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? TechRadar’s Quordle today page contains hints and answers for that game, and you can also take a look at our NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for our 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 #1309) – 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 #1309) – 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 #1309) – 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 #1309) – 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 #1309) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1309.
- Today’s Wordle answer is ridiculous.
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 #1309)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: SLICE (7 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: CHILI (19)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1309) is… SILLY.
I’m amazed that today’s game is not proving harder to solve. WordleBot says it has an average score of 3.8, which is below the standard for the game (which is around 3.9) and particularly low for a word which has both a repeated letter and an element of too-many-answers about it.
To take the first, L is a common letter to be repeated – third behind E and O in terms of frequency – but repeats almost always make Wordles harder to solve. On the second, the likes of HILLY, FILLY and BILLY were realistic alternatives, while DILLY, MILLY, GILLY and WILLY all accounted for some incorrect guesses today, too.
I guess the presence of the S at the start made the task easier for those people who begin each day with SLATE or STARE. The former, which left only 19, was one of the best openers today, although SLICE was better still, cutting the shortlist to seven.
My start word didn’t contain an S, but CHILI did at least feature an L and an I. That worked just as well as SLATE did, and I was then able to cut those 19 options down to four with my second guess, DERBY.
That might seem like an odd choice at first, but there was method in my madness. I knew that a Y was a likely last letter, because LY is the third most common ending combination in the game. The I would almost certainly go in the second spot, which meant I was looking at -I-LY. And with that format in front of me, I was able to come up with SILLY, FILLY, BILLY, DILLY and WILLY – although I thought the last two were unlikely – plus GIRLY and DIMLY. But I did have a few other options, such as YIELD, FIELD and WIELD, VILLA and VIOLA, RIFLE, BIBLE, TITLE, and AISLE. I missed a few (SIDLE, IDYLL and IMPLY) but did pretty well.
I wanted a Y in there, then, plus a D for all of those -IELD words. E would help for that format plus the answers that ended LE. B was in a couple and R made up the numbers.
WordleBot approved, and it performed as well as any of the ‘bot’s top choices, leaving me a quartet of SILLY, FILLY, WILLY and IMPLY. But I hadn’t found the last of those yet and had dismissed WILLY as being very unlikely, so played SILLY as the most likely answer and got lucky again for a three. Plus, I beat the ‘bot today, which is always nice.
How did you do today? Send me an email or let me know in the comments.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1308)
In a different time zone where it’s still Friday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1308, too.
- Wordle yesterday had 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).
- The first letter in yesterday’s Wordle answer was P.
P is a very common first letter among Wordle answers. It’s the fifth most common in the alphabet and begins 141 solutions in total.
- 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 #1308.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is not poetry.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1308)
- NYT average score: 3.4
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: PARSE (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: SHADY (126)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1308) was… PROSE.
PROSE is one of those words that feels like it must have been an answer before, but no. We’ve had PROVE (game #163) and PROBE (#545) and PRONE (#1212), but not this one. I think rather than just the full PRO-E format feeling familiar, it’s more about the fact that it’s such a common format in general: a common consonant before an R, O, another consonant, then an E. There are lots of them: BROKE and DRONE and TROVE and GROVE and CRONE and so on.
PROSE is not particularly notable among them, and its low average score of 3.4 indicates that it’s not causing anyone too much trouble. STARE left only 12 possible solutions, CRANE 29, SLATE 32, CRATE 25… we’re in easy-but-not-so-easy-that-it’s-interesting territory.
My start word yesterday was SHADY, which left 126 options, but even that wasn’t really a hindrance. I played CREST next, reasoning that if the S wasn’t at the start it would most likely go in the fourth position, where it would be followed by T or E. I was wrong about the T but right about the E, and with the R turning green I had three-fifths of my answer in place, more or less.
That format, -R-SE, now had two possibilities: PROSE or FRISE. I briefly considered the latter, but only for about a fraction of a second before playing PROSE and taking my 3/6.
And with that, I’m off to rewatch Twin Peaks for the 11th time in honor of David Lynch, the greatest, most visionary filmmaker of all time.
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 #1308, Friday 17 January: PROSE
- Wordle #1307, Thursday 16 January: FLINT
- Wordle #1306, Wednesday 15 January: KNACK
- Wordle #1305, Tuesday 14 January: FANCY
- Wordle #1304, Monday 13 January: CLOAK
- Wordle #1303, Sunday 12 January: TOTAL
- Wordle #1302, Saturday 11 January: DINGY
- Wordle #1301, Friday 10 January: CRAWL
- Wordle #1300, Thursday 9 January: WAFER
- Wordle #1299, Wednesday 8 January: DRAFT
- Wordle #1298, Tuesday 7 January: ATLAS
- Wordle #1297, Monday 6 January: SPRIG
- Wordle #1296, Sunday 5 January: CYBER
- Wordle #1295, Saturday 4 January: RELAX
- Wordle #1294, Friday 3 January: CHEAP
- Wordle #1293, Thursday 2 January: CHOSE
- Wordle #1292, Wednesday 1 January: NERVE
- Wordle #1291, Tuesday 31 December: LEMUR
- Wordle #1290, Monday 30 December: STARE
- Wordle #1289, Sunday 29 December: MAMBO
- Wordle #1288, Saturday 28 December: DECRY
- Wordle #1287, Friday 27 December: GRAIN
- Wordle #1286, Thursday 26 December: AFFIX
- Wordle #1285, Wednesday 25 December: SHARE
- Wordle #1284, Tuesday 24 December: EAGLE
- Wordle #1283, Monday 23 December: SAUNA
- Wordle #1282, Sunday 22 December: BRAWN
- Wordle #1281, Saturday 21 December: BLADE
- Wordle #1280, Friday 20 December: FLASH
- Wordle #1279, Thursday 19 December: STRAY
- Wordle #1278, Wednesday 18 December: HEFTY
- Wordle #1277, Tuesday 17 December: SCOWL
- Wordle #1276, Monday 16 December: BOAST
- Wordle #1275, Sunday 15 December: FUNKY
- Wordle #1274, Saturday 14 December: DROOL
- Wordle #1273, Friday 13 December: BOXER
- Wordle #1272, Thursday 12 December: VYING
- Wordle #1271, Wednesday 11 December: PLUMB
- Wordle #1270, Tuesday 10 December: PATIO
- Wordle #1269, Monday 9 December: FLUNG
- Wordle #1268, Sunday 8 December: HYENA
- Wordle #1267, Saturday 7 December: HILLY
- Wordle #1266, Friday 6 December: SHOVE
- Wordle #1265, Thursday 5 December: ENDOW
- Wordle #1264, Wednesday 4 December: CRYPT
- Wordle #1263, Tuesday 3 December: SHAKY
- 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
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.