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 #1053) – 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 #1053) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is M.
M is a middling letter when it comes to starting a word. It sits 10th in the rankings, with 107 occurrences in the 2,309 answers.
Wordle hints (game #1053) – 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 #1053) – 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 #1053) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1053.
- Today’s Wordle answer is not fresh smelling.
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 #1053)
- NYT average score: 4.7
- My score: 6
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: SLATE (8 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: CIVIL (1,278)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1053) is… MUSTY.
I feel like I need to justify the fact that today’s six follows three fives in a row, meaning that this is my worst run ever *by a huge margin*. So to those of you reading this and thinking ‘Is this guy an idiot? Why does he think he’s some kind of Wordle expert?’ I answer that yes, I am an idiot. But also that you can be an expert in something without being very good at it. After all, there are plenty of sportswriters who have never competed at a high level.
What I do have is a long-lived Wordle streak, which is now at 855 games. However, the key factor there is that I play cautiously. I did that again today and – poor score or not – I do still have my streak. And it is that streak that shall console me as a cry myself to sleep tonight about my 5, 5, 5, 6 run. Ahem.
I suspect my luck will change again soon anyway, but equally I did make a mistake today that I shall endeavor to learn from. And isn’t that the sign of a well-adjusted mind, to be able to learn from mistakes even as an adult? Well, either that or I’m just trying to justify the fact that I made a stupid mistake. Probably more of the latter, to be honest.
In my defence (yes, I’m still trying), this is without doubt another tough Wordle. WordleBot, the game’s AI helper tool, says people are solving it in an average of 4.7 guesses, which is the highest since… well, yesterday. But that’s unusual; the fact that it’s the fifth hardest so far in 2024 is more pertinent.
As with yesterday’s game, the reason why it’s causing people problems is almost certainly due to the too-many-answers thing. In fact, as with SHA-E, -USTY has seven possible solutions: RUSTY, LUSTY, GUSTY, FUSTY, DUSTY, MUSTY or BUSTY.
Without the too-many-answers thing, MUSTY wouldn’t be too bad. As my analysis of every Wordle answer shows, S and T are both in the top 10 most common letters, while U and Y are only just outside it at 11 and 12 respectively. Plus, U jumps to seventh when used in position #2, and Y is second among ending letters. M is more middling; it’s 16th overall, and 10th at the start of an answer.
So, what could I have done differently?
Well, my random start word was definitely a factor in my low score. Today I had to play CIVIL, and that drew a complete blank and left me with 1,278 possible solutions, which is about 1,270 more than I would have liked.
Then again, not too many of the best Wordle start words helped that well today. SLATE left only eight possibles, TASER 10, STARE 26 and SAINT 24, but lots of other choices were in the hundreds.
There was nothing wrong with my second guess, either, with WordleBot stating that STARE was exactly what it would have picked too. This cut my answers list to 11, and while a 3/6 was unlikely, a 4/6 was still achievable. My third guess, GHOST, was another “great choice”, and this time cut the answers list to four. The problem was that those four were DUSTY, MUSTY, BUSTY and FUSTY – which meant that unless I played sensibly, a defeat was still on the cards.
What I should have done for my fourth guess was play something like FAMED, which would have guaranteed a solve in five guesses. But I’ll admit that my choice was swayed by my desire to avoid a fourth score of 5/6 in a row. I wanted to turn things around, so stupidly guessed DUSTY as the most likely of those four words. If it’d been correct, glory (within reason) would have been mine. Instead… well, I already told you that I’ll be crying myself to sleep tonight.
That left a fifth guess of BUMPY, which this time would guarantee a next-guess solve, followed by MUSTY for a horrible 6/6 at the end.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1052)
In a different time zone where it’s still Monday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1052, 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 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 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 #1052.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a close cut.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1052)
- NYT average score: 4.9
- My score: 5
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: SLATE, STARE, STALE (14 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: CREPE (197)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1052) was… SHAVE.
I’ve never scored three consecutive fives before, but there’s a first time for everything and today I achieved that unwanted record. In my defence, SHAVE is a very difficult Wordle; it currently has an average score of a mighty 4.9, making it the fifth hardest game so far in 2024, behind only JOLLY (5.4), PIPER (5.2), HUNCH (5.1) and ROVER (5.0).
The problem here is an obvious one: too-many-answers. SHA-E has seven possible solutions, in the form of SHARE, SHAPE, SHALE, SHAKE, SHADE, SHAME and SHAVE. Change the A, meanwhile, and you can also make SHOVE. This puts it on a par with -ATCH in the multiple-answer stakes, and just behind -OUND (eight) and -IGHT (nine).
How well you did will probably have depended in large part on your choice of the best Wordle start words. Those that have the S-A-E pattern – including SLATE, STARE and STALE – will have been among the big winners today, and all three of those words left only 14 possible solutions. Players who started with one of those will still have faced a challenge to narrow them down quickly, but each will at least have eliminated one of those seven SHA-E words, whether SHARE or SHALE.
Unfortunately, the missing consonant in either case is V – which, as I show in my analysis of every Wordle answer, is the least common of the seven consonants that could fit there. In order, R is the third most likely letter to appear in the game, followed by L, D, P, M, K and finally V, down in 22nd position in the rankings.
I would have been delighted with a mere 14 answers to whittle down, because my random opener was CREPE, and that left 197. So, not quite as bad as my first word yesterday (which left nearly 1,600 of them!), but still a lot to reckon with even without the difficult answer.
My second guess, SAINT, did well to narrow them down to only eight options, which were already fitting into that classic pattern: SHAME, SHAVE, SHAKE, SHAME and SHALE were all on it, together with SUAVE, SLAKE and SWALE. That’s according to WordleBot, at least; I didn’t consider the last of those.
I played it safe for my third guess, going with WHELM in order to rule out as many options as I could in one fell swoop. It was arguably the best option out there – though WordleBot preferred MOULD, that could have left a couple of 50/50s, either SHAKE/SHAVE or SHALE/SWALE. WHELM, meanwhile, could have left a three-way between SHADE, SHAKE and SHAVE, but I remembered that SHADE had been a past Wordle answer (in March this year), so I thought my choice worked well.
With a bit of luck, I might still have scored a 4/6 today. But once again I didn’t get it, because for my fourth guess I had that 50/50 between SHAKE and SHAVE. And of course, I went for the wrong one, playing the former when the latter was the real answer. And as a further annoying coda, it turns out SHAKE itself had been a previous answer, way back in February 2022 (game #273). Oh well – things will have to get better soon, right?
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 #1052, Monday 6 May: SHAVE
- Wordle #1051, Sunday 5 May: DECAL
- Wordle #1050, Saturday 4 May: VALUE
- Wordle #1049, Friday 3 May: EBONY
- Wordle #1048, Thursday 2 May: SLICE
- Wordle #1047, Wednesday 1 May: DIARY
- Wordle #1046, Tuesday 30 April: PROWL
- Wordle #1045, Monday 29 April: CRAFT
- Wordle #1044, Sunday 28 April: PRUNE
- Wordle #1043, Saturday 27 April: GLEAM
- Wordle #1042, Friday 26 April: VAPID
- Wordle #1041, Thursday 25 April: INTRO
- Wordle #1040, Wednesday 24 April: OVERT
- Wordle #1039, Tuesday 23 April: ROVER
- 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
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.