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 #1258) – 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 #1258) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is C.
C is a very common starting letter in Wordle – in fact, it’s the second most common of all, behind only S.
Wordle hints (game #1258) – clue #3 – repeated letters
Does today’s Wordle have any repeated letters?
• There are 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 #1258) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is K.
K is much more common at the end of a Wordle answer than at the start, and in fact ranks ninth overall in this regard.
Wordle hints (game #1258) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1258.
- Today’s Wordle answer is a block to keep something still.
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 #1258)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: CRANE (38 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: OLDEN (257)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1258) is… CHOCK.
CHOCK is a funny word, isn’t it? It’s certainly not a common one: in fact, it’s only the 33,935th most frequently used word in the English language, according to the website WordAndPhraseInfo, which tracks matters such as these. Compare that to SLANG (14,190) or WITCH (5,332) and you can see the difference.
It’s also a word that contains a repeated C, something that only occurs in 29 out of the game’s 2,309 original solutions. Several of those 29 have a similar format to this one, and of those we’ve already seen CLUCK (game #46), CLICK (#134) and CLOCK (#160); I can think of at least three more that may well be future answers, too…
CHOCK’s relative obscurity and repeated C definitely make it harder, and WordleBot reports that it has an average score of 4.2. Start word returns were generally poor, which is often the case with high-average-score Wordles; CRANE was the pick of the top 20 but still left 38 options.
My opener, meanwhile, was OLDEN – which was a “strong” guess but which left 257. I only had a yellow O to work with, but got lucky on my second attempt, with COAST narrowing that list to eight. And then I got very, very lucky on my third.
I’d identified CHOCK, CROCK, CHOIR, CHOMP and CROOK as possibilities, missing CHOUX, CURIO and CROUP. I then worked out that playing CHOCK would guarantee me a four, unless the answer was one of CHOIR or CHOMP (or CHOUX as it turned out). So I went with that as a narrowing-down word rather than expecting it to be the solution – but for pretty much the first time this month fortune favored me and I scored a 3/6 I didn’t really deserve. About time, too – it had been 10 games since my last three!
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1257)
In a different time zone where it’s still Wednesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1257, 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 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 G.
G is not a common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only 41 of Wordle’s 2,309 games finish with one.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1257.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is informal language.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1257)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: SLATE (4 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: FAUNA (45)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1257) was… SLANG.
My terrible month continued here, with another worse-than-the-average score of four against an overall rating of 3.8. Then again, lots of people who scored a three (or even a two) today will have done so because of their start word – because there are some great options.
SLATE, for instance, left only four possible answers. Given that it’s WordleBot’s second favorite opener and generally the fifth or sixth most popular choice, that will have skewed the average, as will the fact that CRANE left only 20 and (to an extent) STARE with 31.
Even allowing for some players bringing down the average, this is not a particularly difficult Wordle beyond the fact that it has other near-neighbors in the form of SLANT, CLANG, SLING and SLUNG with one letter changed, SLAIN and SNAIL with one letter changed and a few moved around, and the likes of BLANK, PLANT, SLACK and many others if you changed two. The -LAN- format is actually the equal most common for the second, third and fourth letters, along with -AST-, -OVE-, -OWE-, -OUN- and -REA-; all have 11 solutions.
It’s a relatively easy one to narrow down to a few options, then, but still needs a bit of luck (or skill) to identify the right answer and once again that proved beyond me until after the mean number of guesses. I’d started on the back foot, with FAUNA leaving 45 words, but playing STARE next cut the words list to a mere five. I found them all, too: SHANK, SPANK, SLANG, SWANG and SWANK, though I didn’t think the final two would be viable answers.
I nearly had a guess at SLANG here, but that might have left a three-way guess on the next attempt between SHANK, SPANK and SWANK, so I instead played SHANK and when neither H or K turned green knew that the answer had to be SLANG. I didn’t do a lot wrong, but that’s the way it goes sometimes (or very often, lately!)
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 #1257, Wednesday 27 November: SLANG
- Wordle #1256, Tuesday 26 November: WITCH
- Wordle #1255, Monday 25 November: BROWN
- Wordle #1254, Sunday 24 November: TWIST
- Wordle #1253, Saturday 23 November: JELLY
- Wordle #1252, Friday 22 November: PEARL
- Wordle #1251, Thursday 21 November: SPINE
- Wordle #1250, Wednesday 20 November: NICHE
- Wordle #1249, Tuesday 19 November: GOING
- Wordle #1248, Monday 18 November: FRAIL
- Wordle #1247, Sunday 17 November: TALLY
- Wordle #1246, Saturday 16 November: VISOR
- Wordle #1245, Friday 15 November: TACKY
- 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
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.