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 #1228) – 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 #1228) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is T.
T is one of the most common starting letters in the game, beginning 149 of Wordle’s 2,309 answers. That gives it a ranking of fourth in the alphabet, behind only S, C and B.
Wordle hints (game #1228) – 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 #1228) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is C.
C is a fairly uncommon letter to end a Wordle answer – it’s only the 16th most likely to be found there.
Wordle hints (game #1228) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1228.
- Today’s Wordle answer is a loose garment.
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 #1228)
- NYT average score: 3.6
- My score: 2
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: TRACE (4 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: OPTIC (2)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1228) is… TUNIC.
Much as I love scoring 2/6s they do make the task of writing a Wordle column more difficult. After all, the story of my game today was simply 1) play a very lucky start word that reduced my options to two words and then 2) pick the right one. Job done.
So instead, I’ll focus on why others are also finding TUNIC to be a much easier answer than yesterday’s BAWDY, Saturday’s WREAK or Friday’s FROWN; it has an average score of 3.6, versus 4.7, 4.9 and 4.4 respectively for those three.
Essentially, there are three reasons. The first is that all five of the letters in play here are very common, which wasn’t the case with those words. Four of them are in the top 10 by frequency overall, while U sits only just outside it at 11. Secondly – and connected to the first point – many of those letters are used in lots of popular start words. For instance, AUDIO contains the U and I in their exact positions, and that word left only nine possible solutions. TRAIN, which is only just outside WordleBot’s top 20 and which is played by around 1% of Wordlers, reduced the list to a pair: TUNIC and TONIC.
The third factor is that there aren’t too many words with a similar format. C is not a particular common ending letter, and only eight Wordle words end with NIC. Contrast that with all of the many options for -A-DY – which is so common that it gave us two words in succession – and you can see why people won’t have struggled too much to narrow it down.
The fact that the average is still above 3.5 probably reflects the fact that TONIC is arguably a more obvious word, and that was indeed played by lots of people on guess number two (almost as many as the number who went for TUNIC). That wasn’t a possibility for me, because OPTIC instead left me a 50/50 between TUNIC and ETHIC. I guessed correctly and scored my first two for nearly a month.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1227)
In a different time zone where it’s still Monday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1227, too.
- Wordle yesterday had 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).
- The first letter in yesterday’s Wordle answer was B.
B is a very, very common starting letter in Wordle. In fact, it’s the third most common overall, behind only S and 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 Y.
Y is the second most common ending letter in the game, behind only E. In total, 364 Wordle answers end with a Y.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1227.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is boisterously indecent.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1227)
- NYT average score: 4.7 (revised)
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: TRADE (13 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: WHEAT (21)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1227) is… BAWDY.
What is going on with Wordle’s difficulty level right now? BAWDY has an average score of 4.8 according to WordleBot (note – revised to 4.7 now) – making it the third game in the past six days above 4.5, and the fifth of 4.0 or higher. What’s more, 10 out of the past 14 games have been above that 4.0 level, and it’s officially (if you count my musings as official, which obviously they aren’t really) the second hardest two-week period in Wordle’s history.
I’m slightly surprised BAWDY is as high as 4.8, frankly, because it doesn’t seem quite that difficult. Maybe the score will come down as the day goes on. Regardless of that, I suspect the key reason why it’s giving people such trouble is that there are a lot of words that end DY: 38 in total. That’s evident in the words played by Wordlers in guesses three and four today, with the likes of BALDY, BADDY, CANDY, BANDY, CADDY, DADDY, HANDY and GAUDY all picking up lots of advocates.
Start words might also be a factor in the difficulty level, with very few popular choices cutting the shortlist below 100. CRANE, WordleBot’s favorite, left 187 while SLATE was at 201 and STARE at 191. And that probably explains why my game went so swimmingly, because I had another huge dose of luck with my random word. Today it was WHEAT, and that W at the start was key, because it really helped me to narrow down the options later. Not that I had too many of them anyway – 21, according to WordleBot, although I didn’t find that many myself.
I had about a dozen, though, including SPAWN, SWANK, CRAWL, DRAWN, SWAM, BRAWL, DRAWL, BRAWN and PRAWN. These were enough to point me towards BRAND as my second guess; I knew it couldn’t be the answer, but those five letters were all very common in my shortlisted options.
Once again, I got lucky. BRAND gave me the green B and yellow D that left BAWDY as the only answer, so I scored a fortunate three for the second day in a row.
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 #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
- Wordle #1212, Sunday 13 October: PRONE
- Wordle #1211, Saturday 12 October: STAIN
- Wordle #1210, Friday 11 October: GUSTY
- Wordle #1209, Thursday 10 October: CARVE
- Wordle #1208, Wednesday 9 October: MOMMY
- Wordle #1207, Tuesday 8 October: JOINT
- Wordle #1206, Monday 7 October: FLOUR
- Wordle #1205, Sunday 6 October: LAGER
- Wordle #1204, Saturday 5 October: MINER
- Wordle #1203, Friday 4 October: TITLE
- Wordle #1202, Thursday 3 October: WAGON
- Wordle #1201, Wednesday 2 October: SHELL
- Wordle #1200, Tuesday 1 October: MODEM
- Wordle #1199, Monday 30 September: CLOUD
- Wordle #1198, Sunday 29 September: RIDER
- Wordle #1197, Saturday 28 September: BRAIN
- Wordle #1196, Friday 27 September: FAITH
- Wordle #1195, Thursday 26 September: THANK
- Wordle #1194, Wednesday 25 September: TORCH
- Wordle #1193, Tuesday 24 September: HANDY
- Wordle #1192, Monday 23 September: STEAM
- Wordle #1191, Sunday 22 September: TEACH
- Wordle #1190, Saturday 21 September: SEVEN
- Wordle #1189, Friday 20 September: SMOKE
- Wordle #1188, Thursday 19 September: PRESS
- Wordle #1187, Wednesday 18 September: FULLY
- Wordle #1186, Tuesday 17 September: BEAUT
- Wordle #1185, Monday 16 September: HONEY
- Wordle #1184, Sunday 15 September: RECUR
- Wordle #1183, Saturday 14 September: BROAD
- Wordle #1182, Friday 13 September: HARSH
- Wordle #1181, Thursday 12 September: BRASS
- Wordle #1180, Wednesday 11 September: AISLE
- Wordle #1179, Tuesday 10 September: REBEL
- Wordle #1178, Monday 9 September: DEBIT
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.