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 #1263) – 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 #1263) – 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 #1263) – 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 #1263) – 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 #1263) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1263.
- Today’s Wordle answer is not stable.
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 #1263)
- NYT average score: 4.0
- My score: 5
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: LEAST (29 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: SPOOL (203)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1263) is… SHAKY.
You know what’s SHAKY right now? My grasp on reality after working nights for six days. Also my Wordle streak, following yet another poor game that ended with a score of five. Maybe it’s nothing to do with tiredness and I’ve forgotten how to play; maybe I never could do any my luck has run out.
It’s not like SHAKY is particularly difficult. As with yesterday’s GUILE, it has an average score of exactly 4.0, and there are no obvious complications to it beyond the fact that SHADY is only a letter away. SHACK, too, may have turned your head only to be a red herring.
I started badly, with SPOOL giving me a green S but nothing more and leaving 203 answers. My luck remained poor on my second guess, with CATER leaving 15. In hindsight, I should have played something else; I knew the S at the start would be followed by either a vowel or one of W, T, H, K, M, N or C, and maybe could have ruled out an extra one of those by going with something like CHANT. CATER, in contrast, contained an R – which might have been somewhere in there, but I didn’t have evidence for that, whereas those other consonants were more likely now.
CATER was not a disaster (and WordleBot called it a “wonderful choice”, but it left me just a little too much work to do. I tried my hardest on guess number three, and went with GNASH; the S was placed in the fourth slot to guard against SWASH or SMASH, but again there were probably better choices there. If I’d played THINK, for instance, I’d have left only one answer – whereas GNASH left two.
I still might have scored a four if my luck had turned, but sadly for me it didn’t. I played SHADY first and when that wasn’t correct had to settle for a five.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1262)
In a different time zone where it’s still Monday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1262, 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 G.
G is the eighth most common starting letter, featuring in 115 Wordle answers. It’s often paired with an L to make GL—, but I’m not revealing whether that’s the case today.
- 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 E.
E is the most common letter to end a Wordle answer by far. That’s one of the reasons why many of the best start words, including SLATE, CRANE, CRATE and STARE, all end with one.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1262.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is deceitful cunning.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1262)
- NYT average score: 4.0
- My score: 6
- WordleBot’s score: 5
- Best start word performance*: SLICE (6 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: CABAL (270)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1262) was… GUILE.
According to the NYT I’ve scored 33 sixes in my Wordle career, although by my reckoning it’s only 31. Anyway, it’s not a particularly common thing to happen to me, and it’s usually on a far, far harder word than GUILE, an answer that only has an average score of 4.0.
Average is an apt word, actually, because it’s a pretty vanilla Wordle in general: three vowels, a very common L, a common-at-the-start-of-an-answer G. There’s no major problem with similarly spelled words, either, although it’s not the most obvious or frequently used term in the English language.
So what happened to me? Well, I’ll tell you what: Black Friday. Or rather, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. For a week I’ve been working flat-out to bring great deals to TechRadar’s readers and as I write this I’m also helping out with our Cyber Monday deals 2024 live page. This (which, ultimately, is my day job – Wordle is a hobby) has not left me much time to play properly, and the honest answer is that I rushed today’s game.
Embarrassingly, I had only four answers left after the second guess, then managed to guess the wrong ones over the next three attempts, which is exactly the way I don’t usually play the game. My streak was never in doubt, but I didn’t know that at the time. It was slapdash and stupid and I blame nobody but myself. Well, and my boss.
Anyway, the problem is clear from the screenshot above: I had only RIFLE, EXILE, WHILE and GUILE left after my second guess, STOLE, but guessed them in that order rather than doing what I would usually do and playing a different word to narrow them down. EARTH would have done that, for instance (as suggested by WordleBot), and would have given me a four. But no, my mind clouded with deals I didn’t think it through and had to suffer a near disaster. I’ll be better next week, promise.
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 #1262, Monday 2 December: GUILE
- Wordle #1261, Sunday 1 December: MAUVE
- Wordle #1260, Saturday 30 November: DOGMA
- Wordle #1259, Friday 29 November: HIPPO
- Wordle #1258, Thursday 28 November: CHOCK
- 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
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.