It’s the weekend! And Wordle today is on the easier side, which is nice for those of you who have been working or studying hard all week. In fact it’s nice whatever you’ve been doing!
Choose one of the best Wordle start words and you might even score a 2/6 today; some choices could leave you with just three possible solutions. Then again, this game is never easy as such, so you might still want some Wordle hints to help keep that streak of yours safe.
I’m a Wordle addict who’s been playing since December 2021, so I can definitely help you solve Wordle today and improve your game for tomorrow. Read on for my hints and clues to Wordle #588.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about Wordle today and Wordle yesterday are below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
Wordle today (game #588) – hint #1 – Vowels
How many vowels does today’s Wordle have?
• Wordle today has one vowel*. (Need another hint? Next I’ll tell you what the first letter is.)
As with yesterday’s game, there’s just the one vowel in today’s Wordle answer. And as I said yesterday, this is fairly unusual: Wordle has an average of 1.75 vowels among its 2,309 answers, and it’s common for two vowels to appear in the solution.
The last game to have just one vowel in it was (obviously) #587 yesterday: WORRY.
* 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 today (game #588) – hint #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is F. (Want a third hint? I’ll also tell you if there are any repeated letters.)
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.
We last had one just under two weeks ago, when FROCK was the answer to Wordle #576 on Monday 16th January.
Wordle today (game #588) – hint #3 – repeated letters
Does today’s Wordle have any repeated letters?
• There are no repeated letters in today’s Wordle. (I’ve got one more hint if you need one below.)
Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. But it’s still far more common that there isn’t a repeated letter, so this can be seen as a return to normal after we had one yesterday (the double-R in WORRY) and one the day before (the double-E in BEEFY).
Wordle today (game #588) – hint #4 – final clue
Still looking for clues for Wordle today? Don’t worry, I’ll give you one more hint for game #588.
- Today’s Wordle answer means to behave amorously but without serious intent.
If you just want to know the answer at this stage you can scroll down to see it, 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 the solution then DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER BECAUSE THE ANSWER IS DIRECTLY BELOW. So don’t say you weren’t warned!
Wordle today (game #588) – the answer
Wordle today is a much easier one than the previous couple.
In fact, WordleBot says people are completing it in just 3.4 guesses, which is almost a full guess below yesterday’s WORRY.
That’s not much of a surprise, because there’s no double letter in Wordle today and no uncommon letters either. F isn’t that common overall, but it does start lots of Wordle answers, while L, I, R and T are all mainstays of the game.
There’s nothing obscure about the word, either – FLIRT is used regularly in everyday speech and on TV and finding it today shouldn’t have caused too many problems.
My opening guess of CRATE set me on the way quite nicely, turning up a yellow R and yellow T. According to WordleBot it still left me with 39 guesses, but that’s not too many for an opening go. Some people will have had even more luck, though – if you played SLANT today you had just 7 remaining answers to sift through, and anyone who led with TRICE was down to just 3!
I worked through the options for a little while and came up with a couple of likely formats. I found several words that ended —RT, for instance SPORT, SHORT, SHIRT and SNORT, plus another bunch that had T at the start followed by an H: THROB, THIRD, THROW and THORN. There were others, but I decided to go with SHIRT so I could include an H and end with the RT.
And I got lucky! Though the S and H turned gray, the I, R and T all went green. I figured I’d still have a couple of options, but the harder I looked the more I could only find one: FLIRT.
After wracking my brains for a few more minutes I played FLIRT and solved the Wordle today in three guesses.
Hopefully you solved it too!
Wordle yesterday (game #587) – hints
In a different time zone where it’s still Friday? Don’t worry – I can give you some hints for Wordle #587 too.
- Wordle yesterday had one vowel*
- The first letter in yesterday’s Wordle answer was W.
- There was one repeated letter in yesterday’s Wordle.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer means to fret or torment.
Wordle yesterday (game #587) – the answer
The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was… WORRY.
This Wordle was theoretically a tricky one, with an uncommon W at the start and a double-R in the middle.
WordleBot rated it at an average of 4.3, which is above the standard 4 that most games even out at. I managed it in 4/6 myself, so slightly below the average, despite a poor start that left me with 77 possible answers after my initial guess of CRATE.
With no vowels uncovered on my opening guess, I wanted to play a couple more on my second and went with ROUND. This proved quite fortunate, giving me a green O in position #2 and ruling out the R as the starting letter.
WordleBot said I now had just 7 possible solutions left, although I didn’t know that at the time (you can only use WordleBot once the game is finished). However, I could see that there weren’t many options, and came up with just 4 myself: WORRY, SORRY, LORRY and PORKY. The ones I missed were FORGO, MORPH and WORMY.
All of my options ended in a Y and three had a double R before that, so I decided to head down that path and played SORRY next. I wasn’t right, but WORRY seemed a much more likely answer than the very British LORRY, and so it proved when all five letters turned green.
Wordle answers: The past 50
I’ve been playing Wordle every day for more than a year now and have tracked all of the answers so I can help you improve your game. Here are the past 50 solutions starting with yesterday’s answer.
- Wordle #587, Friday 27 January: WORRY
- Wordle #586, Thursday 26 January: BEEFY
- Wordle #585, Wednesday 25 January: MAIZE
- Wordle #584, Tuesday 24 January: COUNT
- Wordle #583, Monday 23 January: ELUDE
- Wordle #582, Sunday 22 January: MATEY
- Wordle #581, Saturday 21 January: BLURB
- Wordle #580, Friday 20 January: ALTER
- Wordle #579, Thursday 19 January: MUCKY
- Wordle #578, Wednesday 18 January: CHARD
- Wordle #577, Tuesday 17 January: ADOPT
- Wordle #576, Monday 16 January: FROCK
- Wordle #575, Sunday 15 January: SPIRE
- Wordle #574, Saturday 14 January: KOALA
- Wordle #573, Friday 13 January: HUMAN
- Wordle #572, Thursday 12 January: LEAPT
- Wordle #571, Wednesday 11 January: SEDAN
- Wordle #570, Tuesday 10 January: GRIMY
- Wordle #569, Monday 9 January: PIXIE
- Wordle #568, Sunday 8 January: OPERA
- Wordle #567, Saturday 7 January: LEMON
- Wordle #566, Friday 6 January: BELIE
- Wordle #565, Thursday 5 January: SLEEK
- Wordle #564, Wednesday 4 January: LAYER
- Wordle #563, Tuesday 3 January: ANTIC
- Wordle #562, Monday 2 January: SKIRT
- Wordle #561, Sunday 1 January: WHINE
- Wordle #560, Saturday 31 December: MANLY
- Wordle #559, Friday 30 December: MOLAR
- Wordle #558, Thursday 29 December: HAVOC
- Wordle #557, Wednesday 28 December: IMPEL
- Wordle #556, Tuesday 27 December: CONDO
- Wordle #555, Monday 26 December: JUDGE
- Wordle #554, Sunday 25 December: EXTRA
- Wordle #553, Saturday 24 December: POISE
- Wordle #552, Friday 23 December: AORTA
- Wordle #551, Thursday 22 December: EXCEL
- Wordle #550, Wednesday 21 December: LUNAR
- Wordle #549, Tuesday 20 December: THIRD
- Wordle #548, Monday 19 December: SLATE
- Wordle #547, Sunday 18 December: TAPER
- Wordle #546, Saturday 17 December: CHORD
- Wordle #545, Friday 16 December: PROBE
- Wordle #544, Thursday 15 December: RIVAL
- Wordle #543, Wednesday 14 December: USUAL
- Wordle #542, Tuesday 13 December: SPOKE
- Wordle #541, Monday 12 December: APPLY
- Wordle #540, Sunday 11 December: NAIVE
- Wordle #539, Saturday 10 December: KNOCK
- Wordle #538, Friday 9 December: BRAID
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 2023.
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.