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 #1153) – 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 #1153) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is A.
A is a reasonably common starting letter in Wordle: 140 games begin with this letter. It ranks 6th among starting letters, behind S, C, B, T and P.
Wordle hints (game #1153) – 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 #1153) – 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 #1153) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1153.
- Today’s Wordle answer grows into something mighty.
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 #1153)
- NYT average score: 3.5
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: CRANE (2 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: TALLY (333)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1153) is… ACORN.
What’s better: a great first guess, poor second and a score of 3/6 – or a poor first guess, great second and a score of 3/6? Technically they’re equally good, but human nature dictates that the second scenario will always feel more satisfying.
I say this because my game was almost the exact opposite of WordleBot’s today, but we both ended up with that score of 3/6. And yes, I bet I’m feeling a lot more positive about it than the ‘bot is (in the unlikely event that it has feelings).
That didn’t look likely initially, though. One of the big drawbacks of using a random start word each day is that sometimes you have to play a word with a repeated letter in it. That’s generally bad, because you want to gain as much information about the answer as possible, and that means that you want five letters in there.
(The only exception to that is if the answer has a repeated letter too, but the chance of your start word having the same repeat as the solution is very small, so let’s ignore that.)
Today, my start word was TALLY – meaning that I got a single yellow A, and learned that there was no T, L or Y. And that was it – no fifth letter to rule out (or in). What a waste! That left me in a rather bad mood approaching my second guess, and with 333 possible solutions.
In contrast, anyone who began with CRANE already had four yellows, and had ruled out a fifth letter. Those players – WordleBot among them – had only two words to pick from: RANCH and ACORN.
But I had the last laugh. WordleBot picked RANCH first, then was left with ACORN to play third time out. Whereas in my case, I played CRANE as my second guess, and that left me with only a single option, ACORN – meaning I also scored a three.
So, same result but I end up feeling like I’ve snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, whereas WordleBot is left ruing a missed two. In your face, ‘bot!
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1152)
In a different time zone where it’s still Wednesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1152, 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 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.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1152.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is land bordering a body of water.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1152)
- NYT average score: 3.6
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: PARSE (6 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: SPARE (6)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1152) was… SHORE.
I’m getting major deja-vu today, because SHORE is remarkably similar to SCONE, SCALE and SHAPE, all of which have appeared within the past 40 days. All have that S at the start and E at the end, all have a common vowel in the middle, all have two relatively common consonants either side of that. And, of course, all have a low average score – as you’d expect given how likely the various letters are.
Today’s average is 3.6 at the time of writing, so slightly below SHAPE (3.7) but above SCALE (3.2) and SCONE (3.4). I scored 3/6 on each of them, but today’s task was made much easier by another fortuitous start word, following on from my lucky opening yesterday.
The thing about random start words is they let you down far more often than they succeed, but when they do come good, you can’t help feeling like you’ve cheated. I’ll take it, of course – a 3/6 is never to be sneered at – but it’s not like I had to do much here beyond play the odds.
My starter was SPARE, another “extraordinarily lucky” choice, according to WordleBot, and one which today cut my shortlist to six. These were SHORE, SHIRE, STORE, SCORE, SWORE and SNORE, and I spent a little while figuring out what the best second word was to narrow them down and guarantee a three. I settled on CHANT, which wasn’t perfect because it might have left a 50/50 between SHORE and SHIRE. It was the best I could come up with at the time, but if I’d have looked a little harder I’d have realized that NOTCH, WITCH and WINCH would all have guaranteed me that three.
As it happened, I did end up with that 50/50 – but I always going to play the more common SHORE over SHIRE, so again got lucky when that turned out to be the answer.
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 #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
- 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
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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