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 #1168) – 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 #1168) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is K.
K is not a common starting letter in Wordle by any measure. In fact it ranks 22nd out of 26; a mere 20 answers begin with a K.
Wordle hints (game #1168) – 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 #1168) – 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 #1168) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1168.
- Today’s Wordle answer is a deceitful person.
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 #1168)
- NYT average score: 4.0
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: CRANE, SNARE (3 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: WREAK (19)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1168) is… KNAVE.
I enjoyed a double dose of good fortune today, and that led me to a score of 3/6 on a day when the global average is at 4.0.
It was just as well, because KNAVE is fundamentally a tricky Wordle to solve. For starters, it has that unusual KN opening, one that is shared by only nine other solutions. This is the sixth we’ve had, with the previous examples being KNOLL (game #219), KNOCK (#539), KNEEL (#710), KNELT (#845) and KNEAD (#1103), meaning there are only four more to worry about. And no, I don’t know what they all are – though I can think of at least two of them.
There’s also a V in there, and as I show in my analysis of every Wordle answer, V is the fifth least likely letter to appear in the game, ahead of only Z, X, Q and J (and K is only just ahead of them, at seventh least likely). And to further complicate things, KNAVE is not exactly a widely used word compared to some. It’s not totally obscure – but when did you last say someone was a KNAVE? I’m not sure I ever have!
A high score is not necessarily unexpected today, then. But my 3/6 was, because my start word, WREAK, did not fill me with confidence. Any word with two of the more uncommon letters is unlikely to be a winner, after all – but today it worked pretty well thanks to containing A, E and – crucially – K.
That cut my possible solutions list to 19, which was a little better than the likes of SLATE (31) and STARE (29), though nowhere near as good as CRANE, which left only two. I still had work to do, though, so needed some luck on my second guess – and got it with LEAKY. This ruled out a bunch of words that contained an L – FLAKE, SLAKE, LEAKY itself – and several that used the K in position #4 (SNAKE, SHAKE, PEAKY, QUAKE). In fact, it left only two answers: KNAVE and SKATE.
As regular Wordlers will know, SKATE was a past Wordle answer less than a week ago (game #1163), so I knew it had to be KNAVE and scored my 3/6.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1167)
In a different time zone where it’s still Thursday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1167, 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 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 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 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.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1167.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is to fail.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1167)
- NYT average score: 4.1
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: PLANE (18 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: SUITE (83)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1167) was… FLUNK.
We’ve had a lengthy run of easy Wordles but that appears to have finally come to an end here with an answer that currently has an average score of 4.1.
At first glance, you might wonder why it’s as high as that – after all, it doesn’t contain any truly uncommon letters, or any repeats, and it’s not an obscure word either. But the problem here is almost certainly one of there being too many answers.
Yes, that old chestnut… Specifically, with just one letter different you could have had FLANK, CLUNK, SLUNK, PLUNK of FLUNG and with two letters changed you could have had dozens including the likes of PLONK, CHUNK, BLUNT, PLUCK, CLUNG or FLUFF, all of which were played by plenty of Wordlers today at various stages of the game.
That aside, there aren’t too many complications. K is the least common letter among these five, but it’s far more likely to appear at the end of a word than it is elsewhere, and regularly appears after an N as it does here. The FL combo at the start, meanwhile, is the equal eighth most common, and occurs 36 times in all.
Start words weren’t much help today, in general. The best of WordleBot’s top 20 was PLANE, which left 18 options, but that’s not a popular pick and so isn’t likely to have impacted the score. The truly common choices, for instance CRANE (68) and STARE (321) were far less successful.
My randomly picked opener, SUITE, was in-between those two and left 83 options. That proved to be too many for me to score a three today, but I was able to turn to an old favorite second guess (yes, I have favorites) in the form of COULD. This turned my yellow U green, and added in a yellow L. In doing so, it cut my options to 10.
The good news was that I found nine of them: PLUMP, PLUMB, BLURB, FLUNG, BLUFF, FLUFF, PLUNK, FLUNK and FLUKY. The bad news was that a) I missed LAUGH, which was a silly error and b) narrowing down those nine words on my list was no easy task.
As a glance at them shows, there were several different consonants that sat either side of the -LU– bit: chiefly P, B, M, N and K, with the odd G, R and Y too. So I needed a word that would rule out as many as possible in one go. FLUNK seemed like a good bet, because even if it was wrong it would guarantee the answer on the fourth guess, unless it was one of PLUMP, PLUMB or BLURB, in which case I’d still face a possible 5/6.
But then, overthinking things as always, I decided to play FLANK instead, simply because I thought I might have missed some words, and the A might help. So I played that and obviously cheated myself out of a three, because the answer was FLUNK instead. What a fool.
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 #1167, Thursday 29 August: FLUNK
- Wordle #1166, Wednesday 28 August: LITHE
- Wordle #1165, Tuesday 27 August: CROWN
- Wordle #1164, Monday 26 August: STAKE
- 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
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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