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 #1156) – 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 #1156) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is L.
L is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter in Wordle. Despite being the sixth most common letter overall, it’s only ranked 12th at the beginning of a word.
Wordle hints (game #1156) – 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 #1156) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is Y.
Y is the second most common ending letter in the game, behind only E. In total, 364 Wordle answers end with a Y.
Wordle hints (game #1156) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1156.
- Today’s Wordle answer is tall and thin.
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 #1156)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: LEAST (10 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: SPINE (116)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1156) is… LANKY.
Of all Wordle’s answers so far, this might be the least apt description of me, I’m sorry to say. It’s also the hardest Wordle for almost a week, since the incredibly tough SKIFF last Monday.
It has very little in common with that word, though, beyond the fact that both contain a K. I suppose the other thing that unites them is that neither is that common of a word. LANKY is probably in wider usage than SKIFF, admittedly, but it is more informal than Wordle generally is, and that may have caught out a few people today. But there are no repeated letters, and no really uncommon ones either.
K is the closest to a complication on that front: it’s ranked 20th out of the 26 letters, and is generally found at the end of a word rather than elsewhere. But position #4 is its second most common spot, and it jumps up to 15th here, where it often appears before a Y and after either L (MILKY), N (PINKY), or C (PICKY).
I suspect the high-ish average today of 4.2 may be due to lots of people picking one of a couple of similarly spelled alternatives before LANKY. LACKY, in particular, was what I chose for my third guess, but looking at WordleBot’s data it appears that MANLY was the more common pick.
Either way, it took me four guesses today, and WordleBot the same, so it’s safe to say that it’s not a walk in the park.
It’s not one where the popular start words helped all that much; CRANE left 65 answers, SLATE left 75, STARE left 191. My random opener was SPINE, which was in-between those at 116. It’s all a way away from the riches on offer yesterday (see below).
My second word was decent without being stellar – TALON cut the possibles list to six, five of which I found. The ones I got were CANAL, BANAL, NAVAL, MANLY and LANKY, but I missed WANLY. Is that really likely to be an answer? I doubt it.
Anyway, I couldn’t think of an obvious way to guarantee a four so went with LACKY, as this would give me the answer unless it was one of BANAL or NAVAL. It wasn’t, so I played LANKY next and just about beat the average.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1155)
In a different time zone where it’s still Saturday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1155, 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 M.
M is a middling ending letter: it ranks 13th in this regard, and only completes 42 Wordle answers overall.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1155.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a violent atmospheric condition.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1155)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: STARE (3 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: IDIOM (6)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1155) was… STORM.
With an average score of 3.8 and with a format that sees four ultra-common letters paired with one middling one, you might expect STORM to be an easy Wordle. In reality, much may depend on your choice of start word.
That’s because STARE, which is the third most popular opener of all, left only three answers today and therefore an almost-certain two or three. Faced with a choice of STORM, STORK or STORY, canny Wordlers will have played a word such as MURKY next, to point the way to which of the three it was, and secure that 3/6. But even if they preferred to shoot for the answer right away, I’d wager that STORM would be their choice for guess number three, after STORY but before STORK.
The success for the STARE crew will have reduced the overall average, which might otherwise have been up around 4.0. And that makes sense, because if your start word didn’t begin with ST, you may well have had lots of words to narrow down. CRANE, for instance, left 106 choices.
The alternative route to success was a start word that ends with an M, but nobody plays one of those. Well, nobody other than someone who uses a random word generator and who is forced to go with the usually less-than-ideal IDIOM.
“Bold choice!” said WordleBot afterwards. “Not what I would have picked, but I admire your creativity.”
Trust me, ‘bot, it’s not what I would have picked either. However, it was “extraordinarily lucky today” and left only six possible answers.
Better still, most of those were relatively obscure words which aren’t necessarily going to be real Wordle answers. The ones I found were STORM, TOTEM and GOLEM, while the ‘bot also came up with FORUM, HOKUM and GLOAM. I nearly played STORM straight off, because it seemed far more likely than the others to be an answer, but played it safe with STOLE, which would have pointed the way to the other two on my list anyway.
But I needn’t have done so: S, T and O all turned green, so I played STORM next for my WordleBot-beating 3/6.
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 #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
- 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
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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