Looking for a different day?
A new NYT Wordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today’s game’ while others are playing ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for Thursday’s puzzle instead then click here.
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 #1434) – clue #1 – Vowels
How many vowels does today’s Wordle have?
• Wordle today has 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).
Wordle hints (game #1434) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is 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.
Wordle hints (game #1434) – 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 #1434) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is K.
K is much more common at the end of a Wordle answer than at the start, and in fact ranks ninth overall in this regard.
Wordle hints (game #1434) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1434.
- Today’s Wordle answer is a shell or husk.
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 #1434)
- NYT average score: 3.7
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- My skill score: 94
- My luck score: 62
- My start word performance: EVICT (56 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (70)
- Tomorrow’s start word: CHASM
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1434) is… SHUCK.
Wordle can just be so frustrating sometimes, can’t it? I know 50/50 guesses should come off roughly half of the time, but my perception is that in Wordle it’s about a tenth of the time. I’ve not got records to prove this, and probably I just remember the failures more than the successes, but in my head at least I am very hard done by.
Whinge over. And I still scored a four, so it wasn’t a disaster.
My game began well enough, with EVICT giving me a green C and cutting my options to 56. A C in the fourth position generally implies one of two things: a CK or a CH. So I determined to play both H and K in my second guess, to cover off both possibilities.
CHALK was my weapon of choice, and if you’re looking at that and thinking ‘Why did you play the already-green C again but in a different place?’, well that was because I noted that the likes of CLOCK, CLUCK, CHOCK, CHUCK, CRACK, CROCK and COACH were all among the options here.
CHALK was a great choice, and lucky too; it left only two answers, SHUCK and SHOCK. Only trouble was… well, you know how that went.
But you can’t blame me, right? SHOCK was the more likely word – I mean, I don’t know if I’ve ever used SHUCK in a sentence in my life. Still, a score of four against an average of 3.7 is not terrible, and maybe tomorrow will be better.
How did you do today? Send me an email or let me know in the comments.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1433)
In a different time zone where it’s still Thursday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1433, too.
- Wordle yesterday had vowels in three 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 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 O.
O is a middling ending letter. It ranks 12th in this regard, and finishes 58 Wordle answers in total.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1433.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is found in a book.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1433)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 5
- My skill score: 99
- My luck score: 39
- My start word performance: BEARD (472 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (356)
- Tomorrow’s start word: EVICT
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1433) was… FOLIO.
FOLIO is a lovely sounding word that just rolls around the mouth, but I suspect many people will be spoiling the effect by following up with a curse, given how difficult it is.
It has an average score of 4.2 at the time of writing, which already implies that it’s pretty tough, but really it’s worse than that makes it seem. That’s because AUDIO, the second most common start word in the game, left only a pair of possible solutions – which will have skewed the numbers to make it seem easier than it really is.
Without that, this might well have an average in the 4.4 or 4.5 range, and it plays like that. There’s a repeated O to contend with, for starters – and that’s guaranteed to make a Wordle more difficult to solve.
What’s more, it also has an IO ending. This is a rare format, with only six examples among the 2,309 original solutions, and if your brain is anything like mine it may not have thought to put two vowels together at the end like that.
Not that I’m unhappy with how my game went; a four is perfectly respectable, and given that my opening BEARD drew a blank and left 472 options, to solve it in three more guesses from there was far from a disaster.
The key was to narrow down those possibles as soon as I could, and POINT did that brilliantly. Not only did it give me a green O and yellow I, but by ruling out three common letters it cut the shortlist to only six.
I came up with four of them – COLIC, FOLIC, LOGIC and COMIC – but missed FOLIO (d’oh!) and MOCHI. Fortunately my third guess, FOLIC, was the perfect choice to narrow down not just the four words I’d found, but all six of the possible solutions. When the first four letters turned green I thought I’d solved it in three, but I needed one final attempt to come up with FOLIO.
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 #1433, Thursday 22 May: FOLIO
- Wordle #1432, Wednesday 21 May: ALARM
- Wordle #1431, Tuesday 20 May: BORNE
- Wordle #1430, Monday 19 May: PITCH
- Wordle #1429, Sunday 18 May: LIVID
- Wordle #1428, Saturday 17 May: GROWN
- Wordle #1427, Friday 16 May: FIFTH
- Wordle #1426, Thursday 15 May: EAGER
- Wordle #1425, Wednesday 14 May: BONGO
- Wordle #1424, Tuesday 13 May: AWARE
- Wordle #1423, Monday 12 May: BICEP
- Wordle #1422, Sunday 11 May: DOWEL
- Wordle #1421, Saturday 10 May: YEAST
- Wordle #1420, Friday 9 May: TRIPE
- Wordle #1419, Thursday 8 May: BALMY
- Wordle #1418, Wednesday 7 May: MACHO
- Wordle #1417, Tuesday 6 May: SUITE
- Wordle #1416, Monday 5 May: SHUSH
- Wordle #1415, Sunday 4 May: TROUT
- Wordle #1414, Saturday 3 May: PATSY
- Wordle #1413, Friday 2 May: WHOSE
- Wordle #1412, Thursday 1 May: ADEPT
- Wordle #1411, Wednesday 30 April: IDLER
- Wordle #1410, Tuesday 29 April: BLISS
- Wordle #1409, Monday 28 April: DUMMY
- Wordle #1408, Sunday 27 April: WEEDY
- Wordle #1407, Saturday 26 April: CLASH
- Wordle #1406, Friday 25 April: KNOWN
- Wordle #1405, Thursday 24 April: GENIE
- Wordle #1404, Wednesday 23 April: OZONE
- Wordle #1403, Tuesday 22 April: ARTSY
- Wordle #1402, Monday 21 April: SPATE
- Wordle #1401, Sunday 20 April: PATCH
- Wordle #1400, Saturday 19 April: INBOX
- Wordle #1399, Friday 18 April: DIRGE
- Wordle #1398, Thursday 17 April: STOOD
- Wordle #1397, Wednesday 16 April: MORAL
- Wordle #1396, Tuesday 15 April: ASHEN
- Wordle #1395, Monday 14 April: CREST
- Wordle #1394, Sunday 13 April: LAUGH
- Wordle #1393, Saturday 12 April: NURSE
- Wordle #1392, Friday 11 April: ARROW
- Wordle #1391, Thursday 10 April: TURBO
- Wordle #1390, Wednesday 9 April: WHEAT
- Wordle #1389, Tuesday 8 April: SPARE
- Wordle #1388, Monday 7 April: HAZEL
- Wordle #1387, Sunday 6 April: VILLA
- Wordle #1386, Saturday 5 April: FOAMY
- Wordle #1385, Friday 4 April: KRILL
- Wordle #1384, Thursday 3 April: SHEAR
- Wordle #1383, Wednesday 2 April: CURSE
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 2025.
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’ Games 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.
12. The NYT has added in some of its own words, that weren’t in that list of 2,309 solutions. More will undoubtedly come over the next few years.
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