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, which remains the best of all the main Wordle alternatives.
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 #903) – 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 #903) – 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 #903) – 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 #903) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is T.
T is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only E and Y are more likely in that position.
Wordle hints (game #903) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #903.
- Today’s Wordle answer is a change.
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 #903)
Today’s Wordle answer (game #903) is… SHIFT.
For the third day in a row we’ve got a Wordle starting with an S, which perhaps shouldn’t be surprising given that it’s the most common letter to begin an answer (and by a distance), but which is, frankly, getting a little tired now. Come on, NYT, give us some variety!
What’s more, SHIFT begins with SH, just as yesterday’s SHARP did (see below). SH is the second most common starting combination, behind only ST, so this is again not a huge shock.
It’s slightly harder than SHARP or Thursday’s SLEEP, probably because the vowel is an I rather than an E or A. That’s the reason why only two of the 20 best Wordle starting words cut down the remaining options list to any great degree. SAINT and STILE both left six possible solutions, whereas most of the most popular choices were above 20. The net result of all this? An average score of 3.8, according to WordleBot.
STARE gave me a green S and yellow T, and left 23 remaining answers. With A and E ruled out, I wanted to include two more vowels, while the fact that T couldn’t now follow the S meant I needed another partner for it. H fit that mould well, and by moving the T to the end I could play SHOUT.
There was obviously a small (1 in 23) chance this could be the actual answer, but that wasn’t to be on this occasion. Probably just as well, as I’ve had my fair share of good luck recently and I don’t want readers of this column thinking I might cheat (I don’t, honest).
Anyway, while not correct it was still very helpful. The H and T turned green, but the O and U both went gray, so I was almost certainly looking for an I instead. It didn’t take me long to work out that SHIFT was the only possible answer now, so I played that next for another 3/6 to end a really easy week.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #902)
In a different time zone where it’s still Friday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #902, 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 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 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 P.
P is a middling end letter in Wordle. It features in 56 answers, which places it 12th in the alphabet. Don’t expect it to happen that often compared to the likes of E, Y and T.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #902.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer has an edge to it.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #902)
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #902) was… SHARP.
Are you getting a touch of deja vu here? Because I certainly am. Just like yesterday’s puzzle (see below), today’s Wordle answer starts with an S, ends with a P and should be really rather easy for most people to solve.
SHARP doesn’t have the repeated E that SLEEP does, which theoretically should make it easier than yesterday’s. But Wordle isn’t quite as straightforward as that, and in reality SHARP has a higher average of 3.6 (compared to 3.3 yesterday). That’s still super-low, though, in the great scheme of Wordle averages (the overall average is around 4.0).
The reason why it’s slightly trickier than yesterday’s is almost certainly due to a slightly worse performance from the best Wordle starting words. Yesterday, SLATE left only two answers – but today it was at 30. In fact, of the top 20 words according to WordleBot, the best result was for STARE – and that still left 11 options.
STARE is of course the starter word I begin with daily, a choice I made way back in January 2022 and which I am now seemingly stuck with. That’s because if I start with something else – even for just one day – I am certain that the universe will punish me by making that day the one in which STARE is the answer. I couldn’t bear the chance of missing out on a 1/6 that way, so STARE it is for now…
Anyway, today that decision worked out well for me, because a lot of the hard work had already been done for me. All I needed to do was find a good second word that cut down those options. In order to do that, I needed to know what they were, of course – and managed to come up with nine of them myself. These were SCARF, SCARY, SHARP, SHARD, SWARM, SNARL, SPARK, SHARK and SNARK and the two that I missed, according to WordleBot, were both quite unlikely in my opinion (SMARM and SNARF).
A quick glance at those words makes it clear that I needed a second guess that included C, H, N and K – so I played CHINK. Though this wasn’t quite guaranteed to give me the answer, with a little luck it would have done so. Unfortunately, I didn’t get that luck – with only a green H, my choice was now reduced to two, SHARP or SHARD.
So, I had a classic 50/50 guess. I couldn’t recall either having been a past Wordle answer, so went with the more common word, SHARP, and guessed correctly – that was the solution and I scored another nice 3/6, my sixth in the past seven games.
Wordle answers: The past 50
I’ve been playing Wordle every day for more than a year 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 #902, Friday 8 December: SHARP
- Wordle #901, Thursday 7 December: SLEEP
- Wordle #900, Wednesday 6 December: WOMAN
- Wordle #899, Tuesday 5 December: YOUNG
- Wordle #898, Monday 4 December: WORST
- Wordle #897, Sunday 3 December: ADAPT
- Wordle #896, Saturday 2 December: GENRE
- Wordle #895, Friday 1 December: TAKEN
- Wordle #894, Thursday 30 November: RESIN
- Wordle #893, Wednesday 29 November: SUSHI
- Wordle #892, Tuesday 28 November: SCOPE
- Wordle #891, Monday 27 November: TAWNY
- Wordle #890, Sunday 26 November: SOLID
- Wordle #889, Saturday 25 November: GUIDE
- Wordle #888, Friday 24 November: THROW
- Wordle #887, Thursday 23 November: QUEEN
- Wordle #886, Wednesday 22 November: PIXEL
- Wordle #885, Tuesday 21 November: PIANO
- Wordle #884, Monday 20 November: CANDY
- Wordle #883, Sunday 19 November: QUEUE
- Wordle #882, Saturday 18 November: THINK
- Wordle #881, Friday 17 November: TARDY
- Wordle #880, Thursday 16 November: TRUST
- Wordle #879, Wednesday 15 November: SIGHT
- Wordle #878, Tuesday 14 November: SASSY
- Wordle #877, Monday 13 November: GREEN
- Wordle #876, Sunday 12 November: MEANT
- Wordle #875, Saturday 11 November: ACTOR
- Wordle #874, Friday 10 November: LEASH
- Wordle #873, Thursday 9 November: GLAZE
- Wordle #872, Wednesday 8 November: NINJA
- Wordle #871, Tuesday 7 November: LIMIT
- Wordle #870, Monday 6 November: TRADE
- Wordle #869, Sunday 5 November: FLARE
- Wordle #868, Saturday 4 November: MANIA
- Wordle #867, Friday 3 November: ARDOR
- Wordle #866, Thursday 2 November: UNTIL
- Wordle #865, Wednesday 1 November: NOISE
- Wordle #864, Tuesday 31 October: BLEAK
- Wordle #863, Monday 30 October: GRAIL
- Wordle #862, Sunday 29 October: PHONY
- Wordle #861, Saturday 28 October: MASON
- Wordle #860, Friday 27 October: NOBLE
- Wordle #859, Thursday 26 October: PIQUE
- Wordle #858, Wednesday 25 October: RETRY
- Wordle #857, Tuesday 24 October: CAUSE
- Wordle #856, Monday 23 October: TEMPO
- Wordle #855, Sunday 22 October: GIVEN
- Wordle #854, Saturday 21 October: SMIRK
- Wordle #853, Friday 20 October: OCCUR
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.