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 #1138) – 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 #1138) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is 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.
Wordle hints (game #1138) – clue #3 – repeated letters
Does today’s Wordle have any repeated letters?
• There are 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 #1138) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is E.
E is the most common letter to end a Wordle answer by far. That’s one of the reasons why many of the best start words, including SLATE, CRANE, CRATE and STARE, all end with one.
Wordle hints (game #1138) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1138.
- Today’s Wordle answer is good with a creamy or tomato sauce.
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 #1138)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 5
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: PLANE (4 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: VIGIL (1,410)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1138) is… PENNE.
There are few things in life worse than a frustrating game of Wordle*. And today was a really, really, really frustrating Wordle for me. I had to settle for a 5/6 – my third in six days, embarrassingly enough – and to really rub it in WordleBot notched a 3/6.
In my defence, PENNE is a difficult Wordle. It has an average score of 4.2 at the time of writing, making it the toughest since AWASH last Friday, and contains a rare double-repeat. I say it’s rare, but we had one with REFER a couple of weeks back too. However, as my analysis of every Wordle answer shows, it’s rare in general to get more than one repeated letter: they occur in a mere 38 out of the original 2,309 solutions.
I also had a lot of bad luck, and it started at the beginning with my opening VIGIL. That contained a repeated I, which was no use at all as there wasn’t even one I in the answer. Nor was there a V, G or L.
That left me with 1,410 possible solutions, or more than half of the real total. WordleBot, meanwhile, had only 13 to sift through thanks to its CRANE being one of the best choices today.
My bad luck continued on the second guess: WordleBot said my choice, CRATE, was exactly what it would have picked… but it only gave me a green E and still left 26. Yes, that’s right – after two guess I still had twice the number of options the ‘bot had after one.
I was getting a little angry by the time my third attempt, SHOWN, added nothing more than a yellow N into the mix. A little worried, too – although once I investigated, things weren’t as bad as they seemed. It turned out there were now only two possible solutions, UNDUE and PENNE, so it made sense to guess one outright and try for a 4/6, rather than doing any further narrowing down.
Which one did I pick? You got it. UNDUE was wrong, obviously, so I was finally left to play PENNE on the fifth guess. I always preferred tagliatelle anyway.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
* Obviously there are lots of things worse than a frustrating game of Wordle really, but today’s game is still raw for me.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1137)
In a different time zone where it’s still Tuesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1137, 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 F.
F is a very common starting letter in Wordle. It ranks seventh behind only S, C, B, T, P and A and overall there are 135 solutions that begin with this letter.
- 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 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 #1137.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is wild.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1137)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: CARET, CARTE (3 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: KNEED (426)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1137) was… FERAL.
FERAL is a good word. Very expressive. I’m on vacation with my family right now and my kids appear to be going feral: getting them out of bed, or convincing them to eat anything besides ice cream, or to do anything is a real chore. And I’m not sure I’m much better. Civilisation feels a million miles away (it’s actually about 5 miles off, but who’s counting).
But feral or not, I did manage to solve this Wordle in four, which is the same as the score achieved by WordleBot, albeit slightly higher than the 3.8 average for today’s puzzle. I think I have the moral high ground over the ‘bot, though, because my start word KNEED left me with 426 possible solutions, whereas its CRANE reduced the numbers to 87.
I rolled out my trusty old favorite STARE for my second guess, and oh how I wish it was still my opener. It immediately gave me a couple more yellows and cut that shortlist (which was really more of a very-long-list) to only 10.
My third guess was EARLY, which turned the R green and threw an L into the mix, but still left that pesky E in uncomfirmed status. Or did it? No, because I’d had two Es in that opening KNEED, so now I knew the E had to be second. Given that the A was very unlikely to go before it – AE— is not a format we’ll ever see in Wordle, as far as I’m aware – I was effectively looking at -ERAL, LERA- or LER-A. I couldn’t see any options for the latter two, and in fact could only find one for the first. That was FERAL and I played it next for my 4/6.
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 #1137, Tuesday 30 July: FERAL
- Wordle #1136, Monday 29 July: SUPER
- Wordle #1135, Sunday 28 July: SMOCK
- Wordle #1134, Saturday 27 July: JUICE
- Wordle #1133, Friday 26 July: AWASH
- Wordle #1132, Thursday 25 July: PORCH
- Wordle #1131, Wednesday 24 July: FORTE
- Wordle #1130, Tuesday 23 July: PRONG
- Wordle #1129, Monday 22 July: CADET
- Wordle #1128, Sunday 21 July: SPECK
- Wordle #1127, Saturday 20 July: SHAFT
- Wordle #1126, Friday 19 July: REFER
- Wordle #1125, Thursday 18 July: NERDY
- Wordle #1124, Wednesday 17 July: QUITE
- Wordle #1123, Tuesday 16 July: DECOY
- Wordle #1122, Monday 15 July: SWOON
- Wordle #1121, Sunday 14 July: VIDEO
- Wordle #1120, Saturday 13 July: ENACT
- 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
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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