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 #943) – 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 #943) – 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 #943) – 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 #943) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is 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.
Wordle hints (game #943) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #943.
- Today’s Wordle answer is to have taken unlawfully.
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 #943)
Today’s Wordle answer (game #943) is… STOLE.
I’ve got a touch of deja-vu today, because like yesterday’s COURT (see below) this one has an average score of 3.3 and is particularly easy if you used one of the best Wordle starting words. I say ‘like yesterday’s’, because that had a score of 3.2 when I played it, but that’s now been upgraded to 3.3.
Anyway, this is clearly another simple solve. It starts with the most common starting letter, ends with the most common ending letter and include three very common letters in the middle. If you began with SLATE you’ll have had only four answers to pick from for your second guess, same for STALE. LEAST left five, STARE seven, and only a few of the top 20 were above a couple of dozen.
That’s all very well, but some of us are no longer using the best start words. So what did fate have in store for me today? STANK, which wasn’t too bad at all in the circumstances. It gave me two greens at the start of the word, and though it left 29 options, they were all relatively easy for me to find. Or rather, most were easy to find; I didn’t come up with STREW, STOIC or STELE.
The reason why it was easy to list them all was because not many letters follow ST – it’s essentially the vowels plus R. Oh, and Y, which is a sort of hybrid vowel and consonant and which featured in STYLE. The number of letters which could fill the final two slots was greater, but a few stood out, for instance P (STOOP, STEEP, STUMP, STRIP) and L (STEEL, STILL, STOOL). Put all that together and you have… PROLE.
WordleBot said it was a terrific choice, and recommended only MOREL above it. And it certainly did the trick, giving me the remaining three letters and guaranteeing that I’d score a 3/6. All very straightforward once again.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #942)
In a different time zone where it’s still Wednesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #942, 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 C.
C is a very common starting letter in Wordle – in fact, it’s the second most common of all, behind only S.
- 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 T.
T is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only E and Y are more likely in that position.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #942.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a place of sentencing, sport or royalty.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #942)
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #942) was… COURT.
Recent Wordles not been easy enough for you? Then you’ll love this one.
COURT has an average score of just 3.2, according to the NYT’s all-knowing helper tool WordleBot. That places it right near the top of the list of easiest Wordles ever; it’s the simplest so far in 2024 and a mere seven puzzles in history* have had a lower average**.
Why so simple? I’m going to attribute this one directly to the best Wordle starting words. TRACE, WordleBot’s new favorite, left only one answer, as did CRATE (its third fave). Several others, including STARE, reduced the numbers to single or low-double figures. And that’s all there is to it.
Of course there’s also the question of why those start words were so successful – but a simple look at the letters in COURT should tell you what’s going on here. I would love to share some fascinating insight that nobody else has thought of, but there’s really no mystery. It’s merely a case of COURT having five very common letters, and of all of them being in common places.
It’s a shame, then, that my randomly chosen start word today was GUESS, which contains only one of those five. WordleBot said it was a decent opening word, but it still left 127 options, so I’ll have to take its word for that. Still, I appreciate how apt it was for this game.
I didn’t attempt anything too complicated with my second guess, reasoning that I should just play the most common letters left, or thereabouts. In the end I went with TRAIN, and got very lucky – it gave me two yellow letters and reduced my options to just two: COURT and BLURT.
I didn’t know that at the time, though, and only spotted the first of those – which could have come back to haunt me. Fortunately, it didn’t – I played COURT next and scored a nice 3/6.
*Based on all of those I have scores for, currently numbering 540. **It’s also tied with six others that had a 3.2 average.
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 #942, Wednesday 17 January: COURT
- Wordle #941, Tuesday 16 January: BLOND
- Wordle #940, Monday 15 January: LUNCH
- Wordle #939, Sunday 14 January: DOING
- Wordle #938, Saturday 13 January: HEARD
- Wordle #937, Friday 12 January: ROUTE
- Wordle #936, Thursday 11 January: BRIEF
- Wordle #935, Wednesday 10 January: THREW
- Wordle #934, Tuesday 9 January: LINER
- Wordle #933, Monday 8 January: FINAL
- Wordle #932, Sunday 7 January: STONY
- Wordle #931, Saturday 6 January: CABLE
- Wordle #930, Friday 5 January: LUNGE
- Wordle #929, Thursday 4 January: SCANT
- Wordle #928, Wednesday 3 January: TWIRL
- Wordle #927, Tuesday 2 January: AGING
- Wordle #926, Monday 1 January: MURAL
- Wordle #925, Sunday 31 December: SALTY
- Wordle #924, Saturday 30 December: THREE
- Wordle #923, Friday 29 December: CHILD
- Wordle #922, Thursday 28 December: LEARN
- Wordle #921, Wednesday 27 December: DAISY
- Wordle #920, Tuesday 26 December: PHONE
- Wordle #919, Monday 25 December: EVOKE
- Wordle #918, Sunday 24 December: GRACE
- Wordle #917, Saturday 23 December: SLOPE
- Wordle #916, Friday 22 December: TOUCH
- Wordle #915, Thursday 21 December: BUILT
- Wordle #914, Wednesday 20 December: SMALL
- Wordle #913, Tuesday 19 December: TABLE
- Wordle #912, Monday 18 December: FUNNY
- Wordle #911, Sunday 17 December: BACON
- Wordle #910, Saturday 16 December: GLOBE
- Wordle #909, Friday 15 December: TOPIC
- Wordle #908, Thursday 14 December: WOULD
- Wordle #907, Wednesday 13 December: SPENT
- Wordle #906, Tuesday 12 December: THESE
- Wordle #905, Monday 11 December: HOUSE
- Wordle #904, Sunday 10 December: CHAIN
- Wordle #903, Saturday 9 December: SHIFT
- 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
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.