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 #1174) – 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 #1174) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is W.
W is a fairly average letter when it comes to starting an answer. There are 82 solutions that begin with a W, with means that it ranks 13th – so right in the middle of the alphabet.
Wordle hints (game #1174) – 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 #1174) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is N.
N is a pretty common ending letter in Wordle: it’s the seventh most likely in that position and features in 130 solutions.
Wordle hints (game #1174) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1174.
- Today’s Wordle answer is to increase the scope of.
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 #1174)
- NYT average score: 4.0
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: SANER (32 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: LAUGH (772)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1174) is… WIDEN.
I’m a little surprised that today’s average is currently as high as 4.0, because WIDEN doesn’t appear to be a notably difficult word to solve.
Only one of its letters, W, is particularly uncommon – but on the flip side it’s a far more likely opening letter than you might image. In fact, it starts 82 of Wordle’s 2,309 original solutions, which means you’d expect one every 28 games. This places it right in the middle of the range, and ahead of the likes of E, O, H and N. However, we’ve not had a W at the start for 146 days, so we were well overdue one here.
Beyond that, I guess there’s an element of the too-many-answers problem about it. That consonant-I-consonant-E-consonant format is itself a very common one, and with N at the end you could also have had the likes of GIVEN, VIXEN, LINEN and LIKEN. Or, if you rearranged the last four letters, there are words like DINER, FINED, MINED and so on.
All of those words were played by some today, pointing to the fact that people may have struggled to narrow down the options even once they had several yellow letters (and even some greens). Start words may also have played a part in the high average score: very few of WordleBot’s top 20 were below 50, and among the most popular choices STARE was at 248 and CRANE at 90.
I would have been delighted with either, admittedly. My opening word – chosen at random – was LAUGH, and that left a massive pool of 772 possibles. I chose what I thought was a great second word, STORE, and WordleBot agreed – it described it as “terrific”. Unfortunately, it only gave me a yellow E to work with, and still left 54 options.
Or did it? Because many of those on WordleBot’s list were ED-ending words, and in general they are unlikely to ever be solutions. There has been an exception – FRIED, back in February – but that appears to have been a one-off.
Likely or not, I decided to go with MINED next purely as a way of further narrowing down the shortlist. And it worked: that gave me two greens, two yellows and left only one answer. That was WIDEN, and I played it next for a 4/6.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1173)
In a different time zone where it’s still Wednesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1173, 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 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.
- 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 N.
N is a pretty common ending letter in Wordle: it’s the seventh most likely in that position and features in 130 solutions.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1173.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is severe.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1173)
- NYT average score: 3.2
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: STARE, SNARE (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: FRISK (100)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1173) was… STERN.
There are days on which the result for one particular start word can skew the overall average and make a Wordle seem easier than it really is. This is one of those days.
WordleBot reports that STERN has an average score of 3.2, which makes it the equal 12th easiest Wordle ever and the second easiest so far in 2024. Only RAISE (game #1035, 3.0) is ahead of it this year. But is it really so simple? Well, yes and no.
The case for it being very easy is that it’s formed from five very common letters, in generally common places, and has the likeliest opening combination in the game. All of this is covered in my analysis of every Wordle answer.
However, I’m sure the average would be a bit higher – maybe in the 3.5 range – if not for the fact that STARE left only one possible solution today. STARE is played by around 5% of Wordlers on most days, and every single one of those (presumably) will have scored a 2/6 here. Add in the fact that TRAIN – which is usually the eighth or ninth most popular opener – also left only a single word, and that average will undoubtedly have been skewed.
That said, even people who played the likes of CRANE (33) or SLATE (17) didn’t exactly have a long list to work through today. I did, because my random opener was FRISK, and that left 100 answers – but I still scored a 3/6. So yes, it is an easy one.
My game was pretty straightforward, in that I followed FRISK with STARE, and therefore only had that one single answer remaining for my third guess. It’s fair to say I didn’t need too much brainpower today – it all played out as if by clockwork.
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 #1173, Wednesday 4 September: STERN
- Wordle #1172, Tuesday 3 September: FAINT
- Wordle #1171, Monday 2 September: CAMEL
- Wordle #1170, Sunday 1 September: MUSHY
- Wordle #1169, Saturday 31 August: SPOUT
- Wordle #1168, Friday 30 August: KNAVE
- Wordle #1167, Thursday 29 August: FLUNK
- Wordle #1166, Wednesday 28 August: LITHE
- Wordle #1165, Tuesday 27 August: CROWN
- Wordle #1164, Monday 26 August: STAKE
- Wordle #1163, Sunday 25 August: SKATE
- Wordle #1162, Saturday 24 August: FILET
- Wordle #1161, Friday 23 August: LEECH
- Wordle #1160, Thursday 22 August: BRUTE
- Wordle #1159, Wednesday 21 August: MULCH
- Wordle #1158, Tuesday 20 August: DELAY
- Wordle #1157, Monday 19 August: METER
- Wordle #1156, Sunday 18 August: LANKY
- Wordle #1155, Saturday 17 August: STORM
- Wordle #1154, Friday 16 August: BRACE
- Wordle #1153, Thursday 15 August: ACORN
- Wordle #1152, Wednesday 14 August: SHORE
- Wordle #1151, Tuesday 13 August: NEIGH
- Wordle #1150, Monday 12 August: SKIFF
- Wordle #1149, Sunday 11 August: SCONE
- Wordle #1148, Saturday 10 August: MEDIC
- Wordle #1147, Friday 9 August: OUNCE
- Wordle #1146, Thursday 8 August: SAUCY
- Wordle #1145, Wednesday 7 August: MACAW
- Wordle #1144, Tuesday 6 August: ANVIL
- Wordle #1143, Monday 5 August: ENSUE
- Wordle #1142, Sunday 4 August: LOWER
- Wordle #1141, Saturday 3 August: SCALE
- Wordle #1140, Friday 2 August: FLAKE
- Wordle #1139, Thursday 1 August: CHALK
- Wordle #1138, Wednesday 31 July: PENNE
- 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
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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