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 #1239) – 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 #1239) – 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 #1239) – 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 #1239) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is L.
L is a really common letter to find at the end of a Wordle. There are 155 games that finish with an L, and it ranks as the fifth most likely letter there.
Wordle hints (game #1239) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1239.
- Today’s Wordle answer is to expand.
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 #1239)
- NYT average score: 4.5
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 5
- Best start word performance*: STALE (5 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: QUILT (85)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1239) is… SWELL.
Sometimes in life you have to make difficult decisions. Do you take that dream job that means you have to move away from family and friends? Do you end that relationship that’s sort of fizzling out? Do you play it safe in Wordle… or gamble on a higher score? Big, difficult decisions, all of them.
The third of those was the only one facing me today, but it still gave me pause for thought. I had three words left and could easily have scored a 3/6 if I guessed right. Guess wrong, though, and I might end up with a five.
In fairness, even a five wouldn’t have been horrible today given that SWELL currently has an average score of 4.5. That’s higher than all but two games in the past two weeks, and with good reason – because it’s a too-many-answers Wordle.
Change just one letter and you can get six different words: SWELL, SPELL, SMELL, SHELL, DWELL and SWILL. The first four of those are probably the ones that will have caused the most trouble today; SHELL was the most popular word on guess #2, while on guesses number #3 and #4 it comprised 10% of all answers. SMELL, meanwhile, was played by 16% of Wordlers on that fourth attempt.
SWELL is arguably the least common word of the four, and W is definitely a less common letter than either P, M or H, so it’s no surprise to see such a high score here. The repeated L won’t have helped, either.
What will have helped was starting with SLATE; it left only eight possible answers, while STALE was even better, at five. But bad luck if you began with CRANE – which left 273 options. That probably explains why WordleBot, which always begins with that word, scored a five here.
I ended up with a four, after my Big, Difficult Decision on the third guess. I began with QUILT – which WordleBot described as a “decent” opening word, but which I wouldn’t personally have chosen (as always these days, I let fate decide).
QUILT left me with 85 choices, apparently, but all I knew at that time was that I had a green L. I came up with a dozen or so options, and spotted that S was a very likely letter to appear: SMALL and SCALE and SHALE and SCALD and SCALP and so on. I also had WHALE and WHOLE and a few others, so CHASE seemed to cover lots of possibilities.
This proved a very lucky guess, giving me yellow S and E and ruling out all but three words: SMELL, SWELL and SPELL. And at this point I had to choose. Did I shoot for the answer in three, or play it safe for a four? It was never really in doubt – I’m nothing if not pragmatic. So I played WIMPY in order to choose between the three words, then got SWELL on my fourth attempt.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1238)
In a different time zone where it’s still Friday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1238, 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 R.
R is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter. Despite ranking third overall in Wordle, it’s merely the 11th most likely to begin an answer.
- 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 Y.
Y is the second most common ending letter in the game, behind only E. In total, 364 Wordle answers end with a Y.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1238.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is prepared.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1238)
- NYT average score: 3.3 (revised)
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: TRADE (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: GRAVY (7)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1238) was… READY.
You’d have to go back to the middle of last month for the last time we had a game with as low of an average as READY. WordleBot says it’s currently being solved in an average of 3.4 guesses, a score last achieved by GRANT, game #1215, on October 16. It really has been a tough few weeks for Wordle. (Note – by the end of the day it had dropped to 3.3, so the lowest since STAIN, game #1211.)
But not yesterday. Anyone who started with STARE – which is around 5% of all players – will have been left with only three possible solutions, while CRANE, TRACE and CRATE all left nine and SLATE cut the pool to a dozen. My random opener, GRAVY, was another good one, leaving a mere seven. There were plenty of high scores to be had here.
That’s hardly surprising, given that READY contains the three most common letters in the game, plus the second most common ending letter. And it’s also just such an obvious word; the kind that people will play when they’re trying to narrow down the answers, not necessarily expecting it to be the solution, only to be pleasantly surprised. I suspect that happened to a few yesterday.
With a green A, a green Y and a yellow R to play with after my first guess, it shouldn’t have been too hard for me to find the seven words still available. If the R went at the start, I had READY, while if it went in position #4 I could play SCARY, DIARY, WEARY or TEARY. But hang on – because that’s only five. Yes, I missed a couple: HOARY – which might be an answer – and CHARY, which I very much doubt is.
That could have come back to haunt me, because while my second guess WEIRD was guaranteed to narrow down my five words, it could have left a three-way split between SCARY and the two words I missed. But it didn’t; WEIRD gave me the green E and still-yellow R that confirmed READY as the answer, and I played it next for my first 3/6 in more than a week.
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 #1238, Friday 8 November: READY
- Wordle #1237, Thursday 7 November: EVENT
- Wordle #1236, Wednesday 6 November: TRULY
- Wordle #1235, Tuesday 5 November: OCTET
- Wordle #1234, Monday 4 November: VINYL
- Wordle #1233, Sunday 3 November: BLAZE
- Wordle #1232, Saturday 2 November: SNOOP
- Wordle #1231, Friday 1 November: SIXTH
- Wordle #1230, Thursday 31 October: WEIRD
- Wordle #1229, Wednesday 30 October: EASEL
- Wordle #1228, Tuesday 29 October: TUNIC
- Wordle #1227, Monday 28 October: BAWDY
- Wordle #1226, Sunday 27 October: SANDY
- Wordle #1225, Saturday 26 October: WREAK
- Wordle #1224, Friday 25 October: FROWN
- Wordle #1223, Thursday 24 October: BOSSY
- Wordle #1222, Wednesday 23 October: GOOFY
- Wordle #1221, Tuesday 22 October: SHOUT
- Wordle #1220, Monday 21 October: SPOON
- Wordle #1219, Sunday 20 October: DICEY
- Wordle #1218, Saturday 19 October: FIBER
- Wordle #1217, Friday 18 October: STINT
- Wordle #1216, Thursday 17 October: HALVE
- Wordle #1215, Wednesday 16 October: GRANT
- Wordle #1214, Tuesday 15 October: CORER
- 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
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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