Thursday 30 January: FALSE
- Wordle #1320, Wednesday 29 January: UDDER
- Wordle #1319, Tuesday 28 January: FEVER
- Wordle #1318, Monday 27 January: SHUNT
- Wordle #1317, Sunday 26 January: SUNNY
- Wordle #1316, Saturday 25 January: CRISP
- Wordle #1315, Friday 24 January: CREPE
- Wordle #1314, Thursday 23 January: UPPER
- Wordle #1313, Wedneday 22 January: REACH
- Wordle #1312, Tuesday 21 January: ICING
- Wordle #1311, Monday 20 January: SQUID
- Wordle #1310, Sunday 19 January: ROWER
- Wordle #1309, Saturday 18 January: SILLY
- Wordle #1308, Friday 17 January: PROSE
- Wordle #1307, Thursday 16 January: FLINT
- Wordle #1306, Wednesday 15 January: KNACK
- Wordle #1305, Tuesday 14 January: FANCY
- Wordle #1304, Monday 13 January: CLOAK
- Wordle #1303, Sunday 12 January: TOTAL
- Wordle #1302, Saturday 11 January: DINGY
- Wordle #1301, Friday 10 January: CRAWL
- Wordle #1300, Thursday 9 January: WAFER
- Wordle #1299, Wednesday 8 January: DRAFT
- Wordle #1298, Tuesday 7 January: ATLAS
- Wordle #1297, Monday 6 January: SPRIG
- Wordle #1296, Sunday 5 January: CYBER
- Wordle #1295, Saturday 4 January: RELAX
- Wordle #1294, Friday 3 January: CHEAP
- Wordle #1293, Thursday 2 January: CHOSE
- Wordle #1292, Wednesday 1 January: NERVE
- Wordle #1291, Tuesday 31 December: LEMUR
- Wordle #1290, Monday 30 December: STARE
- Wordle #1289, Sunday 29 December: MAMBO
- Wordle #1288, Saturday 28 December: DECRY
- Wordle #1287, Friday 27 December: GRAIN
- Wordle #1286, Thursday 26 December: AFFIX
- Wordle #1285, Wednesday 25 December: SHARE
- Wordle #1284, Tuesday 24 December: EAGLE
- Wordle #1283, Monday 23 December: SAUNA
- Wordle #1282, Sunday 22 December: BRAWN
- Wordle #1281, Saturday 21 December: BLADE
- Wordle #1280, Friday 20 December: FLASH
- Wordle #1279, Thursday 19 December: STRAY
- Wordle #1278, Wednesday 18 December: HEFTY
What is Wordle?
If you’re on this page then you almost certainly know what Wordle is already, and indeed have probably been playing it for a while. And even if you’ve not been playing it, you must surely have heard of it by now, because it’s the viral word game phenomenon that took the world by storm last year and is still going strong in 2024.
We’ve got a full guide to the game in our What is Wordle page, but if you just want a refresher then here are the basics.
What is Wordle?
Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day. You get six guesses, with each one revealing a little more information. If one of the letters in your guess is in the answer and in the right place, it turns green. If it’s in the answer but in the wrong place, it turns yellow. And if it’s not in the answer at all it turns gray. Simple, eh?
It’s played online via the Wordle website or the New York Times’ Crossword app (iOS / Android), and is entirely free.
Crucially, the answer is the same for everyone each day, meaning that you’re competing against the rest of the world, rather than just against yourself or the game. The puzzle then resets each day at midnight in your local time, giving you a new challenge, and the chance to extend your streak.
What are the Wordle rules?
The rules of Wordle are pretty straightforward, but with a couple of curveballs thrown in for good measure.
1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.
2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow.
3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray.
4. Answers are never plural.
5. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.
6. Each guess must be a valid word in Wordle’s dictionary. You can’t guess ABCDE, for instance.
7. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses unless you play on Hard mode.
8. You have six guesses to solve the Wordle.
9. You must complete the daily Wordle before midnight in your timezone.
10. All answers are drawn from Wordle’s list of 2,309 solutions. However…
11. Wordle will accept a wider pool of words as guesses – some 10,000 of them. For instance, you can guess a plural such as WORDS. It definitely won’t be right (see point 4 above), but Wordle will accept it as a guess.
