NYT Wordle today — answer and hints for game #1,025, Tuesday, April 9
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 #1,025) – 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 #1,025) – 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 #1,025) – clue #3 – repeated letters
Does today’s Wordle have any repeated letters?
• There are 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 #1,025) – 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 #1,025) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1,025.
- Today’s Wordle answer is to combine or unite.
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 #1,025)
- NYT average score: 4.3
- My score: 5
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: PARSE (15 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: CYBER (172)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1,025) is… MERGE.
I generally define a difficult Wordle by whether it has an average of above 4.0. We haven’t had four of these in a row since late January, when BULKY followed EXPEL followed LEGGY followed EMBER in what was a really, really tough run. Well, until today – because MERGE has an average score of 4.3, following 4.3 for BREED, 4.2 for VOILA and 4.5 for FINCH.
Like BREED, MERGE contains two Es. As I show in my analysis of every Wordle answer, this is not in itself hugely uncommon, in that E is the most likely letter to appear more than once in a solution. But common on not, repeats still tend to make the game harder, so it will have been a factor today.
Similarly spelled words may have been another issue. In terms of words that differ by only one letter, VERGE was the culprit – although that was the answer to game #960 in February, so many Wordlers will have remembered that. However, people were also drawn in by PURGE, NERVE, MERRY and VERVE.
Finally, the letters M and G are both in the bottom half of the Wordle alphabet by how common they are, so may have been less likely to be played early. For that reason, few of the best start words made major inroads here: CRATE (42 remaining answers) and CRANE (46) were probably the best of the really popular ones, although among WordleBot’s top 20 PARSE (15) was better.
My starter today was CYBER, which was fairly unlucky and which left me 172 answers. I could blame that for my 5/6 here, but really it was a combination of bad luck on guesses two and three. My choices – STARE followed by PROUD – were hailed by WordleBot with skill scores of 91 and 95. But in terms of luck, the ‘bot awarded me 9/100 and 10/100. Ouch!
By the fourth guess I’d cut my possibilities to six, and found them all: RIFLE, MERGE, VERGE, NERVE, VERVE and EERIE. I worked out that guessing VEGAN would guarantee a solve in 5/6, and decided to go for that rather than risk a 6/6 or worse. WordleBot said this was a mistake, in that guessing VERGE would also have guaranteed a 5/6 at worst and might have turned out to be correct – but the ‘bot was misguided here, because I knew it had been a past Wordle answer. I therefore went with VEGAN, and when the G turned yellow knew that had to be the solution.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1,024)
In a different time zone where it’s still Monday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1,024, 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 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 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 D.
D is a fairly common letter to end a Wordle answer: it’s the eighth most likely to be in that position in a solution.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1,024.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is to propagate.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1,024)
- NYT average score: 4.3
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: TRADE (17 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: SORRY (354)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1,024) was… BREED.
This is now officially a tough run in Wordle. Well, if you count my musings as official, which they most definitely are not. BREED has an average score of 4.3, following 4.2 and 4.5 on the previous couple of days, putting it on a par with SALLY, MAYOR and STUNG a couple of weeks ago in difficulty terms. I scored a 4/6, WordleBot scored a 4/6 and I doubt too many people scored higher than 4/6 here.
Not only does it have a repeated E, but it’s also one of those words with lots of similarly spelled alternatives. GREED, CREED and FREED all differ by only one letter, as do BREAD and BLEED. With two letters to find there are many, many more options, with some of the most commonly played today including GREEN, PREEN and TREND.
Only a couple of the top start words helped much, with TRADE (17 remaining answers), CRATE (25) and CRANE (30) the only to reduce the words list to a manageable number. In contrast, I started with SORRY – which led to a sorry state of affairs in terms of my still having 354 options.
I didn’t overthink my second guess, playing LATER because they were the most common letters still available to me, and I wanted to cover off the possibility of it being an ER word.
The first part of that format, the E, turned green – but the R stayed yellow, which made it likely that this was an -R-E- word. I did find a couple that started with an R instead, such as RIVEN and RIPEN, but most had the R second: CREEK, CREED, BREED, GREED, PREEN, FREED, CREEP and GREEN.
I didn’t find all 20 that WordleBot later said were still left at this stage, but I had enough to know what my third guess should be: GRIND. This would cover the possibility of RIVEN or RIPEN being the answer, and would make headway on the others.
With the R and D turning green, I now had three answers left: BREED, FREED or CREED. I couldn’t recall any having been past Wordle answers, so I had a straight one-in-three shot at it. FREED seemed less likely than the other two, because it’s a past tense ED word, which generally aren’t included in Wordle. The C in CREED was slightly more likely than the B in BREED, but the latter is a more common word, so I went with that and got lucky.
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 #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
- Wordle #1001, Saturday 16 March: TOXIN
- Wordle #1000, Friday 15 March: ERUPT
- Wordle #999, Thursday 14 March: SINCE
- Wordle #998, Wednesday 13 March: LOCAL
- Wordle #997, Tuesday 12 March: HEAVE
- Wordle #996, Monday 11 March: PESKY
- Wordle #995, Sunday 10 March: GRASP
- Wordle #994, Saturday 9 March: CHEER
- Wordle #993, Friday 8 March: EARLY
- Wordle #992, Thursday 7 March: CLONE
- Wordle #991, Wednesday 6 March: TEARY
- Wordle #990, Tuesday 5 March: HUNCH
- Wordle #989, Monday 4 March: FLAME
- Wordle #988, Sunday 3 March: STATE
- Wordle #987, Saturday 2 March: URBAN
- Wordle #986, Friday 1 March: FORTY
- Wordle #985, Thursday 29 February: IMAGE
- Wordle #984, Wednesday 28 February: DEVIL
- Wordle #983, Tuesday 27 February: SENSE
- Wordle #982, Monday 26 February: OFTEN
- Wordle #981, Sunday 25 February: SMITH
- Wordle #980, Saturday 24 February: PIPER
- Wordle #979, Friday 23 February: APART
- Wordle #978, Thursday 22 February: HEAVY
- Wordle #977, Wednesday 21 February: BUILD
- Wordle #976, Tuesday 20 February: MATCH
- Wordle #975, Monday 19 February: PRICE
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.
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