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 #1312) – 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 #1312) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is I.
I is only the 19th most common starting letter in Wordle, and just 34 of the original 2,309 answers begin with it.
Wordle hints (game #1312) – 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 #1312) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is G.
G is not a common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only 41 of Wordle’s 2,309 games finish with one.
Wordle hints (game #1312) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1312.
- Today’s Wordle answer is often found on a cake.
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 #1312)
- NYT average score: 4.1
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 2
- Best start word performance*: CRANE (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: SAVOY (627)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1312) is… ICING.
We’re well over halfway through Wordle now, but some letter patterns are still under-represented – and the repeated I is one of them. As I show in my analysis of every Wordle answer, I is repeated 24 times across the game’s 2,309 original solutions, so probability-wise we should have 13 by now. Instead, this is only the ninth such word to have appeared. It’s not exactly a massive difference at first glance, but it does mean you can expect more of them in the remaining 1,000-odd days – about one every 70 days, rather than every 145 days as they’ve appeared so far.
It’s a pattern that’s worth looking out for, because it can be hard to solve. You don’t expect to get two Is in a Wordle word, really – or I don’t at least. The letters E and O regularly appear together (GREED and GOOSE, say), as do the likes of L, R and T. But you don’t get two Is together, and neither do they generally appear at the start and end as repeats often do too. Instead, you’ll be looking for a word in which two Is turn up in quick succession but not together, which is just not the kind of thing your brain expects.
None of this mattered to WordleBot, or indeed anyone who began with CRANE, because that left only a single answer. The ‘bot inevitably scored a 2/6 as a result, which made my 4/6 look altogether unimpressive. But that said, the overall average is currently 4.1, so I’m happy enough. In fact, I’m delighted – my opening SAVOY left 627 possibles, so to get home in three more guesses from there was not too shabby.
I played for an ER word second, but was relieved when only the I and N in LINER changed color. They were both yellow, but surprisingly that was enough to cut the shortlist to 11. I found most of these including INPUT, UNFIT, UNZIP, THING, THINK and CUMIN, but – inevitably – not ICING.
I remembered quite a few of these as past Wordle answers, including THING, THINK and UNFIT, so went with CUMIN as it would guarantee me a four at worst, based on the words I’d found. As it happened, CUMIN had also been a previous answer (1059, so I should have recalled it really) – and when the C joined the I and N in yellow status I was a little confused.
However, another look at the board turned up ICING, and as it transpired that was the only possible solution by that stage.
How did you do today? Send me an email or let me know in the comments.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1311)
In a different time zone where it’s still Monday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1311, 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 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 D.
D is a fairly common letter to end a Wordle answer: it’s the eighth most likely to be in that position in a solution.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1311.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a sea creature.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1311)
- NYT average score: 3.8 (revised)
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: SAINT, SLICE (19 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: FIERY (203)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1311) was… SQUID.
Does that make today’s Wordle a Squid Game? Technically yes, although it’s a little less violent than the hit Netflix show. More pertinently, it’s a Q game – which means it’s also theoretically a difficult game.
As anyone who’s checked out my analysis of every Wordle answer will know, Q is the second least common letter in the game, appearing only 29 times in total. What’s more only five of those 29 appearances feature the Q in the second position. We’ve already had EQUIP, EQUAL, SQUAD and SQUAT, so this is the fifth and final one, right?
Except, no, it’s not. Instead, this is another example of an extra answer, one that the NYT has added to creator Josh Wardle’s original list of 2,309 words (actually 2,315 words, but the NYT also deleted a few). It’s the 12th addition, with the others having been GUANO, SNAFU, BALSA, KAZOO, LASER, PIOUS, BEAUT, MOMMY, PRIMP, UVULA and ATLAS. Which means, of course, that there is still one more -Q— word to come. Or potentially more, if the NYT adds in any others.
SQUID was one of the most glaring omissions from the original list; I saw more than one Reddit thread discussing how strange it was that it wasn’t included, so it’s fitting that it finally gets its day in the sun. That said, there may be people who are less pleased about its arrival, because it is a potentially tricky Wordle to solve. It’s not on a par with yesterday’s ROWER, admittedly; that word had a monumentally high average score of 5.6, whereas SQUID is at 3.9 (note – revised to 3.8). But it’s not easy, either.
Much may have depended on whether you considered the possibility that S could be followed by Q. I didn’t, and ended up with a four partly through luck – it could easily have been a five if things had played out slightly differently.
I started poorly, again, with my random word generator giving me FIERY. This is another good word in theory that proved to not be so good in practice, leaving me 203 possible solutions today. When I followed that with SAINT, I had the game back on track; this left only five words.
The problem was that I only found three of the five, SOLID, SPOIL and SUSHI. I played SPOIL thinking that even if it was wrong it would guarantee me a four, only to realize with horror that I’d messed up. Not only was SPOIL wrong, but I’d missed two other words, SQUID and SQUIB. I got lucky with the 50/50, but it was a reminder not to forget that SQ combination, rare though it might be.
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 #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
- Wordle #1277, Tuesday 17 December: SCOWL
- Wordle #1276, Monday 16 December: BOAST
- Wordle #1275, Sunday 15 December: FUNKY
- Wordle #1274, Saturday 14 December: DROOL
- Wordle #1273, Friday 13 December: BOXER
- Wordle #1272, Thursday 12 December: VYING
- Wordle #1271, Wednesday 11 December: PLUMB
- Wordle #1270, Tuesday 10 December: PATIO
- Wordle #1269, Monday 9 December: FLUNG
- Wordle #1268, Sunday 8 December: HYENA
- Wordle #1267, Saturday 7 December: HILLY
- Wordle #1266, Friday 6 December: SHOVE
- Wordle #1265, Thursday 5 December: ENDOW
- Wordle #1264, Wednesday 4 December: CRYPT
- Wordle #1263, Tuesday 3 December: SHAKY
- Wordle #1262, Monday 2 December: GUILE
- Wordle #1261, Sunday 1 December: MAUVE
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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