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 #1293) – 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 #1293) – 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 #1293) – 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 #1293) – 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 #1293) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1293.
- Today’s Wordle answer is to have made a selection.
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 #1293)
- NYT average score: 3.4
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: SLICE (7 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: BANJO (1,091)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1293) is… CHOSE.
This one is all about combinations. But then again, aren’t most Wordles? Knowing which letters go together is part of the deal here; if you uncover a green S at the start of a word, you immediately know it’s probably going to be followed by a T, H or P, with a few other combos further down the list. If you get an H at the end, in all likelihood it’s going to be preceded by an S or T.
CHOSE has very common combinations at both the start and end. At the front of the word you have CH – which is the fifth most common opening pairing after ST, SH, CR and SP. There are 40 CH words among the original 2,309 solutions, so it’s always one to look out for.
At the end, meanwhile, you have SE. This might seem a lot less common; after all, S always goes at the start, right? But it’s actually the third most likely letter to appear in that fourth slot, too, and when it does it’s regularly followed by an E. The SE ending combination occurs 52 times, putting it fourth after ER (141), LY (56) and CH (also 56).
Of course whether you stumbled across those patterns or actively looked for them will have depended to an extent on your choice of start word. If you played CRANE, as WordleBot does, you’ll have had the first and last letters in place, giving you good hints about what to add next. CRANE left only 14 answers anyway – so a score of 3/6 was on the cards here. That probably explains the super-low global average of 3.4.
If, however, you began with LUMPY as I did (let’s face it – nobody else played that) then you’ll have had no information at all beyond the fact that none of those letters were included.
I still had more than 1,000 words available to me, so did the simple thing and played my ideal start word as my second: STARE. I knew this wouldn’t be right after its appearance as an answer a few days ago, but it gave me a green E at the end, and a yellow S, and cut my answers to nine.
At this point I was greedy, and nearly suffered for it later. I had found seven of the nine words – CHOSE, WHOSE, NOISE, GOOSE, GEESE, NOOSE and DENSE – and should really have guaranteed myself a four by playing another narrowing-down word; WordleBot suggested CROWN.
Instead, I took a shot at the answer and went with NOISE. This was not guaranteed to give me the solution, in that it could have left a three-way choice between CHOSE, WHOSE and OBESE (the latter of which was one of the two words I hadn’t found, along with DOWSE). And inevitably, that’s the scenario that played out, with the SE combination turning green and O going yellow.
I couldn’t recall either CHOSE or WHOSE being a past Wordle answer, and still hadn’t spotted OBESE, so went with CHOSE and got lucky for my four.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1292)
In a different time zone where it’s still Wednesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1292, 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 N.
N is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter. Only 37 games begin with it and it ranks just 18th in this regard.
- 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 #1292.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is boldness or courage.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1292)
- NYT average score: 4.0
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: CRANE (6 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: BANJO (175)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1292) was… NERVE.
And so 2025 starts as 2024 ended, with a Wordle that has an average score of 4.0. That’s just a little above the overall average for the game, and NERVE is indeed the kind of word that is a little harder to solve than you might wish for the night after New Year’s Eve, when your wits may not be at their absolute sharpest.
The repeated Es don’t help, but the inclusion of the V is arguably more of a problem. None of that will have mattered too much if you began today with CRANE, as WordleBot did. This is the ‘bot’s favorite opener of all, and it left a mere six words to chose from; a three was very much on the cards if you started with it too.
I had to settle for a four, after my opening BANJO left 175 options. I do love the sound of a banjo, but I didn’t much enjoy getting it here, due to the inclusion of the annoyingly uncommon J. Still, it gave me a yellow N, and I duly spent the next three guesses trying to work out where it went.
Next up for me was SCENT, which was chosen for its letters rather than any hunch I had that it used the right pattern for the answer. I was on the wrong track, though, and succeeded only in adding a yellow E to the mix. WordleBot told me afterwards that I still had 35 words left, but I didn’t have anywhere near that many on my list. In fact, I was focused almost entirely on the chance that it might be an ER word; I’d found NEWER, NEVER, UNDER, and INFER, and incorrectly assumed that there were many more waiting to be uncovered. In reality, that was all of them, and the more common pattern was the EN-ending (GIVEN, LIKEN, LIVEN, VIXEN, RIPEN, WIDEN and so on).
UNDER was therefore a “solid” guess rather than a great one, but it did reduce that shortlist from 35 to a trio of REIGN, NERVE and NERVY. I hadn’t thought of the first of those, though, so played the second on what I thought was a 50/50 and got lucky when it proved to be right.
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 #1292, Wednesday 1 January: NERVE
- Wordle #1291, Tuesday 31 December: LEMUR
- Wordle #1290, Monday 30 December: STARE
- 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
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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