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 new NYT Strands today page for my verdict on the New York Times’ latest brainteaser.
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 #1,039) – clue #1 – Vowels
How many vowels does today’s Wordle have?
• Wordle today has 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).
Wordle hints (game #1,039) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is R.
R is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter. Despite ranking third overall in Wordle, it’s merely the 11th most likely to begin an answer.
Wordle hints (game #1,039) – 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 #1,039) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is R.
R is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – it’s actually the 4th most common there, behind E, Y and T.
Wordle hints (game #1,039) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1,039.
- Today’s Wordle answer moves from place to place (and might be a dog).
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 #1,039)
- NYT average score: 5.2
- My score: 6
- WordleBot’s score: 5
- Best start word performance*: TASER (105 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: BLEND (449)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1,039) is… ROVER.
It is happening again.
Only two days after one of the hardest Wordles ever in the form of JOLLY, we have another: ROVER.
JOLLY had an average score of 5.4, which made it the toughest this year and equal fourth hardest ever. ROVER is only a little behind that, with an average of 5.2, according to WordleBot. By that measure, it’s the equal second most difficult in 2024 (level with PIPER) and the equal eighth worst since I started recording the scores, 751 Wordles ago.
It’s incredibly unusual to have two games above 5.0 in such close succession. In fact, it’s only happened once before, when JAZZY (5.5) was followed two days later by NANNY (5.2), back in June 2023.
So, why do we think it’s causing problems? Well, my theory is that it’s a) the ER ending, b) the repeated R, c) the V in the middle and d) the fact that people might well not have thought of playing it. After all, ROVER is commonly considered a proper noun, whether for the type of car or the classic dog’s name. Of course, it can also be used as a standard noun – one who roves – but it’s not a term I’d expect people to use often. “Oh yeah, he loves going going for long walks all over the place, he’s a real rover.” No, not doing it for me, Wordle.
Anyway, as you can see there are plenty of complicating factors here. As I show in my analysis of every Wordle answer, V is the fifth least common letter in the game, and while R is a relatively common letter to be repeated, it’s still far more likely to appear in singular form.
The biggest factor, though, is the ER ending – which almost always makes games harder, simply because there are so many of them. In fact, there are 141 ER-ending answers among Wordle’s 2,309 original solutions (again, see my analysis for that), and most of them have that really annoying habit of using different consonants from each other, either side of a second vowel.
That was the case with how my game developed, meaning I needed to play two narrowing-down words in order to work out what the correct combination was. In short, the -O-ER bit was easy, the missing letters much harder.
I wasn’t helped by my random start word, BLEND, which left 449 possible solutions. Ouch! Not that there were many good results today; none of WordleBot’s top 20 options dipped below 100.
I played it safe on the second guess and went with STARE, one of the best of all start words and therefore a good choice of second word too. That was a “terrific choice” said WordleBot, which awarded me 96/99 for skill. Unfortunately, it awarded me only 5/99 for luck – and I still had 54 answers left.
I could now see that an ER answer was very likely, so played COWER third in order to confirm that one way or the other. Again, WordleBot liked this, but again it wasn’t hugely lucky; I still had 11 possible answers.
At this stage I set about finding out what they were (though I didn’t know there were 11 of them, of course). I came up with 10 myself: HOVER, MOVER, ROVER, GOFER, ROGER, PORER, POKER, HOMER, JOKER, FOYER. I remembered that the final three of those had all been past Wordle solutions, but not that POKER had too.
As it turns out, WordleBot didn’t have PORER on its list, for some reason, though it did have ROPER and MOPER, neither of which seem like real Wordle answers to me. Not sure what’s going on there.
Anyway, I had six on my list, and decided to play PERVY to narrow them down. I wanted the R in the middle to guard against the possibility of PORER, the P was for that and for POKER, the V for HOVER, MOVER and ROVER. It was a decent attempt, but didn’t work, because the V turned yellow – meaning I still had three words left, but only two guesses.
Only one thing for it: another narrowing-down word. This was RHYME, and when the R turned green I knew the answer had to be ROVER.
So, a 6/6 for me, which is probably about as good a result as I could get with such poor luck on the first couple of guesses.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1,038)
In a different time zone where it’s still Monday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1,038, 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 L.
R is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – it’s actually the 4th most common there, behind E, Y and T.
- 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 R.
L is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter in Wordle. Despite being the sixth most common letter overall, it’s only ranked 12th at the beginning of a word.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1,038.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a beam of light.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1,038)
- NYT average score: 3.3
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: LEAST, TASER (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: DIRGE (200)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1,038) was… LASER.
What a difference a day makes, eh? Where yesterday’s Wordle was the hardest of the year so far, today’s is among the easiest. WordleBot says it has an average score of a mere 3.3, which is more than two whole guesses fewer than the number for JOLLY (5.4). Only one game has had a lower average in 2024: RAISE, just a few days ago.
It has all of the hallmarks of an easy game, namely five common letters with no repeats, not too many similarly spelled words and some great results for some of the most popular Wordle start words.
In fact, the only thing that might have caught out a few people today is that some might think it’s spelled LAZER, not LASER. It’s not, because it’s an acronym formed from ‘light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation’. So there.
Nine of WordleBot’s top 20 start words reduced the number of answers to fewer than 10 today, among them SLATE (two remaining solutions) and STARE (three). Between them they accounted for 7% of all opening words here, so I suspect lots of players will have scored 2/6s.
That was a little beyond me, and I had to settled for a score of three instead. But given that my random start word, DIRGE, left 200 answers, that shows just how simple LASER was.
Admittedly, I needed a big dollop of luck for that. I went with TASER for my second guess, because I wanted to guard against the possibility of an ER word and T, A and S were just about the most common letters that I’d not yet played. I say ‘just about’, because swapping the S for an L and playing LATER would technically have been a better choice in terms of pure frequency. But against that, I knew that L isn’t so likely to start an answer as T, and T is more likely to appear at the beginning than it is in the middle.
So, I went with TASER instead and that proved incredibly fortunate; it gave me four green letters and left only one possible solution. That was LASER and I played it next for my 3/6.
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 #1038, Monday 22 April: LASER
- Wordle #1037, Sunday 21 April: JOLLY
- Wordle #1036, Saturday 20 April: LUCID
- Wordle #1035, Friday 19 April: RAISE
- Wordle #1034, Thursday 18 April: FACET
- Wordle #1033, Wednesday 17 April: TITHE
- Wordle #1032, Tuesday 16 April: SHANK
- Wordle #1031, Monday 15 April: EQUIP
- Wordle #1030, Sunday 14 April: BLIMP
- Wordle #1029, Saturday 13 April: STEEL
- Wordle #1028, Friday 12 April: WHINY
- Wordle #1027, Thursday 11 April: LOUSE
- Wordle #1026, Wednesday 10 April: BROTH
- Wordle #1025, Tuesday 9 April: MERGE
- Wordle #1024, Monday 8 April: BREED
- Wordle #1023, Sunday 7 April: VOILA
- Wordle #1022, Saturday 6 April: FINCH
- Wordle #1021, Friday 5 April: WRIST
- Wordle #1020, Thursday 4 April: CLIMB
- Wordle #1019, Wednesday 3 April: PLAIT
- Wordle #1018, Tuesday 2 April: SERUM
- Wordle #1017, Monday 1 April: FROND
- Wordle #1016, Sunday 31 March: TABOO
- Wordle #1015, Saturday 30 March: FORCE
- Wordle #1014, Friday 29 March: REALM
- Wordle #1013, Thursday 28 March: SPEAK
- Wordle #1012, Wednesday 27 March: STUNG
- Wordle #1011, Tuesday 26 March: MAYOR
- Wordle #1010, Monday 25 March: SALLY
- Wordle #1009, Sunday 24 March: TOWEL
- Wordle #1008, Saturday 23 March: RISEN
- Wordle #1007, Friday 22 March: DECAY
- Wordle #1006, Thursday 21 March: SHADE
- Wordle #1005, Wednesday 20 March: LINGO
- Wordle #1004, Tuesday 19 March: ABIDE
- Wordle #1003, Monday 18 March: SPELT
- Wordle #1002, Sunday 17 March: SNORT
- Wordle #1001, Saturday 16 March: TOXIN
- Wordle #1000, Friday 15 March: ERUPT
- Wordle #999, Thursday 14 March: SINCE
- Wordle #998, Wednesday 13 March: LOCAL
- Wordle #997, Tuesday 12 March: HEAVE
- Wordle #996, Monday 11 March: PESKY
- Wordle #995, Sunday 10 March: GRASP
- Wordle #994, Saturday 9 March: CHEER
- Wordle #993, Friday 8 March: EARLY
- Wordle #992, Thursday 7 March: CLONE
- Wordle #991, Wednesday 6 March: TEARY
- Wordle #990, Tuesday 5 March: HUNCH
- Wordle #989, Monday 4 March: FLAME
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.