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? TechRadar’s Quordle today page contains hints and answers for that game, and you can also take a look at our NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for our 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 #1290) – 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 #1290) – 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 #1290) – 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 #1290) – 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 #1290) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1290.
- Today’s Wordle answer is to fix your eyes firmly on something.
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 #1290)
- NYT average score: 3.1
- My score: 2
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: STARE (It’s the answer!)
- My start word performance: BIGOT (242 remaining answers)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1290) is… STARE.
Let’s face it, there will be a lot of very happy people today. Or maybe very disappointed people – after all, what’s left to achieve in this game once you’ve scored a 1/6? But anyway, the key thing is that after 1,291 Wordles (the first was number #0, not #1) the incredibly popular start word STARE has come up as the answer.
STARE is played, on average, by about 5% of all Wordlers – so that’s many thousands of people who will have ticked off ‘Score a one at Wordle’ from their bucket list.
I’m not among them, having stopped using STARE as my opener at the beginning of 2024, having previously used it almost exclusively from the time I started playing in early 2022. However, I do think I played some small role in popularizing its use as one of the best Wordle start words. I began using it in the very early days; I’m not sure exactly when, but it was definitely before WordleBot launched in April 2022. I wrote about why I chose it during my previous role on Tom’s Guide, and again once I joined TechRadar; it was, until today, the best word that hadn’t yet been an answer, but that was definitely going to be an answer one day.
That’s now changed, which leaves LEAST, TASER and PARSE as the statistically best options, in that I think they will all be answers, and all (like STARE) get a WordleBot rating of 97 out of 99. Everything above them – CRANE, SLATE, CRATE and so on – has either already appeared, or is unlikely to do so.
Will thousands of people now switch from STARE to something else? I suspect they will, although once you’ve scored a 1/6 maybe you don’t feel the need to do so again. In which case sticking with STARE makes sense, due to its excellence as a word and the familiarity people will have with it.
I’m unlikely to ever score a 1/6 now, given that I use a random word each day, but I’m fine with that. And besides, I can still use the likes of STARE to help me towards an average-beating result, by playing it second.
That’s exactly what I did today. My opening BIGOT had left me with 242 answers, and given me only a yellow T to go on. But I knew that when T is yellow at the end, your best chance of turning it green is to play it in the second position (where it usually follows S), or at the start (where it often precedes R). I could have picked TRACE, then, but instead went with STARE for old time’s sake – and was rewarded with a lovely 2/6 on one of the lowest-scoring Wordle days ever.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1289)
In a different time zone where it’s still Sunday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1289, 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 M.
M is a middling letter when it comes to starting a word. It sits 10th in the rankings, with 107 occurrences in the 2,309 answers.
- 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 O.
O is a middling ending letter. It ranks 12th in this regard, and finishes 58 Wordle answers in total.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1289.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a dance.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1289)
- NYT average score: 4.7
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: CARET, CARTE (97 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: SKULL (1,274)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1289) was… MAMBO.
What is it about Wordles with multiple Ms? As my analysis of every Wordle answer shows, there are only 15 of these among the 2,309 original solutions, and so far we’ve had 10, including today’s.
I don’t have an average score for the first three – MIMIC (game #48), MAXIM (#50) and GAMMA (#93) – but I do for the remainder. These are COMMA (#291, average score 4.5), MADAM (#387, 4.3), MUMMY (#491, 5.8), MAGMA (#791, 4.9), GUMMY (#1,076, 4.6), MOMMY (#1,208, 5.0) and now MAMBO, which currently has an average of 4.7. Together, they have an average of 4.82 – which must make the repeated-M pattern one of the toughest in the game overall.
MAMBO is particularly difficult due to the O at the end – a relatively unusual format in its own right – and the B just before it. B is very common at the start of a word, but a lot less so elsewhere, to the extent that it only occurs in position #4 a total of 24 times. BO as an ending combination, meanwhile, only turns up five times altogether; this is the first of them.
There was no salvation to be found among the best Wordle start words today, either, with only a handful of WordleBot’s top 20 dipping below 100, and most way above that. My randomly chosen SKULL was in a different class entirely, though; that left 1,274 possible answers!
I played the odds with my second guess, going for TRACE based on commonality of letters, but though WordleBot loved it, it was unlucky; I had only a single yellow A still, and a rather long shortlist of 65 words.
Not that I actually had that many jotted down, of course; that’s merely what WordleBot told me afterwards. But I had a hunch that the A would go in the second slot, and packed the rest of the word with what common letters remained to make BANDY.
Finally my luck turned, as BANDY gave me a yellow B and green A. This now reduced my word pool to only two: MAMBO and MAMBA. I didn’t think the latter would be an answer (although who knows…) so went with the former and walked away relatively unscathed with a 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 #1289, Sunday 29 December: MAMBO
- Wordle #1288, Saturday 28 December: DECRY
- Wordle #1287, Friday 27 December: GRAIN
- Wordle #1286, Thursday 26 December: AFFIX
- Wordle #1285, Wednesday 25 December: SHARE
- Wordle #1284, Tuesday 24 December: EAGLE
- Wordle #1283, Monday 23 December: SAUNA
- Wordle #1282, Sunday 22 December: BRAWN
- Wordle #1281, Saturday 21 December: BLADE
- Wordle #1280, Friday 20 December: FLASH
- Wordle #1279, Thursday 19 December: STRAY
- Wordle #1278, Wednesday 18 December: HEFTY
- Wordle #1277, Tuesday 17 December: SCOWL
- Wordle #1276, Monday 16 December: BOAST
- Wordle #1275, Sunday 15 December: FUNKY
- Wordle #1274, Saturday 14 December: DROOL
- Wordle #1273, Friday 13 December: BOXER
- Wordle #1272, Thursday 12 December: VYING
- Wordle #1271, Wednesday 11 December: PLUMB
- Wordle #1270, Tuesday 10 December: PATIO
- Wordle #1269, Monday 9 December: FLUNG
- Wordle #1268, Sunday 8 December: HYENA
- Wordle #1267, Saturday 7 December: HILLY
- Wordle #1266, Friday 6 December: SHOVE
- Wordle #1265, Thursday 5 December: ENDOW
- Wordle #1264, Wednesday 4 December: CRYPT
- Wordle #1263, Tuesday 3 December: SHAKY
- Wordle #1262, Monday 2 December: GUILE
- Wordle #1261, Sunday 1 December: MAUVE
- Wordle #1260, Saturday 30 November: DOGMA
- Wordle #1259, Friday 29 November: HIPPO
- Wordle #1258, Thursday 28 November: CHOCK
- Wordle #1257, Wednesday 27 November: SLANG
- Wordle #1256, Tuesday 26 November: WITCH
- Wordle #1255, Monday 25 November: BROWN
- Wordle #1254, Sunday 24 November: TWIST
- Wordle #1253, Saturday 23 November: JELLY
- Wordle #1252, Friday 22 November: PEARL
- Wordle #1251, Thursday 21 November: SPINE
- Wordle #1250, Wednesday 20 November: NICHE
- Wordle #1249, Tuesday 19 November: GOING
- Wordle #1248, Monday 18 November: FRAIL
- Wordle #1247, Sunday 17 November: TALLY
- Wordle #1246, Saturday 16 November: VISOR
- Wordle #1245, Friday 15 November: TACKY
- Wordle #1244, Thursday 14 November: UVULA
- Wordle #1243, Wednesday 13 November: PRIMP
- Wordle #1242, Tuesday 12 November: FLOWN
- Wordle #1241, Monday 11 November: STOIC
- Wordle #1240, Sunday 10 November: INNER
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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