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 #969) – 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 #969) – 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 #969) – 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 #969) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is M.
M is a middling ending letter: it ranks 13th in this regard, and only completes 46 Wordle answers overall.
Wordle hints (game #969) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #969.
- Today’s Wordle answer is to go away quickly.
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 #969)
Today’s Wordle answer (game #969) is… SCRAM.
A score of four seems to have become my default of late; it’s been my fate in six of the past seven games, including the last four in a row. This stands in stark contrast to my results when I was using STARE as my start word, when I’d be far more likely to score a 3/6; my overall stats show that I’ve had 346 threes vs 272 fours.
The main – and obvious – reason for this change is that when I have poor luck on the first guess, it’s very difficult to then narrow it down quickly enough to solve it in only two more guesses. And that’s a particular problem with a word like SCRAM, which has several similarly spelled words. The obvious one is SCRAP, but a glance through WordleBot shows that lots of people also played SCRAG, SPRAY, SCARY, SCARF, STRAP, MARCH and a few others. (MARCH might look like an outlier there, but it shares four of its five letters with SCRAM).
If I was playing one of the best Wordle starting words things might have been different; I suspect that plenty of people who began with TRACE (17 answers left), CRANE (9), CARET (3), CRATE (10), CARTE (3) or STARE (7) will have solved it in 3/6, because SCRAM is not a particularly difficult word in general. But its overall score of 3.9 does imply it wasn’t exactly a breeze, so presumably the people who didn’t get off to a good start all solved it in 4/6 or worse.
I’d have needed a lot of luck to beat a four today, because my random opener, BITTY, left 1,120 possible solutions! I managed to cut that to only six with CRANE, but though I found all of them – MARCH, LARCH, PARCH, SCRAM, SCRAP and MACRO – I needed one further attempt to find the right one, and had to settle for that 4/6.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #968)
In a different time zone where it’s still Monday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #968, 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 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.
- 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 A.
A is a relatively common ending letter. It ranks 10th in this regard and today’s game is one of 63 in which you’ll find an A there.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #968.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a popular food type.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #968)
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #968) was… PASTA.
Repeated letters have been a feature of recent Wordles, with six of the past nine games including a matching pair. Half of these have been duplicate Es, which are easier to find because they’re so common. But today’s is the less-likely-to-appear-more-than-once A.
Admittedly, A is still fairly common as repeated letters go; it’s fourth behind L, O and the aforementioned E. However, these things are all relative, and there are still only 69 games in which A appears more than once. You certainly wouldn’t expect it to happen at the start of a Wordle.
Despite that, PASTA is not too tricky overall. WordleBot says it has an average score of 3.7, making it half a guess easier than yesterday’s rather challenging NEVER (see below).
That low-ish score is probably in large part due to the performance of some of the best Wordle starting words. SLATE left only six solutions and PLATE five, while a bunch of popular choices such as STARE (12), RAISE (23) and ORATE (also 23) were not far behind.
WordleBot said that my random opener, FILTH, was a lucky choice, but it didn’t feel that way, given that I still had 70 words to pick from. I didn’t take any great risks with my second guess, merely playing five of the most common letters still open to me, in the form of CRANE. This was a “good guess”, apparently, but it only uncovered one yellow letter and still left me with eight options.
At this stage I set about listing all the words that would fit. I came up with four: PASTY, TASTY, PATTY and TATTY, but missed QUOTA (fair enough), BATTY (maybe) and GOTTA (really?), plus the eventual answer, PASTA.
Based on the four words on my list, PASTY seemed like a good bet, because it didn’t repeat a letter whereas the others did. When the first four letters turned green I thought I’d got it, so I was little shocked when that last one stayed gray. I don’t think you’d need to be a genius to work out that PASTA was now the only answer, so I played that next for my 4/6.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
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 #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
- Wordle #945, Saturday 20 January: LARGE
- Wordle #944, Friday 19 January: THING
- Wordle #943, Thursday 18 January: STOLE
- 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
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