Today’s Wordle answer is potentially on the easier side – although as words go it’s a little obscure.
You definitely might find some Wordle hints to be helpful, because disaster is only ever six guesses away in this game. I’m a Wordle addict who’s been playing since December 2021, so I can definitely help you solve Wordle today and improve your game for tomorrow.
Read on for my Wordle clues and the answers to game #636 and bookmark this page so you can easily return tomorrow. Oh, and if you also play Quordle then my Quordle today page contains clues and answers for that, too.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about today’s Wordle answers are below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to see them.
Marc is TechRadar’s UK Editor in Chief and has been playing Wordle for more than a year. 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 streak recently reached the 400 mark and he’ll be inconsolable if he loses it. Yes, he takes it all too seriously.
Wordle clues (game #636) – hint #1 – Vowels
How many vowels does today’s Wordle have?
• Wordle today has two vowels*.
* 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 clues (game #636) – hint #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is 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.
Wordle clues (game #636) – hint #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 clues (game #636) – hint #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is Y.
Y is the second most common ending letter in the game, behind only E. In total, 364 Wordle answers end with a Y.
Wordle clues (game #636) – hint #5 – last chance
Still looking for Wordle clues today? Don’t worry, I’ll give you one more for game #636.
- Today’s Wordle answer can go before mouthed.
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 #636)
Today’s Wordle answer (game #636) is… MEALY.
Well, this is an odd one. On the one hand, MEALY is quite an obscure word. Most people will know it from the phrase mealy-mouthed, although it also means a dry, powdery food and (apparently) a pale complexion. But it’s certainly not in regular usage; in fact, the excellent Word and Phrase info site (opens in new tab) ranks it as only the 32,023rd most common word in English.
Despite that, WordleBot, the NYT’s patronizing AI tool, says that people are solving it in an average of just 3.8 guesses – that’s half a guess below yesterday’s Wordle (see below). There’s an obvious reason for that low average, though – namely that most of the best Wordle starting words narrowed things down considerably.
I’m a bit of a bore about starting words (and many other things), but there really is no reason not to use one unless you intentionally want to make Wordle harder.
And I’m not judging you if you do – the game is arguably more interesting, probably more diverse and definitely more challenging if you pick a random word each day. I know, because I tried it for a few months.
It’s all a question of how you want to play the game. Are you seeking to extend your streak for as long as possible and get the best score each day? Or do you want to give your mental muscles a proper workout? I’m currently in the former camp, and I will continue to suggest that you chose a starting word and stick to it. Or don’t, I’m not in charge.
Anyway – SLATE (8), TRACE (9) and CRATE (9) all reduced your possible solutions down to single figures today. STARE (10) wasn’t far behind. LEAST and LEANT left just three answers and STALE… well, that reduced the possibles list to two.
Better still, this was a word list I was already well familiar with, because EMAIL (game #630 on Saturday) and HEADY (#601) both left exactly the same options. With those two ruled out and with BEADY and PEACH both having been past Wordle answers too, I had just six to pick from: MEALY, LEACH, BEACH, HEAVY, LEAKY and LEAFY.
To give myself the best chance of a good score I wanted a word that would rule in or out as many options as possible. FLICK did the job perfectly, because the F would confirm LEAFY, the K LEAKY, and various combinations of the C and the L the other words. If none were in there, it would be HEAVY.
As it was, the L turned yellow but without the K or F – which meant it had to be MEALY. I played that next go and scored a sweet 3/6 to end my working week.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #635)
In a different time zone where it’s still Thursday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #635, too.
- Wordle yesterday had two vowels.
- The first letter in yesterday’s Wordle answer was C.
- There were no repeated letters in yesterday’s Wordle.
- The last letter in yesterday’s Wordle was R.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a drink.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #635)
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #635) was… CIDER.
I’m such an idiot sometimes. Despite having played every day for more than a year, I’m still capable of screwing up as if this was my first game. Today was one of those days.
I escaped with a 5/6, but I had a big dose of luck along the way. So while today’s Wordle answer is a tricky one, I don’t feel I deserve much credit for finding it. But anyway, enough of my self-flagellation! What you want to know is why it’s difficult and how you could have approached it.
Well, WordleBot states that it has an average score of 4.3 – so slightly higher than yesterday’s similarly difficult puzzle (see below). However, that’s potentially misleading, because some people will have found it far easier than others.
It all depends on your choice of the best Wordle starting words, because some performed very well today, while others definitely did not. For instance, WordleBot says that playing CRANE left just 12 options, while TRACE (21), CARTE (15) and CRATE (11) were all in the same ballpark.
In contrast, WordleBot’s favorite, SLATE, left 329, while my STARE was at 181. And if you started with SLANT then oh dear – you had 530 possible answers remaining! So what we have here is a two-tier game, in which lots of people probably scored a 3/6 (with a few 2/6s maybe) and lots scored a 5/6 or worse.
It is, of course, an ‘ER’ game, which are generally pretty horrible and which I always struggle with. In some ways it should be among the easier ER games, because there’s no repeated letter as in RIPER (game #613) or PARER (#454). But on the flip side, CIDER isn’t the most obvious word that’s ever been an answer.
I could see it was probably going to be an ER word when the R and E stayed yellow on that first guess, so I followed up with a word that’s worked in these circumstances before: LINED.
So far, so good: this gave me a green I, green E and yellow D, and reduced my options to just seven. This game was going to be E-A-S-Y. Only it wasn’t.
At this point, I wrote down my options: WIDER, CIDER, RIDER, EIDER (like the duck) and DIVER. I also jotted down DICER, but I didn’t really think that would be the answer. The other possibility, according to WordleBot, was HIDER – but really? Hider? Come on, WordleBot, that is not a proper answer. It’s barely a proper word.
The sensible option at this stage was to play another word that further narrowed it down – WordleBot suggested CEDED. If I’d done that, I’d probably have scored a 4/6. Instead, I started guessing.
First, I played WIDER. That wasn’t too bad: the D turned green and left just three words: CIDER, RIDER and EIDER.
Next, I made an even bigger mistake and played EIDER. I don’t know why I did this, because this was far less likely to be a Wordle answer than RIDER or CIDER. I was just blindly guessing at this point, which is exactly the opposite of the way I like to play Wordle.
Finally, when I should probably have played RIDER, I went with CIDER and got lucky. So while I did find today’s answer on the fifth guess, I take no pleasure in it. I could easily have scored a 6/6 (or even failed, if HIDER was a genuine answer), whereas with a bit more thought it could have been a 4/6. What a fool.
Wordle answers: The past 50
I’ve been playing Wordle every day for more than a year 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 #635, Thursday 16 March: CIDER
- Wordle #634, Wednesday 15 March: SWEEP
- Wordle #633, Tuesday 14 March: SURLY
- Wordle #632, Monday 13 March: BLAME
- Wordle #631, Sunday 12 March: BIRTH
- Wordle #630, Saturday 11 March: EMAIL
- Wordle #629, Friday 10 March: REVEL
- Wordle #628, Thursday 9 March: WHERE
- Wordle #627, Wednesday 8 March: REGAL
- Wordle #626, Tuesday 7 March: HORSE
- Wordle #625, Monday 6 March: PINKY
- Wordle #624, Sunday 5 March: TOXIC
- Wordle #623, Saturday 4 March: TREND
- Wordle #622, Friday 3 March: SQUAT
- Wordle #621, Thursday 2 March: ABOVE
- Wordle #620, Wednesday 1 March: MOOSE
- Wordle #619, Tuesday 28 February: POLKA
- Wordle #618, Monday 27 February: WORSE
- Wordle #617, Sunday 26 February: SYRUP
- Wordle #616, Saturday 25 February: FIFTY
- Wordle #615, Friday 24 February: ARBOR
- Wordle #614, Thursday 23 February: VAGUE
- Wordle #613, Wednesday 22 February: RIPER
- Wordle #612, Tuesday 21 February: RUDDY
- Wordle #611, Monday 20 February: SWEAT
- Wordle #610, Sunday 19 February: KIOSK
- Wordle #609, Saturday 18 February: AVAIL
- Wordle #608, Friday 17 February: CACHE
- Wordle #607, Thursday 16 February: MAGIC
- Wordle #606, Wednesday 15 February: SALSA
- Wordle #605, Tuesday 14 February: SOUND
- Wordle #604, Monday 13 February: USAGE
- Wordle #603, Sunday 12 February: GIANT
- Wordle #602, Saturday 11 February: DEBUG
- Wordle #601, Friday 10 February: HEADY
- Wordle #600, Thursday 9 February: STAGE
- Wordle #599, Wednesday 8 February: FLAIL
- Wordle #598, Tuesday 7 February: APPLE
- Wordle #597, Monday 6 February: NINTH
- Wordle #596, Sunday 5 February: DANCE
- Wordle #595, Saturday 4 February: UNLIT
- Wordle #594, Friday 3 February: TASTY
- Wordle #593, Thursday 2 February: SHIRK
- Wordle #592, Wednesday 1 February: SCOLD
- Wordle #591, Tuesday 31 January: CROSS
- Wordle #590, Monday 30 January: CRAVE
- Wordle #589, Sunday 29 January: FISHY
- Wordle #588, Saturday 28 January: FLIRT
- Wordle #587, Friday 27 January: WORRY
- Wordle #586, Thursday 26 January: BEEFY
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 2023.
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 (opens in new tab) or the New York Times’ Crossword app (iOS (opens in new tab) / Android (opens in new tab)), 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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