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 #1164) – 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 #1164) – 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 #1164) – 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 #1164) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is 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.
Wordle hints (game #1164) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1164.
- Today’s Wordle answer is a pointed piece of wood.
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 #1164)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: SLATE (4 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: ROACH (120)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1164) is… STAKE.
I’m pretty sure this is a first for Wordle: today’s answer is almost identical to yesterday’s. As anyone with eyes and a brain can see, STAKE and SKATE contain the same five letters with three of them in identical places. Only the K and T are swapped, and therefore almost all of what I said about SKATE applies to STAKE.
This is such an unlikely occurrence that I almost don’t believe it was an accident. I can’t tell you what the odds were – my math days are more than a quarter of a century ago – but they’re high. Or at least I think they are; maybe it’s no more than a 1-in-2309 shot, although that is itself fairly unlikely. I’m sure someone can work it out.
Anyway, regardless of how unlikely it was to appear today, STAKE is another easy Wordle. SKATE ended up with an average score of 3.5, having been at 3.7 when I wrote my column, while today’s currently sits at 3.8. That tiny difference is not statistically relevant at this stage, because it’s very early days and not many people have played; I’d expect STAKE to settle at around 3.5 too.
Is there any difference between them? Well, T is a lot more common in position #4 (139 instances), where it was yesterday, than it is in second as it is today (77 instances). That will have impacted a few start word results – and mostly negatively. For instance, SLATE left three answers yesterday, but four today, while STARE went from three to five and STALE from two to five.
Not that any of that concerned me, because my opening ROACH left 120. That I got home in three from there owed almost everything to my second guess STILE, which was chosen based almost entirely on probability; these were the five most common remaining letters.
STILE was “exactly what I would have picked,” said WordleBot, and it cut my 120 options to four. These were STAGE, STAKE, STAVE and STATE and compared to yesterday I had an advantage. That’s because I wasn’t sure then whether STATE had been a past Wordle answer, but after playing I checked and saw that it was. Therefore I knew for today’s game not to consider it, so really had only three to choose from.
Of that trio, I likewise had a vague recollection that STAGE might have appeared before, and wasn’t sure STAVE would be an answer, so decided to throw caution to the wind for once and guess STAKE. If it was wrong, I might score a four or at worst a five, but you have to live a little close to the edge sometimes, right?
My gamble paid off: all five letters turned green and I scored an unexpected 3/6.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1163)
In a different time zone where it’s still Sunday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1163, 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 #1163.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is to glide across a surface.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1163)
- NYT average score: 3.5 (revised)
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: STALE (2 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: BUSED (162)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1163) was… SKATE.
This is likely to prove much less controversial than Friday’s Wordle. As I predicted in my column then, opinion as to whether FILET was a fair answer or not was split along territorial lines. So, while people in the UK and Australia generally thought it shouldn’t have been included, those in the US were fine with it. I still think it’s a little unfair, but there’s no point complaining, so I’ll move on to this game.
SKATE is an easy one by most regards, with an average score of 3.7 according to WordleBot (note: revised down to 3.5 by the end of the day) and with the most common starting/ending combination in the game. S and E are paired in those locations in 74 of Wordle’s 2,309 original solutions, which places them way ahead of the S/Y combo in second place (42). What’s more, the S-A-E format with those two letters sandwiching an A in the middle is the likeliest for those three positions: it occurs 23 times, versus 18 for S-O-E and 17 for S-I-E.
It’s partly for that reason that SLATE and STARE are such good start words and as you’d imagine both proved very successful today, leaving only three answers; STALE was even better, at two. Unfortunately, my random opener BUSED doesn’t begin with an S or end with an E, although both of those letters were at least included.
I had 162 possibles left after that so-so start, but cut them to three via the aforementioned SLATE. The bad news was that it still took me another two guesses from there.
The problem was that the three words – SKATE, STATE and SPATE – were all equally likely to be solutions, and I couldn’t recall for sure whether any had been past Wordle answers. I thought that STATE might have been, and indeed it had – in March this year.
I should have trusted my instincts, although it probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway as I’d most likely have gone with SPATE next. As it happens I played STEAK, which was guaranteed to give me a four but also guaranteed not to give me a three, and that pointed the way to SKATE as 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 #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
- 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
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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