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, and you can also take a look at my NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for my 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 #1194) – clue #1 – Vowels
How many vowels does today’s Wordle have?
• Wordle today has a vowel in one place*.
* 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 #1194) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is T.
T is one of the most common starting letters in the game, beginning 149 of Wordle’s 2,309 answers. That gives it a ranking of fourth in the alphabet, behind only S, C and B.
Wordle hints (game #1194) – 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 #1194) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is H.
H is a regular visitor to the final spot in a Wordle word. It occurs 137 times at the end of a Wordle answer, making it the sixth most common letter there.
Wordle hints (game #1194) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1194.
- Today’s Wordle answer shines a light.
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 #1194)
- NYT average score: 3.4
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: TRACE, CRATE, CARET, CARTE, TRICE (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: FELON (228)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1194) is… TORCH.
For yet another reminder of how important start words can be in Wordle, look no further than today’s TORCH. Five of WordleBot’s top 20 picks – TRACE, CRATE, CARET, CARTE and TRICE – left only a single answer today, and therefore a guaranteed 2/6. CRANE (15) and TRADE (11) were also pretty good. In contrast, yesterday was a pretty poor day in this regard – and the average there was 4.1.
That’s not the only reason why TORCH is an easy game with an average score of 3.4. Four of those five letters are ultra-common, and the fifth (H) is very often paired with C, so in many cases people will have found it more easily. And yes, there are a couple of similarly spelled words – PORCH and TOUCH are the obvious ones – but there are only two of them, not five or six.
Luck will still play a part of course, as I found out today. My opening guess was a bad one, with FELON leaving me 228 possibles. My second, STORY, was better, cutting them to seven, but I still had plenty of work to do. And then I got lucky.
I didn’t come close to finding those seven words, coming up with only two, TORCH and WORTH; the others were ORBIT, RATIO, TURBO, AORTA and TORAH. I should have done much better, obviously, but was playing in a bit of a rush and so just guessed TORCH because it used common letters and would hopefully point the way to the right answer in four guesses. I was slightly surprised when all five letters turned green, but at that stage didn’t realize quite how fortunate I’d been. It was only later, when I consulted WordleBot, that the extent of my luck became clear.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1193)
In a different time zone where it’s still Tuesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1193, too.
- Wordle yesterday had a vowel in one place.
* 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 no 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 Y.
Y is the second most common ending letter in the game, behind only E. In total, 364 Wordle answers end with a Y.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1193.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is convenient.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1193)
- NYT average score: 4.1 (revised)
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: TRADE (13 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: MOGUL (952)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1193) was… HANDY.
I doubt there’ll be too many low scores out there because HANDY is potentially a fairly difficult Wordle word. I say ‘potentially’, because as always much will depend on a combination of luck and skill, with the first of those in particular dependent on your choice of start word. However, WordleBot says it has an average score of 4.0 (note: revised to 4.1), and though it doesn’t look to be a true streak-ender, it’s unlikely to give many people an easy ride either.
Too-many-answers is probably the main problem here: CANDY, SANDY, BANDY, DANDY and RANDY are all alternatives that differ by one letter, as is HANKY. And there are several others available if you change two letters, including the likes of PANDA, CANNY and LANKY.
It’s also the result of the letters in use, though, because only two – A and N – are truly common. Meanwhile, Y ranks 12th, D 13th and H 14th, so very much in the middling range. Few of those letters make it into the most popular opening words, so that will have led to some fairly average (but not terrible) starts today. CRANE, for instance, left 65 words, STARE left 191 and SLATE 201.
Oh what I would have done for that kind of result. My opening guess, chosen at random, was MOGUL – which is a good word, but a very unlucky one today and which left me 952 options. Gulp!
I played it safe with guess #2, going with STARE in order to use the five most common letters remaining and hoping to slash that total – but it was something of a disaster. “Terrific choice” said WordleBot afterwards, while revealing that my luck score here was only 10 out of 99 and that I still had 39 possible solutions.
I could see that a poor score was very much on the cards now, because although I didn’t know there were 39 words to choose from, I’d found at least a couple of dozen myself. On the plus side, I was fairly sure what to play next. With E, R, T and L all ruled out, the ending was very likely to be a Y, N or D. With a yellow A already in the mix, and with the common letter C still to play, CANDY seemed a good bet.
This time, my plan worked: the final four letters all turned green, meaning I now had only three words to choose from: HANDY, DANDY and BANDY. This left me with a dilemma. If I guessed one of them and got it wrong, I would still be left with a 50/50 and might score a six. And if I’d missed any options, it could even be a fail. But then again, BANDY seemed like an unlikely solution, so in effect I already had a 50/50 and it therefore made more sense to shoot for the answer now.
I decided to risk it and went with HANDY – and was rewarded with an exactly on-par four.
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 #1193, Tuesday 24 September: HANDY
- Wordle #1192, Monday 23 September: STEAM
- Wordle #1191, Sunday 22 September: TEACH
- Wordle #1190, Saturday 21 September: SEVEN
- Wordle #1189, Friday 20 September: SMOKE
- Wordle #1188, Thursday 19 September: PRESS
- Wordle #1187, Wednesday 18 September: FULLY
- Wordle #1186, Tuesday 17 September: BEAUT
- Wordle #1185, Monday 16 September: HONEY
- Wordle #1184, Sunday 15 September: RECUR
- Wordle #1183, Saturday 14 September: BROAD
- Wordle #1182, Friday 13 September: HARSH
- Wordle #1181, Thursday 12 September: BRASS
- Wordle #1180, Wednesday 11 September: AISLE
- Wordle #1179, Tuesday 10 September: REBEL
- Wordle #1178, Monday 9 September: DEBIT
- Wordle #1177, Sunday 8 September: DRAWN
- Wordle #1176, Saturday 7 September: OWNER
- Wordle #1175, Friday 6 September: RERUN
- Wordle #1174, Thursday 5 September: WIDEN
- Wordle #1173, Wednesday 4 September: STERN
- Wordle #1172, Tuesday 3 September: FAINT
- Wordle #1171, Monday 2 September: CAMEL
- Wordle #1170, Sunday 1 September: MUSHY
- Wordle #1169, Saturday 31 August: SPOUT
- Wordle #1168, Friday 30 August: KNAVE
- Wordle #1167, Thursday 29 August: FLUNK
- Wordle #1166, Wednesday 28 August: LITHE
- Wordle #1165, Tuesday 27 August: CROWN
- Wordle #1164, Monday 26 August: STAKE
- Wordle #1163, Sunday 25 August: SKATE
- Wordle #1162, Saturday 24 August: FILET
- Wordle #1161, Friday 23 August: LEECH
- Wordle #1160, Thursday 22 August: BRUTE
- Wordle #1159, Wednesday 21 August: MULCH
- Wordle #1158, Tuesday 20 August: DELAY
- Wordle #1157, Monday 19 August: METER
- Wordle #1156, Sunday 18 August: LANKY
- Wordle #1155, Saturday 17 August: STORM
- Wordle #1154, Friday 16 August: BRACE
- Wordle #1153, Thursday 15 August: ACORN
- Wordle #1152, Wednesday 14 August: SHORE
- Wordle #1151, Tuesday 13 August: NEIGH
- Wordle #1150, Monday 12 August: SKIFF
- Wordle #1149, Sunday 11 August: SCONE
- Wordle #1148, Saturday 10 August: MEDIC
- Wordle #1147, Friday 9 August: OUNCE
- Wordle #1146, Thursday 8 August: SAUCY
- Wordle #1145, Wednesday 7 August: MACAW
- Wordle #1144, Tuesday 6 August: ANVIL
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.