NYT Wordle today — answer and hints for game #996, Monday, March 11
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 #996) – 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 #996) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is P.
P is a very common first letter among Wordle answers. It’s the fifth most common in the alphabet and begins 141 solutions in total.
Wordle hints (game #996) – 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 #996) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is Y.
Y is the second most common ending letter in the game, behind only E. In total, 364 Wordle answers end with a Y.
Wordle hints (game #996) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #996.
- Today’s Wordle answer is troublesome.
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 #996)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: PARSE (3 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: FLOWN (1,015)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #996) is… PESKY.
PESKY is one of the more playful Wordles we’ve had in a while, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It conjures up images of Scooby-Doo or The Beano; pesky kids getting up to mischief in a hilarious (to my younger self) manner. It’s not a word I’d use regularly these days, although my three-year-old labrador could easily be described as pesky when he chews up a cushion or digs up the garden. (I’m more likely to use certain four-letter words than the five that Wordle allows).
I’m surprised to see that it only has an average of 3.8, because its relatively uncommon nature extends to the inclusion of a K in a position other than at the end of the answer, and an S that’s not at the start. But on the other hand, the E is very common, the P common at the start and the Y common at the end, so it all balances out.
For the second day in a row, PARSE was the best performing of the top 20 start words, as chosen by WordleBot. Unfortunately, PARSE is not a common pick among Wordlers, so I doubt many people were able to take advantage of the fact that it only left three answers. However, the 4% of players who went with STARE will have been pleased enough (it left 23 options), while the 32 for SLATE wasn’t terrible either.
My pick, on the other hand… well let’s just say that it wasn’t the most successful opener I’ve ever had. Fate, via my random word generator, served up FLOWN – which in some scenarios could be a very good choice. But not today. Oh no. Far from it. Instead, it gave me zero letters and left me with 1,015 options.
I didn’t know there were quite that many at the time, but I could see there were hundreds, so didn’t think too hard about the second guess beyond trying to use up the most common remaining letters. With L already ruled out, they were A and E on the vowels front, and S, T and R for the consonants – which gave me STARE, my former start word of Wordles past.
STARE was much luckier, giving me two yellow letters and leaving only seven possible answers. And this time I did set out to find them all. I didn’t quite manage it, but came up with four: CHESS, GUESS, MESSY and PESKY. The three I missed were MESHY (really, WordleBot?), BUSED and MUSED. If MESHY seemed unlikely then BUSED and MUSED were equally so in my opinion, but I can’t say for sure.
It didn’t matter, as it happens. I played CHESS because it would have guaranteed me a 4/6 at worst based on the answers I had – and it ended up guaranteeing me a 4/6 anyway. Well, sort of. Technically, WordleBot said I still had three options left: PESKY, BUSED and MUSED. But my brain still refused to countenance that the latter two could be real answers, so I played PESKY and guessed right.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #995)
In a different time zone where it’s still Sunday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #995, 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 G.
G is the eighth most common starting letter, featuring in 115 Wordle answers. It’s often paired with an L to make GL—, but I’m not revealing whether that’s the case today.
- 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 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 #995.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is to clutch something.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #995)
- NYT average score: 3.7
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: PARSE (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: GLARE (8)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #995) was… GRASP.
OK, I’ll hold up my hands and admit that I played this one really badly. And it’s not the first time I’ve done that lately, either. Yes, I still scored a 4/6, against an average of 3.6, so it wasn’t a disaster. But given the way my game started, that represents a major underachievement.
In yesterday’s column I complained that there were times when my random start word made it almost impossible for me to score below the average, but here was an example where my opener gave me a tremendous advantage over many players, yet I somehow screwed it up. Don’t worry, I intend to self flagellate for the rest of the day.
GRASP is another straightforward Wordle in many ways. There are no truly uncommon letters, no repeats, and the word could hardly be described as obscure. That said, you may still have needed to hunt for a few of the letters. G and P are only 17th and 15th overall, though G does have the advantage of being rather more common at the start of a word (where it’s the eighth most likely). S, meanwhile, is more common at the start than it is elsewhere. Admittedly, it ranks third when used in position #4, where it is here, but I’m not sure how many people realize that.
The best opener today (out of WordleBot’s 20 favorites) was PARSE, which would have guaranteed a solve in two guesses. However, not many people play that. More likely is that many players were in the 5-15 range, with STARE (6), RAISE (9) and SLATE (14) all performing well.
I was also in that range. My random opener was GLARE, which immediately gave me a green G, green A and yellow R. As WordleBot told me later, it was “extraordinarily lucky” and eliminated all but eight of the words in its dictionary. Great!
The problem, yet again, was that I didn’t find them all. There aren’t many letters that can go between a G and an A, and I’d already ruled out one of them in the form of L. R was the obvious candidate, and by working through the options for GRA I came up with GRASS, GRAPH, GRANT, GRAND, GRAFT and GRAIN.
Based on that list, I decided to play STAND – because it would be guaranteed to give me the answer on the third guess. However, I’d missed GRAVY and (more importantly) GRASP, which meant my reasoning was flawed. WordleBot suggested afterwards that SPENT would have been a better bet, and you can see why – the addition of the P would have indicated GRASP.
So, I played STAND next and was delighted when the S turned yellow – the answer had to be GRASS, right? But no, GRASP was also a possible solution, so I had to endure a proper facepalm moment on the third guess when the final letter failed to turn green. After a moment’s bewilderment I realized my mistake and had to settle for a frustrating 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 #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
- Wordle #974, Sunday 18 February: RIDGE
- Wordle #973, Saturday 17 February: PSALM
- Wordle #972, Friday 16 February: STASH
- Wordle #971, Thursday 15 February: ASCOT
- Wordle #970, Wednesday 14 February: TALON
- Wordle #969, Tuesday 13 February: SCRAM
- Wordle #968, Monday 12 February: PASTA
- Wordle #967, Sunday 11 February: NEVER
- Wordle #966, Saturday 10 February: FRIED
- Wordle #965, Friday 9 February: STIFF
- Wordle #964, Thursday 8 February: PLACE
- Wordle #963, Wednesday 7 February: AFTER
- Wordle #962, Tuesday 6 February: WHICH
- Wordle #961, Monday 5 February: REPEL
- Wordle #960, Sunday 4 February: VERGE
- Wordle #959, Saturday 3 February: MICRO
- Wordle #958, Friday 2 February: CLEFT
- Wordle #957, Thursday 1 February: ALIVE
- Wordle #956, Wednesday 31 January: BULKY
- Wordle #955, Tuesday 30 January: EXPEL
- Wordle #954, Monday 29 January: LEGGY
- Wordle #953, Sunday 28 January: EMBER
- Wordle #952, Saturday 27 January: SNAKE
- Wordle #951, Friday 26 January: ALOOF
- Wordle #950, Thursday 25 January: BLOCK
- Wordle #949, Wednesday 24 January: RELIC
- Wordle #948, Tuesday 23 January: STILL
- Wordle #947, Monday 22 January: TWEAK
- Wordle #946, Sunday 21 January: NORTH
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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