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 #1245) – 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 #1245) – 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 #1245) – 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 #1245) – clue #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 hints (game #1245) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1245.
- Today’s Wordle answer has a lack of good taste.
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 #1245)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: TRICE (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: STUNT (245)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1245) is… TACKY.
It’s been a gruelling week in Wordle, what with SWELL (4.5), INNER (4.1), FLOWN (4.2), PRIMP (4.5) and UVULA (4.8) all having high average scores, and only STOIC (3.6) to offer any respite. But it ends far more easily than it began, with TACKY.
TACKY has an average of 3.8, according to Wordlebot, and is really not too difficult so long as you had a little luck with your first guess or played sensibly on your second. K is not a particularly common letter, but it does pair regularly with C, so once you had one it will have been a simple task to find the other. Y is the second most common ending letter in the game. A and T are just common in general.
There were some good results to be had on the start word side of things, what with TRICE leaving one answer and TRACE leaving two, but among the popular choices it was more of a middling day, with CRANE (37) and TRAIN (22) the top picks.
Not that a poor starting performance will have been a barrier to a high score, because my opening word left 245 and I still scored a 3/6. My random word was STUNT, and though it was a bit of a waste to have two Ts in there, the fact that it ruled out a T-ending answer early on gave me a good reason to try for a T-starter instead. I added in some of the most common remaining letters to form TRACE – and as you’d imagine based on that word’s starting performance, this worked very well.
In fact, it gave me two more yellows and turned the T green, which meant I had only one more possible solution and was able to play that with no fuss at all for my three. The contrast between this and yesterday’s UVULA (see below) could not really have been greater.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1244)
In a different time zone where it’s still Thursday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1244, too.
- Wordle yesterday had vowels in three 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 U.
U is not a particularly common starting letter in Wordle, with only 33 answers beginning with it. It ranks 20th in this regard, and is the least common vowel to start an answer.
- 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 A.
A is a relatively common ending letter. It ranks 10th in this regard and today’s game is one of 63 in which you’ll find an A there.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1244.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a part of the body.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1244)
- NYT average score: 4.8 (revised)
- My score: 5
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: STALE (19 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: PALER (87)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1244) was… UVULA.
Well, this was fun wasn’t it? UVULA is quite possibly the most difficult word yet to appear in Wordle, although it isn’t technically the hardest to solve. That’s a contradiction, yes – but let me explain.
As a Wordle answer, UVULA is very, very difficult, of that there’s no doubt. It has an average score of 4.9 at the time of writing (note – revised to 4.8), which places it above 96% of all answers for which I have a recorded score (there are 956 of these). However, it’s not the hardest ever, because the likes of PARER (6.3 average), MUMMY (5.8) and CORER (5.7) have all comfortably exceeded its total.
That is of course because while those three are all common words (to an extent, in the case of CORER and PARER) with common spelling formats and common letters, they are monumentally tough to solve in Wordle. That’s because there are multiple other words that could be the answer, or because they contain repeated letters, or both of those factors.
UVULA is a different beast, though. The problems here – and there are several – are that the word itself is downright obscure, and that it contains uncommon letters, and that format-wise it is quite frankly all over the place.
That average score of 4.9 is in some ways misleading, then, but in others it makes sense. It’s very difficult, but eventually committed Wordlers will solve it, simply because they’ll run out of alternative options. With a game like PARER, however, there was a very real chance that you’d run out of guesses before options. My suspicion is that people will have played the likes of PARER fairly quickly and failed, but spent ages on UVULA and eventually solved it.
That’s how my game went, at least. I started with PALER, chosen at random, and had a pretty decent result. PALER was, said WordleBot, a “strong” opening guess, and it gave me two yellow letters, an A and an L. This left me with 87 words, which wasn’t all that bad considering CRANE was at 187 and STARE at 191.
I did the obvious thing on my second guess, and moved those two yellows into their most common places: L went in slot #2, and A in the middle. Adding the very common S, T and N was a no-brainer, and gave me SLANT.
WordleBot said this was a “terrific choice”, but it was unlucky, failing to uncover any more letters or turn either of my yellows green. I now had 16 words left, apparently, though I didn’t know this at the time.
In order to try to find out where those letters went I next played LOCAL. This was one of a handful of possible answers I found, together with LOYAL, FOCAL, VOCAL, AWFUL, OFFAL and MODAL. Including the L twice gave me two chances to turn it green – and surely it would be either at the start or end?
Unfortunately not. Both letters stayed stubbornly yellow, which was a little ridiculous at this stage of the game. Incredibly, WordleBot told me afterwards that I now had only one answer left – but I still had no idea what it was. After all, I still had no idea where any of the letters went!
Actually, I did know something: the L now had to go in the fourth position. The A, meanwhile, could still be at the start of end, so A–L- or —LA. However, no matter how hard I looked I simply couldn’t find a word that fit. Nothing. Zip.
After an excessively long time trying to solve it, I decided there was nothing for it but to play a word that couldn’t be right simply to narrow things down. I do this all the time, of course, but not usually when I only have two yellows and no idea at all of what format the word might even take. I went with AUDIO, because I wanted to turn that A green and also see if either U or I might be a second vowel.
Finally, I had some success: the A stayed yellow, which meant it had to be at the end, while the U was also confirmed as being in play.
The U was the key to it all, as it happened – understandably, given that it appears twice here, one of only 11 answers where it does that. I played around with various options and after a while spotted UVULA as a word that I thought I knew. I wasn’t entirely sure what it was – though I did think it was something to do with the mouth (it’s the fleshy dangly bit between the tonsils). I played it with a certain amount of doubt, though, and was mightily relieved when all five letters turned green. What a rollercoaster of emotions!
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 #1244, Thursday 14 November: UVULA
- Wordle #1243, Wednesday 13 November: PRIMP
- Wordle #1242, Tuesday 12 November: FLOWN
- Wordle #1241, Monday 11 November: STOIC
- Wordle #1240, Sunday 10 November: INNER
- Wordle #1239, Saturday 9 November: SWELL
- Wordle #1238, Friday 8 November: READY
- Wordle #1237, Thursday 7 November: EVENT
- Wordle #1236, Wednesday 6 November: TRULY
- Wordle #1235, Tuesday 5 November: OCTET
- Wordle #1234, Monday 4 November: VINYL
- Wordle #1233, Sunday 3 November: BLAZE
- Wordle #1232, Saturday 2 November: SNOOP
- Wordle #1231, Friday 1 November: SIXTH
- Wordle #1230, Thursday 31 October: WEIRD
- Wordle #1229, Wednesday 30 October: EASEL
- Wordle #1228, Tuesday 29 October: TUNIC
- Wordle #1227, Monday 28 October: BAWDY
- Wordle #1226, Sunday 27 October: SANDY
- Wordle #1225, Saturday 26 October: WREAK
- Wordle #1224, Friday 25 October: FROWN
- Wordle #1223, Thursday 24 October: BOSSY
- Wordle #1222, Wednesday 23 October: GOOFY
- Wordle #1221, Tuesday 22 October: SHOUT
- Wordle #1220, Monday 21 October: SPOON
- Wordle #1219, Sunday 20 October: DICEY
- Wordle #1218, Saturday 19 October: FIBER
- 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
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.