NYT Wordle today — answer and hints for game #1069, Thursday, May 23
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 new NYT Strands today page for my verdict on the New York Times’ latest brainteaser.
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 #1069) – 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 #1069) – 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 #1069) – 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 #1069) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is H.
H is a regular visitor to the final spot in a Wordle word. It occurs 137 times at the end of a Wordle answer, making it the sixth most common letter there.
Wordle hints (game #1069) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1069.
- Today’s Wordle answer is a moving sound.
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 #1069)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: SLICE (23 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: DINGY (264)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1069) is… SWISH.
It’s a long time since we had an easy answer in Wordle, and that more difficult run continues today with SWISH, a word that at the time of writing has an average score of 4.2. Not only does it contain a relatively uncommon letter, in the form of W, but it also has a repeated S. Add the fact that it’s not the most obvious word and you have all the ingredients for a fairly tough one.
S is a relatively common letter to be repeated in Wordle, with 49 instances among the game’s 2,309 original answers. However, the huge majority of those repeats come in the form of a double-S, rather than separated as they are here: 36 compared to 13. Will that have made it more difficult? I think so, because if the answer was something like CLASS or GRASS that second S would most likely be easy to identify. Here, it may have been a little better hidden.
Start words won’t have played a major factor today, other than the fact that lots of people will have received a green S at the start; SLATE and STARE are both very common openers. However, they contain none of the other letters in SWISH, and left 71 and 80 possible solutions respectively. SLICE was better, thanks to the inclusion of the I as well, but still left 23.
I had more than 10 times as many options for my second guess, because my random opener was DINGY, which gave me only a yellow I. My second guess wasn’t massively more successful. Yes, TRICE cut those options to 25, but WordleBot awarded me only 5/99 for luck, which tells a story there. Usually, a good second word will make much greater headway.
I had to wait until my third guess for that. In order to draw up a shortlist I’d mainly focused on the two letters that came after the I in the middle. Most of the best ending letters – including N, D, Y, T, R and E – had already been ruled out. The most likely options left were generally double letters as in –ILL, –IFF, –ISS and –IZZ, plus an S paired with K or H for ISK/ISH.
I came up with BLISS, SWILL, WHIFF, WHIZZ, SWISH, WHISK, AMISS, SPILL, SKILL and QUILL, and though I didn’t come close to finding them all, that was enough for me to decide that WHISK was a good third guess. WordleBot disagreed, awarding me only 64 for skill, but its rating was skewed by the fact that lots of the words on its shortlist weren’t on mine. However, I’d argue that many weren’t actually that likely; are the likes of AXIAL, SKIFF, SPIFF, SHIVA and PHISH really going to be answers?
Regardless of what WordleBot thought of it, WHISK did its intended job. The W and H both turned yellow, the S turned green. That now left only one possible answer, SWISH, which I played next for a 4/6.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1068)
In a different time zone where it’s still Wednesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1068, 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 E.
We don’t get many Wordle answers that start with an E – though it’s the most common letter in the game, it’s only the 14th most likely to begin a solution.
- 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 #1068.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is to elevate by praise.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1068)
- NYT average score: 3.9
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: LEAST (1 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: CREEP (315)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1068) was… EXALT.
Before consulting WordleBot today, I played a little game with myself (because I’m that much fun) and predicted what the average score would be. “It’s got an X in it!” I thought. “That will make it harder. Plus, E is not a common start word. This could easily be another one at 4.3 or higher.”
Well, reader, I was wrong. According to WordleBot, the average score at the time of writing is a mere 3.9, so bang on the norm for the game. It’s easier, supposedly, than DINGO yesterday (4.3, see below), HITCH (5.1), BRINY (4.5) and TUTOR (4.1), and on a par with NICER and STALL. Weird.
The reason for that low-ish average, presumably, is that a few of the best Wordle start words cut down the options considerably. SLATE, WordleBot’s second favorite and the fourth or fifth most popular on any given day, left a mere four solutions. STARE, the third most popular, left 13. A few that are not played so often were even better: LEAST and LEANT were both at one, STALE at two.
And looking at the letters, maybe that’s not surprising. After all, four of the five are ultra-common, with E ranked number one in the alphabet, A at two, T at five and L at six. Of course X is a different matter. As I show in my analysis of every Wordle answer, it’s the third least common letter in the game, ahead of only Q and J. Out of the 2,309 original Wordle answers, there are only 37 games that include an X.
Given all that, maybe it’s not surprising that the difficulty evens out in the middle, with the commonality of the other four letters canceled out by the added complication of the X.
My game was in keeping with the overall average: a standard 4/6. My start word, chosen at random, was a disaster; CREEP left 315 possible answers. My second guess, STALE, was a huge success: it gave me two greens, one more yellow to add to the E I already had, and cut those 315 to just two. What a rollercoaster, eh?
But there was one more twist in the tale. I spotted right away that DEALT was an option, and couldn’t see any others. That pesky X entirely escaped my attention, so I played DEALT with a certain amount of misplaced overconfidence. That’ll teach me: the T at the end turned green, but not the E, and I was forced to search for one more answer. That was EXALT, and I played it next for a 4/6.
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 #1068, Wednesday 22 May: EXALT
- Wordle #1067, Tuesday 21 May: DINGO
- Wordle #1066, Monday 20 May: NICER
- Wordle #1065, Sunday 19 May: HITCH
- Wordle #1064, Saturday 18 May: BRINY
- Wordle #1063, Friday 17 May: TUTOR
- Wordle #1062, Thursday 16 May: STALL
- Wordle #1061, Wednesday 15 May: PINCH
- Wordle #1060, Tuesday 14 May: AMASS
- Wordle #1059, Monday 13 May: CUMIN
- Wordle #1058, Sunday 12 May: OUTER
- Wordle #1057, Saturday 11 May: TIDAL
- Wordle #1056, Friday 10 May: MEDIA
- Wordle #1055, Thursday 9 May: JERKY
- Wordle #1054, Wednesday 8 May: PIOUS
- Wordle #1053, Tuesday 7 May: MUSTY
- Wordle #1052, Monday 6 May: SHAVE
- Wordle #1051, Sunday 5 May: DECAL
- Wordle #1050, Saturday 4 May: VALUE
- Wordle #1049, Friday 3 May: EBONY
- Wordle #1048, Thursday 2 May: SLICE
- Wordle #1047, Wednesday 1 May: DIARY
- Wordle #1046, Tuesday 30 April: PROWL
- Wordle #1045, Monday 29 April: CRAFT
- Wordle #1044, Sunday 28 April: PRUNE
- Wordle #1043, Saturday 27 April: GLEAM
- Wordle #1042, Friday 26 April: VAPID
- Wordle #1041, Thursday 25 April: INTRO
- Wordle #1040, Wednesday 24 April: OVERT
- Wordle #1039, Tuesday 23 April: ROVER
- Wordle #1038, Monday 22 April: LASER
- Wordle #1037, Sunday 21 April: JOLLY
- Wordle #1036, Saturday 20 April: LUCID
- Wordle #1035, Friday 19 April: RAISE
- Wordle #1034, Thursday 18 April: FACET
- Wordle #1033, Wednesday 17 April: TITHE
- Wordle #1032, Tuesday 16 April: SHANK
- Wordle #1031, Monday 15 April: EQUIP
- Wordle #1030, Sunday 14 April: BLIMP
- Wordle #1029, Saturday 13 April: STEEL
- Wordle #1028, Friday 12 April: WHINY
- Wordle #1027, Thursday 11 April: LOUSE
- Wordle #1026, Wednesday 10 April: BROTH
- Wordle #1025, Tuesday 9 April: MERGE
- 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
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.
stereoguide-referencehometheater-techradar