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? My Quordle today page contains hints and answers for that game, and you can also take a look at my NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for my 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 #1120) – 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 #1120) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is E.
We don’t get many Wordle answers that start with an E – though it’s the most common letter in the game, it’s only the 14th most likely to begin a solution.
Wordle hints (game #1120) – 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 #1120) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is T.
T is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only E and Y are more likely in that position.
Wordle hints (game #1120) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1120.
- Today’s Wordle answer is to make into law.
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 #1120)
- NYT average score: 3.5
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 2
- Best start word performance*: CRANE, SAINT, SNARE (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: STEEP (114)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1120) is… ENACT.
At some point I should probably start using a past Wordle answers list. I don’t know why I don’t, because I don’t consider it cheating if others do it. With 1,121 Wordles now behind us, it’s a near-impossible task to remember them all. But for some reason I always feel like, well… it’s not cheating, but it is taking an easy option. Then again, using a good start word is the same thing in some respects, and I did that for a couple of years. Clearly I have muddled thinking on this.
Anyway, my refusal to consult a list of answers cost me a three today, because the way my game played out I was left with a choice of EXACT or ENACT. Knowledge of Wordles past would have pointed me towards the latter, because EXACT was the answer to game #790 in August 2023. But instead, I went with my instinct and had to settle for a four.
And that is a below-par score today, because WordleBot says the average is a mere 3.5; that’s a big drop in difficulty from yesterday’s JIFFY (see below), which stayed at a mighty 4.9.
ENACT is a much more straightforward word in every way, with no repeats or uncommon letters to complicate things. It was particularly easy if you began with a good start word, too. CRANE left only one answer, so WordleBot duly scored a 2/6. TRACE left two, CRATE left three, SLATE was eight, TRAIN was 10, STARE was 13.
My start word, STEEP, was a lot less helpful. It gave me two yellows, but still left 114 answers, so a two was never on the cards. A three should have been, though, because my second guess was TRACE, and that left me with just that brace of words to pick from. If only I’d gone with the right one…
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1119)
In a different time zone where it’s still Friday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1119, 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 J.
J is the least common letter overall in Wordle, but is only the fourth least likely starting letter. That’s because it begins 20 out of the 27 answers it appears in (Y, Z and X are all less common starting letters).
- 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 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 #1119.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a short period of time.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1119)
- NYT average score: 4.9
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 5
- Best start word performance*: TRICE (126 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: SCREW (539)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1119) was… JIFFY.
Well, well, well, what do we have here then? By the looks of it, it’s the equal seventh hardest Wordle of 2024 so far, that’s what. WordleBot says it currently has an average score of 4.9 and while it’s early days yet, I’m not remotely surprised by that. That figure puts it behind only JOLLY (5.4), PIPER (5.2), HUNCH (5.1), HITCH (5.1), ROVER (5.0) and JERKY (5.0), and level with FROZE (4.9) and SHAVE (4.9).
That rogue’s gallery of Wordles should give you an idea of why JIFFY is proving so difficult to solve. Namely that as with almost every single one of them, it contains one of two complications: an uncommon letter or a repeated letter.
In JIFFY’s case, though, it has both of these problems. We’ll begin with the J, because it begins the answer. As my analysis of every Wordle answer shows, J appears in only 27 of the game’s 2,309 original solutions, meaning that’s it’s less common than every other letter in the game; Q turns up 29 times, X appears 37 times and Z is in 40.
It has its J in common with JOLLY, the hardest game of the year so far, and the horrible JERKY, and with the earlier JAZZY and JOKER (5.5 and 5.4 respectively). In fact, of the 830 Wordles I have an average score for, it’s only once been in a game that was lower than 4.0 (JOUST, a 3.8 in 2022). The next lowest is EJECT (4.4), followed by ENJOY and NINJA (both 4.6) and then today’s game.
So the inclusion of a J is pretty much a guarantee of increased difficulty, and if you then throw in the repeated F too you can see why it’s proving to be so tricky. F is a middling letter in terms of repeats, ranking 11th in this regard, but it only appears twice in 22 answers, so it’s still incredibly uncommon.
If you want me to toss a third complication into the mix, I’ll gladly oblige: start words were an absolute disaster today. Of WordleBot’s top 20, TRICE was the winner, reducing the options list to a mere… um… 126. But CRANE left 356, SLATE left 314 and STARE left 321, so there were far worse choices than that.
Or, indeed, you could have been saddled with SCREW, as I was. This drew a blank and left 539 answers, so of course I needed to follow that up by playing the most common remaining letters in order to get my game back on track. My choice was TALON – which WordleBot said was “terrific” – and it gave me absolutely no yellows or greens once again.
Ten letters down, no letters found. Surely the third guess would be better? Well, to an extent. I (correctly) predicted that the word would probably end with a Y, and that it would most likely contain a repeated letter (which is always likely when the letter pool has been reduced to this extent). I drew up a shortlist that included the likes of FUZZY, BUGGY, BUZZY, GUMMY, YUMMY, BUDDY, BUMPY, JUMPY, DUMPY, DIZZY, PUPPY, DUMMY and a few more. It wasn’t definitive, by any means, but it gave me enough info to know that DUMPY would be a good choice.
And indeed it was – though I didn’t realize that at first. As I played it, the first letter turned over and stayed gray. Then the second. Then the third. Then the fourth. Panic! Then, finally the Y turned green to confirm my hunch.
I thought I might still have quite a few options left, but I could only find two: JIFFY and FIZZY. So what I had here was a choice between a word that contained one uncommon letter and a word that contained two… so of course I went for the first option. WordleBot said it would have gone the other way, which is why it could only score a five today, but I was able to play JIFFY and walk away relatively unscathed with a four. I’ll take that.
Wordle answers: The past 50
I’ve been playing Wordle every day for more than two 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 #1119, Friday 12 July: JIFFY
- Wordle #1118, Thursday 11 July: CAMEO
- Wordle #1117, Wednesday 10 July: GAUNT
- Wordle #1116, Tuesday 9 July: BLARE
- Wordle #1115, Monday 8 July: SHAPE
- Wordle #1114, Sunday 7 July: CANON
- Wordle #1113, Saturday 6 July: SCOFF
- Wordle #1112, Friday 5 July: CRUSH
- Wordle #1111, Thursday 4 July: DEBUT
- Wordle #1110, Wednesday 3 July: THIGH
- Wordle #1109, Tuesday 2 July: INLAY
- Wordle #1108, Monday 1 July: ADAGE
- Wordle #1107, Sunday 30 June: BUDDY
- Wordle #1106, Saturday 29 June: ZEBRA
- Wordle #1105, Friday 28 June: DROVE
- Wordle #1104, Thursday 27 June: ORDER
- Wordle #1103, Wednesday 26 June: KNEAD
- Wordle #1102, Tuesday 25 June: SAVOR
- Wordle #1101, Monday 24 June: DOLLY
- Wordle #1100, Sunday 23 June: BUGLE
- Wordle #1099, Saturday 22 June: EDICT
- Wordle #1098, Friday 21 June: PAINT
- Wordle #1097, Thursday 20 June: SCENT
- Wordle #1096, Wednesday 19 June: TERSE
- Wordle #1095, Tuesday 18 June: COVER
- Wordle #1094, Monday 17 June: PRIOR
- Wordle #1093, Sunday 16 June: GRIND
- Wordle #1092, Saturday 15 June: PROUD
- Wordle #1091, Friday 14 June: VAULT
- Wordle #1090, Thursday 13 June: ANGST
- Wordle #1089, Wednesday 12 June: DETER
- Wordle #1088, Tuesday 11 June: SWUNG
- Wordle #1087, Monday 10 June: MANGA
- Wordle #1086, Sunday 9 June: CROWD
- Wordle #1085, Saturday 8 June: HENCE
- Wordle #1084, Friday 7 June: MELON
- Wordle #1083, Thursday 6 June: ETHER
- Wordle #1082, Wednesday 5 June: ORGAN
- Wordle #1081, Tuesday 4 June: GROOM
- Wordle #1080, Monday 3 June: STARK
- Wordle #1079, Sunday 2 June: BRAVO
- Wordle #1078, Saturday 1 June: BASIN
- Wordle #1077, Friday 31 May: CHAOS
- Wordle #1076, Thursday 30 May: GUMMY
- Wordle #1075, Wednesday 29 May: PAPAL
- Wordle #1074, Tuesday 28 May: MINUS
- Wordle #1073, Monday 27 May: SKIER
- Wordle #1072, Sunday 26 May: BEVEL
- Wordle #1071, Saturday 25 May: TITAN
- Wordle #1070, Friday 24 May: GLIDE
- Wordle #1069, Thursday 23 May: SWISH
- Wordle #1068, Wednesday 22 May: EXALT
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.
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