Today’s Wordle answer should be a pretty straightforward one for most people. WordleBot says it has a not-too-scary average score of 3.8, and I expect to see plenty of 3/6s and maybe quite a few 2/6s today.
That doesn’t mean you won’t need some Wordle hints, though, because failure in this game is only ever six guesses away. I’ve played every game since December 2021 and can give you some clues to ensure your streak stays intact.
So read on for my hints and the answers to game #642 and bookmark this page so you can easily return tomorrow. Oh, and if you also play Quordle then my Quordle today page contains hints 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 hints (game #642) – clue #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 hints (game #642) – 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 #642) – 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 #642) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is D.
D is a fairly common letter to end a Wordle answer: it’s the eighth most likely to be in that position in a solution.
Wordle hints (game #642) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for Wordle hints today? Don’t worry, I’ll give you one more for game #642.
- Today’s Wordle answer is a sober character.
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 #642)
Today’s Wordle answer (game #642) is… STAID.
Is Wordle too easy? That’s the hard-hitting topic up for debate in today’s column. It’s not, of course – it just feels like it easy today, when STAID gives us our sixth answer with an average score of 4 or below in the past seven days. In fact, you’d have to go all the way back to REVEL on March 10 to find an answer that was really difficult.
STAID is not really difficult. WordleBot says people are solving it in an average of 3.8 guesses, and I can’t see too many people scoring lower than a 4/6 today unless they got really unlucky with their choice of the best Wordle starting words.
All five letters are common ones, and some are particularly likely to be found in these specific positions. For instance, S is the most common starting letter (and ranks eighth overall), and A is the most common in the middle of a word (and second overall). T, I and D are all just generally common.
That will have led to some great starts in Wordle today. My opening guess, STARE, left just 11 solutions; SLATE left 15, SLANT 16 and LEAST 12. Things were less positive with CRANE (59) and TRACE (25), but given that some days there are hundreds of answers left, this wasn’t too bad.
I didn’t find 11 answers myself – that’s the number that WordleBot came up with. I missed STAPH, STANK and (somehow) STAMP from my list, but did find the other eight: STALL, STAFF, STALK, STAND, STAID, STACK, STASH and STAIN.
Though I didn’t have many remaining answers, I still had too many to risk guessing right away. If I’d have guessed the likes of STASH or STAND, for instance, I could easily still have ended up with five or six answers left. I’d probably still have secured a win, but not a high score.
Instead, I narrowed things down by playing CHINK. This contained five letters that appeared in the various answers and that would hopefully point the way to the actual solution. It wasn’t a perfect word that would guarantee ruling out all answers, but it was close.
And as it happened, it worked: only the I turned yellow, meaning STAID was the only possible solution.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #641)
In a different time zone where it’s still Wednesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #641, too.
- Wordle yesterday had two vowels.
- The first letter in yesterday’s Wordle answer was D.
- There were no repeated letters in yesterday’s Wordle.
- The last letter in yesterday’s Wordle was T.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer overs you.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #641)
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #641) was… DUVET.
At first, you might think this would be a slightly more difficult answer than yesterday’s (see below) – and you’d be right. WordleBot, the NYT’s friendly AI helper tool, says people are solving it in an average of 4 guesses, compared to 3.8 yesterday.
That said, it’s still a fairly straightforward Wordle word. The most difficult thing about it is the V in the middle; V is the fifth least common letter in the game, and is not necessarily one that many people play early on. But today its impact was limited, because there just aren’t that many words that include a D, E and T. Or rather, there aren’t many that include those letters and that don’t end with a D. I counted about 20. Discovering that the D couldn’t go last was undoubtedly the key to my good score today.
None of the best Wordle starting words were much help today: SLATE (114), CRANE (275), SLANT (62), TRACE (86) and STARE (90) were all far too high for comfort, making that second guess a very important one.
Fortunately for me, my second guess was very helpful. I uncovered yellow E and T at the start, and the best strategy here, based on what WordleBot said at least, was to establish where they both went. It suggested playing TENET – which increased the chances of doing that by including them both twice.
This is a strategy WordleBot regularly employs, and I’m sure it does so because it makes the most sense statistically. However, it does slightly reduce the impact that luck has. After playing TENET, WordleBot apparently expected to be left with 4.9 answers, whereas my second guess (TONED), should have left 6.9. However, I got lucky, with the D turning yellow and was actually left with just two: DUVET and BIDET. WordleBot, meanwhile, was left with eight.
My luck continued on my third attempt, when I decided to go with DUVET and guessed correctly for a 3/6. WordleBot was left with a 4/6, marking a very small victory for the human brain against the incoming tides of AI chatbots such as the new Google Bard. Or maybe I really did just get lucky…
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 #641, Wednesday 22 March: DUVET
- Wordle #640, Tuesday 21 March: TOUGH
- Wordle #639, Monday 20 March: GLOVE
- Wordle #638, Sunday 19 March: CREDO
- Wordle #637, Saturday 18 March: YACHT
- Wordle #636, Friday 17 March: MEALY
- 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
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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