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 #1342) – clue #1 – Vowels
How many vowels does today’s Wordle have?
• Wordle today has 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).
Wordle hints (game #1342) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is R.
R is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter. Despite ranking third overall in Wordle, it’s merely the 11th most likely to begin an answer.
Wordle hints (game #1342) – 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 #1342) – 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 #1342) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1342.
- Today’s Wordle answer is a fish – or a type of insect, informally.
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 #1342)
- NYT average score: 3.3
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- My start word performance: TAKER (94 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (4)
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1342) is… ROACH.
The Wordle rollercoaster continues apace: the past 10 days have seen three of the easiest games ever, but also several genuine toughies.
ROACH is very much in the former category, with an average score of 3.3 from those who have so far played it. That’s more than a full guess below the average for yesterday’s MADLY (4.4), and low enough that I suspect lots of people will be smiling today, having scored a two.
A two is the perfect Wordle, to my mind. A one involves no skill whatsoever, it’s purely luck. Well, I suppose there’s at least some skill in choosing a sensible start word, but that’s about it. If it’s your day, it’s your day. But a two – well, unless it’s one of those games where there’s only a handful of options left after the first word, you still have to use your brain to an extent. You need to work out what the possible answers are, determine which is most likely, consider what an incorrect guess might leave and whether you should therefore play something different to make the third guess safer. Put all that together and there’s a lot of thought that goes into scoring a two.
Then again, if you played TRACE or REACT today, you only had one possible answer left; so, no skill needed. If you went with CRANE (four) or RAISE (five) the task was a little harder, though, so well done if you turned either of those into a brace.
I was on a hiding to nothing with my opening word. TAKER could have been – should have been – a great choice, but it was unlucky today (a familiar refrain for me) and left 94 words. A three was still possible with a good second guess, but sadly my choice of SNARL was not that. If I’d have gone with WordleBot’s pick, CROWD, I’d have left only a single answer – but as it was I still had 10.
Could I still score a three? Well, of course I could – and I’ve triumphed in this situation plenty of times in the past. I just needed the right narrowing-down option.
I figured the R would go second, where it’s most common, and with that in mind came up with DRAMA, BRAID, GRAPH, CRAMP, FRAUD and CRAZY. But that was all I found – ROACH, GRAVY, BRAVA and BRAVO all escaped me, and for that I can offer no excuse beyond the fact that I am human and fallible.
Still, playing GRAPH next was not a disaster, because while not correct it did give me a green H at the end. Coupled with the R staying yellow, that left ROACH as the only answer, so I picked that up next for my four.
How did you do today? Send me an email or let me know in the comments.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1341)
In a different time zone where it’s still Wednesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1341, too.
- Wordle yesterday had a vowel in one place.
* 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 M.
M is a middling letter when it comes to starting a word. It sits 10th in the rankings, with 107 occurrences in the 2,309 answers.
- There were no 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 Y.
Y is the second most common ending letter in the game, behind only E. In total, 364 Wordle answers end with a Y.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1341.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is extremely or wildly.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1341)
- NYT average score: 4.4 (revised)
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- My start word performance: FUSSY (300 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (187)
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1341) was… MADLY.
Here’s yet another difficult Wordle for you to sink your teeth into. MADLY had an average score of 4.5 (note: revised to 4.4) – which implies it’s super tough to solve.
In reality, it is – and it isn’t. There’s nothing fundamentally complicated about it; no repeated or uncommon letters, and it’s not an obscure word or anything like that. But it does have a few near-neighbor words in the form of BADLY, SADLY and MANLY. Plus, there are several others that have a similar format with the D, but with some letters misplaced – for instance DAILY, DALLY, LADDY and BALDY.
I got really lucky with my start word. On Tuesday, LOBBY had featured a repeated letter and a Y at the end and was useless. Yesterday, FUSSY gave me the green Y that I wanted.
It still left me with 300 options, mind you, but I followed up with TRAIL – the answer from a few days ago – and that narrowed it down to 18. Leaving out the Y was a deliberate move; I wanted to see if this was an LY word, or maybe an RY word (WORRY, CARRY), TY word (WITTY, PATTY) or even RTY word (WARTY, DIRTY).
My first hunch proved correct; the L turned yellow, the R and T did not. I got a yellow A, too, so was able to start assembling a shortlist.
I didn’t come up with all 18, but found around a dozen: LANKY, MANLY, APPLY, ALLAY, ALLOY, DELAY, BADLY, MADLY and DALLY among them. BALED was designed to narrow those down, and for the second day in a row I got lucky. It gave me the yellow D, yellow L and gray E that left MADLY as the only answer, so I notched up another 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 #1341, Wednesday 19 February: MADLY
- Wordle #1340, Tuesday 18 February: INDIE
- Wordle #1339, Monday 17 February: TRAIL
- Wordle #1338, Sunday 16 February: SUAVE
- Wordle #1337, Saturday 15 February: CROOK
- Wordle #1336, Friday 14 February: DITTY
- Wordle #1335, Thursday 13 February: RUMBA
- Wordle #1334, Wednesday 12 February: RAPID
- Wordle #1333, Tuesday 11 February: SCORE
- Wordle #1332, Monday 10 February: GOODY
- Wordle #1331, Sunday 9 February: BONUS
- Wordle #1330, Saturday 8 February: STEEP
- Wordle #1329, Friday 7 February: SWATH
- 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
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.
