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 #1214) – 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 #1214) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is C.
C is a very common starting letter in Wordle – in fact, it’s the second most common of all, behind only S.
Wordle hints (game #1214) – clue #3 – repeated letters
Does today’s Wordle have any repeated letters?
• There are 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 #1214) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is R.
R is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – it’s actually the 4th most common there, behind E, Y and T.
Wordle hints (game #1214) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1214.
- Today’s Wordle answer is a kitchen implement.
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 #1214)
- NYT average score: 5.6
- My score: 5
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: CARET, CARTE (4 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: VINYL (967)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1214) is… CORER.
Where to start here, then?
Maybe with this: at the time of writing CORER has a monumentally high average score of 5.6. Yes, 5.6. On average, people are taking nearly six guesses to solve it. It is very early days, admittedly, but if it stays there it would be the most difficult Wordle since MUMMY in October 2022. Yes, more than 700 games ago.
As to why it’s proving so difficult, well that’s essentially due to the fact that it’s an ER word with a repeated letter, a double-whammy that always leads to high scores. For instance, RIDER, in late September, was at 4.6 and REFER, in July, was a 4.7.
Then again, CORER has a high average even for those kind of games, which may be due to it having two far more common alternatives in the form of COVER and COWER. Or if you didn’t have the O, maybe CARER.
It wasn’t necessarily the result of poor start word performance, though. CRANE – WordleBot’s favorite opener and the fourth most popular, left only 12 possible solutions, while CRATE (11), CARTE (4) and CARET (also 4) were better still. Even so, narrowing it down from there will have been a struggle. WordleBot scored a 4/6, for instance, guessing COVER on the third attempt and I suspect that will be a familiar theme.
I should also have scored a 4/6, despite a disastrous start that saw my random opener VINYL draw a blank. That left me with 967 possibles, and though my second guess STARE was described by the ‘bot as a “terrific” choice (albeit an obvious one), I still had 68 words to choose from.
With yellow R and E in the final two positions I was already sure this would be an ER word. But which one? I listed as many options as I could, and decided to play ROPER as this would confirm the format and determine whether or not there was a repeated R in it. This is a common occurrence with these words, whether the first R is at the start (RIDER, RUDER) or in the middle (PARER, SURER).
WordleBot loved this approach, and it was lucky too – cutting my answers list to one. Or at least that’s what the ‘bot said afterwards; in my head, I was down to zero.
The problem was that I was sure CORER had been a past Wordle answer. But through sheer bloody-mindedness I refused to check the list to confirm it, so ruled it out of my reasoning. Instead, I decided the answer had to be BORER, the only other word I thought might be an answer. So I played that, and when all but the first letter went green was absolutely baffled.
I had another look at the available letters and decided it must be GORER then – but when I tried to play that, Wordle wouldn’t even accept it as a guess. So I returned to CORER and played that, reasoning that maybe Wordle had finally decided to repeat an answer, and it duly proved to be right – meaning I scored my 5/6. It was only when I consulted the answer list later that I realized my mistake – CORER hadn’t been a previous answer, but I was instead thinking of PARER, the answer to game #454 in September 2022. What an idiot.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1213)
In a different time zone where it’s still Monday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1213, 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 G.
G is the eighth most common starting letter, featuring in 115 Wordle answers. It’s often paired with an L to make GL—, but I’m not revealing whether that’s the case today.
- 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 T.
T is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only E and Y are more likely in that position.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1213.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is the whole series.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1213)
- NYT average score: 4.0 (revised)
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: SAINT (13 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: SHALE (245)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1213) was… GAMUT.
We’ve had a couple of very easy Wordles over the previous two days, but GAMUT is seemingly much harder: it has an average score of 4.1 at the time of writing (note: revised to 4.0).
I’m not particularly surprised about that, because it contains two letters that are best described as ‘middling’ in terms of their frequency; M ranks 16th and G is 17th. Neither is included in many start words, either, so the results for that aspect of the game were poor today: CRANE left 187 possible answers, SLATE left 64 and STARE 88. Nor is it a widely used word.
Put all that together and 4.1 seems about right. It’s certainly a lot harder than Sunday’s PRONE (3.6) and Friday’s STAIN (3.2). Not that I found it that hard myself – but then again, I did need some luck for my 3/6.
I had another terrible opening, with SHALE leaving 245 options for me to whittle down. With only a yellow A to work with, there were many ways I could have approached the second guess. Putting that A in the second position made sense, because it’s more common there than any other letter. I wanted to add another vowel, too, and then include a couple more common consonants. T and R were the obvious choices, but I couldn’t think of a good word to play that had them both, while fulfilling my other requirements, so instead I left out R and put in P and N for PAINT.
WordleBot gave me 88 for skill here and 75 for luck, while informing me that I’d narrowed it down to only four words: GAMUT, TAROT, CARAT and KARAT. So far, so good.
The ‘bot thought I should play CARAT next, because it would guarantee a solve in four at the worst, whereas playing GAMUT next as I did might still have left me with three to choose from. However, I knew CARAT had been a past Wordle answer (game #663), so that logic didn’t apply. And to further complicate matters, I failed to spot TAROT, so that wasn’t on my list at all.
With all that in mind, it was entirely logical for me to make a guess between KARAT and GAMUT, and by that measure the latter was (I think) the more likely answer. So I scored a three that seemed to me like it owed a lot to skill, but which with hindsight was also down to some good fortune. But then again, isn’t that usually the case with Wordle?
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 #1213, Monday 14 October: GAMUT
- Wordle #1212, Sunday 13 October: PRONE
- Wordle #1211, Saturday 12 October: STAIN
- Wordle #1210, Friday 11 October: GUSTY
- Wordle #1209, Thursday 10 October: CARVE
- Wordle #1208, Wednesday 9 October: MOMMY
- Wordle #1207, Tuesday 8 October: JOINT
- Wordle #1206, Monday 7 October: FLOUR
- Wordle #1205, Sunday 6 October: LAGER
- Wordle #1204, Saturday 5 October: MINER
- Wordle #1203, Friday 4 October: TITLE
- Wordle #1202, Thursday 3 October: WAGON
- Wordle #1201, Wednesday 2 October: SHELL
- Wordle #1200, Tuesday 1 October: MODEM
- Wordle #1199, Monday 30 September: CLOUD
- Wordle #1198, Sunday 29 September: RIDER
- Wordle #1197, Saturday 28 September: BRAIN
- Wordle #1196, Friday 27 September: FAITH
- Wordle #1195, Thursday 26 September: THANK
- Wordle #1194, Wednesday 25 September: TORCH
- Wordle #1193, Tuesday 24 September: HANDY
- Wordle #1192, Monday 23 September: STEAM
- Wordle #1191, Sunday 22 September: TEACH
- Wordle #1190, Saturday 21 September: SEVEN
- Wordle #1189, Friday 20 September: SMOKE
- Wordle #1188, Thursday 19 September: PRESS
- Wordle #1187, Wednesday 18 September: FULLY
- Wordle #1186, Tuesday 17 September: BEAUT
- Wordle #1185, Monday 16 September: HONEY
- Wordle #1184, Sunday 15 September: RECUR
- Wordle #1183, Saturday 14 September: BROAD
- Wordle #1182, Friday 13 September: HARSH
- Wordle #1181, Thursday 12 September: BRASS
- Wordle #1180, Wednesday 11 September: AISLE
- Wordle #1179, Tuesday 10 September: REBEL
- Wordle #1178, Monday 9 September: DEBIT
- Wordle #1177, Sunday 8 September: DRAWN
- Wordle #1176, Saturday 7 September: OWNER
- Wordle #1175, Friday 6 September: RERUN
- Wordle #1174, Thursday 5 September: WIDEN
- Wordle #1173, Wednesday 4 September: STERN
- Wordle #1172, Tuesday 3 September: FAINT
- Wordle #1171, Monday 2 September: CAMEL
- Wordle #1170, Sunday 1 September: MUSHY
- Wordle #1169, Saturday 31 August: SPOUT
- Wordle #1168, Friday 30 August: KNAVE
- Wordle #1167, Thursday 29 August: FLUNK
- Wordle #1166, Wednesday 28 August: LITHE
- Wordle #1165, Tuesday 27 August: CROWN
- Wordle #1164, Monday 26 August: STAKE
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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