Today’s Wordle hints – answer, clues and tips for game #870, Monday, November 6

It’s time for your daily round of Wordle hints, expertly crafted to help you keep your streak going even on the toughest of days. 

You might think that you don’t need any clues for Wordle today, but remember: failure in this game is only ever six guesses away.   

Below, you’ll find a selection of Wordle hints to guide you in the right direction. You don’t have to use them all, but there are five in total should you need them, covering vowels, starting letter, ending letter and more. And if you don’t have time to play at all, you can see the answer, too. 

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: Wordle hints and today’s answer are below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to see them.

Wordle hints (game #870) – 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 #870) – 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 #870) – 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 #870) – 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 #870) – clue #5 – last chance

Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #870.

  • Today’s Wordle answer is a transaction.

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 #870)

Wordle answer for game 870 on a yellow background

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today’s Wordle answer (game #870) is… TRADE.

Looking for an easy start to the Wordle week? You got it! WordleBot, the NYT’s helper tool, says TRADE has an average score of just 3.1, making it the equal second easiest all year. Only PLATE (2.9, game #670) has a lower average.

The reason for that is simple: it’s all about the best Wordle starting words. If you began with SLATE, WordleBot’s favorite, you immediately cut your options to a mere two: TRACE or TRADE. If you began with TRACE or CRATE, you had just the one option and a guaranteed 2/6 (unless you did something really silly). TRICE left three. 

Plus, there were really good outcomes for a few words that don’t make it into the top 20 according to WordleBot, but which are played by lots of you. For instance, ORATE was another that left only two options, and I know several of you start with that each day, because you email me to say so (and keep those emails coming – I will reply, promise!). IRATE was also at two. Oh, and TRADE itself was played by 1% of people, according to WordleBot – so that’s 1% who scored a fabled 1/6 today.

I doubt it will have been too hard to solve even if you didn’t begin with one of those, because all five letters in TRADE are very common. And with no double letters to make things harder, I’d be surprised if too many Wordlers scored below a 4/6 here.

My opening STARE left me with six options in theory, but fewer than that in reality. That’s because I remembered that IRATE, TRACE and CRATE had all been past Wordle answers. You might think it unlikely that I’d remember TRACE and CRATE, given that both appeared way back in 2021, before I’d even started playing, but they stuck in my mind from when I researched which starter word to choose; neither would offer me a chance of a 1/6, so I passed over them both in favor of STARE. IRATE, meanwhile, turned up not that long ago (game #745 in July) so was relatively fresh in my mind.

With those three ruled out I had three to pick from: ORATE, TRADE and GRATE. As it happens, GRATE had also been a previous answer, in September 2022 (game #462), but I didn’t remember that, so included it in my reasoning.

That went like this: “If I play TRADE and it’s not right, I’d still have a 50/50 between the other two. So I should play one of those. ORATE is a very popular start word, so I should begin with that because lots of people will score a 1/6 today, and at least then I’d get a 2/6.” 

WordleBot didn’t like my choice of ORATE, but then it was working under the assumption that all six were possible answers, which I knew wasn’t the case. And though I wasn’t right, it did enough to point me to the answer: with the T staying yellow I knew the answer had to be TRADE and played that next for a 3/6 that may actually be a rather poor score today.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know. 


Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #869)

In a different time zone where it’s still Sunday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #869, 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 F.

F is a very common starting letter in Wordle. It ranks seventh behind only S, C, B, T, P and A and overall there are 135 solutions that begin with this letter.

  • 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 #869.

  • Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a blaze of light.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #869)

Wordle answer for game 869 on a yellow background

(Image credit: New York Times)

Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #869) was… FLARE.

After two tricky Wordles in a row we end the weekend with a much easier one. WordleBot says FLARE has an average score of 3.8, and if you began with certain of the best Wordle starting words you’ll have had a very good start indeed.

That’s because FLARE has an A-E format at the end that’s shared by several of those popular starters: SLATE, CRANE, TRACE, CRATE, STALE, STARE and others all follow that pattern. What’s more, some of those also have either an L or an R in the word too, further reducing the options.

That meant that in terms of my own game I scored an excellent opening that gave me three green letters from STARE. Remarkably, I now had a mere four possible answers left, and a 3/6 was easily within reach. TRACE, CRANE and CRATE players, meanwhile, all had seven solutions to pick from. 

I didn’t know for sure that I had only four answers to choose from, because WordleBot only reveals that information afterwards. And somehow, I only managed to find three.

I honestly don’t know how I made that mistake, because it really should have been very, very simple. Clearly there was going to be a consonant before the –ARE part of the word – though I did quickly run through the options for the likes of -IARE and -EARE first. And the chances are, that consonant would be an L, because along with R it’s one of the most common consonants to appear in the second position. In fact, L is in position #2 in 200 of the 2,309 original Wordle answers (R is there in 267).

I ran through the options and came up with FLARE and GLARE. I tried a few other possibles, including starting the word with a vowel, and found AWARE. But incredibly, I missed BLARE.

This oversight could easily have come back to haunt me, but thankfully it didn’t. I played GLARE, got the green L, then played FLARE with 100% confidence that it had to be the answer. It was the answer – but unknown to me, it could actually have been BLARE instead. Anyway, the upshot of all that is that I scored a 3/6 I probably didn’t deserve on a day when I had a very fortunate start. 


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 #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
  • Wordle #852, Thursday 19 October: SPLAT
  • Wordle #851, Wednesday 18 October: MERCY
  • Wordle #850, Tuesday 17 October: ADULT
  • Wordle #849, Monday 16 October: GRAPH
  • Wordle #848, Sunday 15 October: LEAKY
  • Wordle #847, Saturday 14 October: AGENT
  • Wordle #846, Friday 13 October: UNCLE
  • Wordle #845, Thursday 12 October: KNELT
  • Wordle #844, Wednesday 11 October: SKUNK
  • Wordle #843, Tuesday 10 October: SNAIL
  • Wordle #842, Monday 9 October: TRUTH
  • Wordle #841, Sunday 8 October: BINGE
  • Wordle #840, Saturday 7 October: VIOLA
  • Wordle #839, Friday 6 October: CHIME
  • Wordle #838, Thursday 5 October: BUNCH
  • Wordle #837, Wednesday 4 October: SPURT
  • Wordle #836, Tuesday 3 October: WHILE
  • Wordle #835, Monday 2 October: MERRY
  • Wordle #834, Sunday 1 October: BERET
  • Wordle #833, Saturday 30 September: DADDY
  • Wordle #832, Friday 29 September: AZURE
  • Wordle #831, Thursday 28 September: COACH
  • Wordle #830, Wednesday 27 September: SMILE
  • Wordle #829, Tuesday 26 September: LOYAL
  • Wordle #828, Monday 25 September: ROCKY
  • Wordle #827, Sunday 24 September: RIGHT
  • Wordle #826, Saturday 23 September: CAROL
  • Wordle #825, Friday 22 September: BRUSH
  • Wordle #824, Thursday 21 September: STONE
  • Wordle #823, Wednesday 20 September: SNARE
  • Wordle #822, Tuesday 19 September: CLOSE
  • Wordle #821, Monday 18 September: FRANK
  • Wordle #820, Sunday 17 September: MUSIC

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.