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 #1218) – 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 #1218) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is F.
F is a very common starting letter in Wordle. It ranks seventh behind only S, C, B, T, P and A and overall there are 135 solutions that begin with this letter.
Wordle hints (game #1218) – 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 #1218) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is R.
R is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – it’s actually the 4th most common there, behind E, Y and T.
Wordle hints (game #1218) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1218.
- Today’s Wordle answer is a thin thread.
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 #1218)
- NYT average score: 5.0
- My score: 6
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: TRICE (52 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: RELAY (237)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1218) is… FIBER.
This was probably the closest I’ve come to failing at Wordle since PARER, officially the hardest Wordle yet, back in September 2022. And I lay the blame entirely on the American language.
Actually, that’s not fair – the English language is equally to blame, because FIBER is spelled as FIBRE here in the UK, where I am. They’re equally legitimate ways to write it, but the latter is obviously far more familiar to me. And that difference nearly caused me to lose my 1,020-game streak.
It looks like I’m not the only one caught out by that spelling, because FIBER has an average score of 5.0 at the time of writing, which would make it an uncommonly difficult Wordle were it not for that fact that we just had CORER (5.7) and MOMMY (another 5.0). Actually, scratch that – it is still uncommonly difficult, given that it’s one of only nine answers to reach the 5.0 range in 2024.
I suspect that average may come down a little, as those of you in the States wake up and play, but even if that is the case the score will likely stay high, because it is after all an ER word – and they are almost always tricky to solve. That’s arguably more true today than it is with some ER words, because the letters F and B are not massively common compared to some that could appear there. NICER, for instance, only had an average of 3.9 when it appeared in May (game #1066).
Hard though it is, I shouldn’t really have got to the point at which I very nearly failed. The frustrating thing is that I was in a decent position after my second guess. Not my first, admittedly – RELAY left me 237 possible answers – but by the time I’d followed up with TRICE I only had 28 words left.
I knew it was likely an ER word by this point, and in fact I’d suspected that after my opening guess. But the problem was that the words left on my shortlist contained so many different consonants: B, D, F, G, H, K, M, N, P, S, V, W and X could all still feature.
My approach had to be to try to rule out the most likely ones with a narrowing-down word, so I played GIVEN. WordleBot was fairly unimpressed, and with good reason given that it only cut the options to 19. That said, five of those 19 were ED words that weren’t on my list, because I know they are very unlikely.
I still needed another narrowing-down word, then, and this time played WHOMP – it would point the way to WIDER/WISER/WIPER, MISER/MIXER, HIKER/HIRER/HIDER, or PIPER. This time WordleBot liked it, but it was a little unlucky and still left six. Or at least that was what the ‘bot said afterwards – I only had three, FIXER, BIKER and EIDER, on my list, having ruled out SIRED and FIRED as ED words. And of course I’d also missed FIBER because, y’know, it isn’t a spelling I would naturally think of.
Given the trio of words that were on my list I decided to play FORKS, because it would – finally – guarantee a solve on the next guess. And, when the F turned green, I thought I had my answer.
In fact, I was all set to play FIXER. I came so close. I’d typed it in and was literally about to press return when my daughter, who was sitting beside me, pointed out that if I was wrong I would lose my streak. The smirk on her face indicated clearly that she rather hoped I would get it wrong. So I hesitated and did one final check, putting all the remaining letters into the blank middle spot. FIQER – no. FIUER – no. FIJER – no. FIFER – no. FIDER – no. FIZER – no. And finally, FIBER – no. But actually, hang on… because Americans spell it as FIBER. IT COULD BE EITHER ONE!
This was a disaster, as I now had a 50/50 that could easily be wrong. So I did what I never usually do, and checked my list of past Wordle answers. And to my massive relief, there was FIXER – the solution to game #143 in November 2021. This was a word that played via the Wordle Archive (it appeared slightly before I began playing for real) and that I scored a six on. And there it was, confirming that the answer had to be FIBER after all.
I played that next and have (almost) never been so relieved to see all five letters turn green. Phew!
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1217)
In a different time zone where it’s still Friday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1217, 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 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.
- 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 T.
T is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only E and Y are more likely in that position.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1217.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a period of time spent doing something.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1217)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: SAINT (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: TAFFY (317)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1217) was… STINT.
It’s been a tough week in Wordleland: Monday’s GAMUT had an average score of 4.1, Tuesday’s CORER was at 5.7, we had an easy one with GRANT (3.4), then another tricky word with HALVE (4.3). And to complete the set, yesterday’s STINT rated at 4.2.
The complication here is undoubtedly that there are multiple similarly spelled alternatives. For instance, change that second letter and you could have SAINT or SKINT. Change the middle I and it could be STUNT or STENT. Change the N and it could be STILT. And if you swap the T at the end it could be STING or STINK. So that’s seven other words, all of them relatively common, that you could have played at some stage instead of the answer and been close – but no cigar.
ST is of course the most common opening combination (something I show in my analysis of every Wordle answer), so there are many, many more words that could have been on the table at an early stage of the game. If you began with STARE, for instance – which thousands will have done – you will have had 22 options left, according to WordleBot. While that isn’t a huge amount – my opening guess of TAFFY left 317 – most of those 22 will have been genuine possibilities such as STOCK and STILL and STUMP and STOOD. Narrowing them down will still have taken some work.
With a yellow T in play for me on my second guess I correctly guessed that it might follow an S, and went with STORE, This was a “wonderful choice” said WordleBot, and left 11 words for me to pick from.
I didn’t know that at the time, of course, but independently found all of them myself. That wasn’t too hard, really; I had the ST in place, and knew it would be followed by I, U or maybe Y because A, E and O were all ruled out. All I really needed to do was methodically go through the possible ending combinations, of which there weren’t too many – NK for STUNK or STINK, NG for STUNG or STING, NT for STUNT or STINT and so on. I wanted to guard against the possibility of that repeated T, so decided to play POINT; it was slightly wasteful to include the already-ruled-out O, but was the best way I could find to narrow down my shortlist. WordleBot suggested that EKING would have been better but even that wouldn’t have guaranteed a solve in four.
POINT could have left me with a 50/50, so I needed some luck – and got it. The final three letters turned green, giving me a simple task to play STINT next and score a 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 #1217, Friday 18 October: STINT
- Wordle #1216, Thursday 17 October: HALVE
- Wordle #1215, Wednesday 16 October: GRANT
- Wordle #1214, Tuesday 15 October: CORER
- Wordle #1213, Monday 14 October: GAMUT
- Wordle #1212, Sunday 13 October: PRONE
- Wordle #1211, Saturday 12 October: STAIN
- Wordle #1210, Friday 11 October: GUSTY
- Wordle #1209, Thursday 10 October: CARVE
- Wordle #1208, Wednesday 9 October: MOMMY
- Wordle #1207, Tuesday 8 October: JOINT
- Wordle #1206, Monday 7 October: FLOUR
- Wordle #1205, Sunday 6 October: LAGER
- Wordle #1204, Saturday 5 October: MINER
- Wordle #1203, Friday 4 October: TITLE
- Wordle #1202, Thursday 3 October: WAGON
- Wordle #1201, Wednesday 2 October: SHELL
- Wordle #1200, Tuesday 1 October: MODEM
- Wordle #1199, Monday 30 September: CLOUD
- Wordle #1198, Sunday 29 September: RIDER
- Wordle #1197, Saturday 28 September: BRAIN
- Wordle #1196, Friday 27 September: FAITH
- Wordle #1195, Thursday 26 September: THANK
- Wordle #1194, Wednesday 25 September: TORCH
- 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
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.