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, which remains the best of all the main Wordle alternatives.
SPOILER WARNING: Today’s Wordle answer and hints are below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to see them.
Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been playing Wordle for more than two years. He’s authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar and its sister site Tom’s Guide, including a detailed analysis of the most common letters in every position. His Wordle streak has reached the 500 mark (and is now in the 800s) and he’ll be inconsolable if he loses it. Yes, he takes it all too seriously.
Wordle hints (game #998) – 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 #998) – 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 #998) – 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 #998) – 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 #998) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #998.
- Today’s Wordle answer is near to you.
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 #998)
- NYT average score: 4.0
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: LEAST (10 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: RIDER (626)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #998) is… LOCAL.
Another day, another Wordle with a repeated letter and an average score of around the 4.0 mark. In fact, WordleBot says this one is exactly at 4.0, meaning it’s a tiny bit easier than yesterday’s HEAVE (see below).
That doesn’t surprise me, because unlike yesterday’s game, LOCAL only contains common letters, a fact which alone should be enough to make it more solvable. But on the flip side, the absence of an E among those letters slightly reduced the effectiveness of many popular start words; although LEAST cut down the options to 10, most of the other top choices were in the 30-50 range (CRANE, 37, or CRATE, 32) or far higher still (SLATE, 75, and STARE, 191).
It’s an unremarkable Wordle overall, save for the fact that it starts and ends with the same letter. But even this is not hugely notable, given that 92 of Wordle’s original 2,309 solutions have that format. We had one only a week ago, in the form of HUNCH.
It was, however, a notable game for me – because it marked my 800th consecutive Wordle without a loss. I have to caveat this slightly; my official streak was lost a year or so ago, when I was on holiday and the NYT Games app failed to cope with the idea that my time zone might have changed by an hour. It’s ridiculous that something so simple could trip it up, but there you go. Anyway, I’m still considering it a streak, because as anyone who reads this column knows, I’ve played the game every day and beaten it every day. Well, unless I’m cheating of course, but you’ll have to trust me on that.
If I were cheating (I’m not), I’d have played today’s game better than I did. My starter word was RIDER, which could have been a very good choice (“decent”, said WordleBot) but which was very unlucky today and which left me 626 possible solutions. I followed up with TALON, which cut them to 12, then started thinking properly.
Or at least I should have done. In reality, I came up with ALOUD fairly early on and, without paying attention, played it. What. An. Idiot. Obviously the answer couldn’t be ALOUD, because the D had been ruled out on the first guess.
This is the kind of mistake I never used to make, but that I seem to be regularly subject to now that I’m starting with a random word each day. Must. Do. Better.
Fortunately, it didn’t hurt me. I saw that LOCAL, FOCAL, VOCAL, LOYAL and OFFAL were all options, and decided to play LOCAL in order to establish where the L went. Sure, I might ended with a 50/50 between FOCAL and VOCAL, but that was a risk I could take. I needn’t have worried, because all five letters turned green and I escaped with another 4/6.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #997)
In a different time zone where it’s still Tuesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #997, too.
- Wordle yesterday had vowels in three 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 H.
H is not a particularly common starting letter in Wordle: only 69 games begin with it, and it ranks in 15th place.
- There were 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 #997.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a moving effort.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #997)
- NYT average score: 4.1
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: LEAST (15 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: ABIDE (108)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #997) was… HEAVE.
It’s generally the case that more vowels equals easier Wordles, but also that repeated letters makes for a harder game. So, what happens when you get three vowels, but one is repeated? Well, as you might expect, the two pretty much even out.
WordleBot duly says HEAVE has an average score of 4.1, so right in the middle of the range, albeit trending more towards the harder end of the scale. I suspect that’s because the two consonants, H and V, are relatively uncommon; H is only the 14th most common letter overall, and V the 22nd.
It won’t have helped that neither features in any of the top 20 start words as chosen by WordleBot. E and A do, of course, and the best results today were for openers that contained them. The most successful was LEAST (15 remaining answers) – which has an -EA– format, whereas the –A-E pattern found in STARE (29), SLATE (31) and CRATE (39) was not quite so helpful.
My start word today was ABIDE, which gave me a yellow A and green E, and which left 108 options. Once again, my chances of a 3/6 were almost over by the time that first guess was done. Not quite, however. If I’d got lucky with the second guess, a solve in three might still have been on the cards. For instance, playing CLASH next would have left only two solutions.
I didn’t know any of that at the time, though, so instead went with CRANE and still had 32 to pick from. A 4/6 was very much the best I could now hope for.
I could see that S, P, L and T were all common letters among the few dozen words I shortlisted – for instance, SHAKE, SHAPE, SHAME, STAGE, STAKE, PLATE, SLATE, SPATE, ELATE, LEASE. So, given that I didn’t want to waste a letter by playing either A or E again, I went for PLOTS. The O almost certainly wouldn’t be used, and the S definitely wouldn’t be at the end, but it would hopefully give me lots of info.
Despite none of the letters changing color, that’s what happened – so many were ruled out that I now had only three to choose from. And this time, I found them all: HEAVE, WEAVE and QUAKE. I couldn’t recall any having been past Wordle answers, but choosing one of the first two made sense in order to guarantee me a 5/6 at worst. HEAVE had slightly more common letters, so I went with that and was rewarded with a straightforward 4/6.
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 #997, Tuesday 12 March: HEAVE
- Wordle #996, Monday 11 March: PESKY
- Wordle #995, Sunday 10 March: GRASP
- Wordle #994, Saturday 9 March: CHEER
- Wordle #993, Friday 8 March: EARLY
- Wordle #992, Thursday 7 March: CLONE
- Wordle #991, Wednesday 6 March: TEARY
- Wordle #990, Tuesday 5 March: HUNCH
- Wordle #989, Monday 4 March: FLAME
- Wordle #988, Sunday 3 March: STATE
- Wordle #987, Saturday 2 March: URBAN
- Wordle #986, Friday 1 March: FORTY
- Wordle #985, Thursday 29 February: IMAGE
- Wordle #984, Wednesday 28 February: DEVIL
- Wordle #983, Tuesday 27 February: SENSE
- Wordle #982, Monday 26 February: OFTEN
- Wordle #981, Sunday 25 February: SMITH
- Wordle #980, Saturday 24 February: PIPER
- Wordle #979, Friday 23 February: APART
- Wordle #978, Thursday 22 February: HEAVY
- Wordle #977, Wednesday 21 February: BUILD
- Wordle #976, Tuesday 20 February: MATCH
- Wordle #975, Monday 19 February: PRICE
- Wordle #974, Sunday 18 February: RIDGE
- Wordle #973, Saturday 17 February: PSALM
- Wordle #972, Friday 16 February: STASH
- Wordle #971, Thursday 15 February: ASCOT
- Wordle #970, Wednesday 14 February: TALON
- Wordle #969, Tuesday 13 February: SCRAM
- Wordle #968, Monday 12 February: PASTA
- Wordle #967, Sunday 11 February: NEVER
- Wordle #966, Saturday 10 February: FRIED
- Wordle #965, Friday 9 February: STIFF
- Wordle #964, Thursday 8 February: PLACE
- Wordle #963, Wednesday 7 February: AFTER
- Wordle #962, Tuesday 6 February: WHICH
- Wordle #961, Monday 5 February: REPEL
- Wordle #960, Sunday 4 February: VERGE
- Wordle #959, Saturday 3 February: MICRO
- Wordle #958, Friday 2 February: CLEFT
- Wordle #957, Thursday 1 February: ALIVE
- Wordle #956, Wednesday 31 January: BULKY
- Wordle #955, Tuesday 30 January: EXPEL
- Wordle #954, Monday 29 January: LEGGY
- Wordle #953, Sunday 28 January: EMBER
- Wordle #952, Saturday 27 January: SNAKE
- Wordle #951, Friday 26 January: ALOOF
- Wordle #950, Thursday 25 January: BLOCK
- Wordle #949, Wednesday 24 January: RELIC
- Wordle #948, Tuesday 23 January: STILL
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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