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 NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for my verdict on two of the New York Times' other brainteasers.
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 #1253) - 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 #1253) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is J.
J is the least common letter overall in Wordle, but is only the fourth least likely starting letter. That's because it begins 20 out of the 27 answers it appears in (Y, Z and X are all less common starting letters).
Wordle hints (game #1253) - 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 #1253) - 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 #1253) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1253.
- Today's Wordle answer is a shapeless mass.
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 #1253)
- NYT average score: 4.4
- My score: 5
- WordleBot's score: 4
- Best start word performance*: STALE (15 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: LATER (75)
* From WordleBot's Top 20 start words
Today's Wordle answer (game #1253) is… JELLY.
Wordle's been a little easier over the past week (though you wouldn't know it from my scores), but JELLY is the first truly tough one since UVULA nine games ago.
It contains several elements regularly seen in difficult Wordles: a repeated letter, an uncommon letter, and a couple of similarly spelled alternatives. The J at the start is probably the most destructive of those factors; as my analysis of every Wordle answer shows, J is the least common letter in the game, appearing in a mere 27 out of the original 2,309 solutions.
Compared to that, a repeated L is almost likely – there are 71 of these in the answer list. But it's still a lot less likely than getting one L, so it's all relative. As for the too-many-answers aspect, it's not exactly in -ATCH territory, but plenty of people played BELLY or WELLY today, so it will have contributed towards the high average score of 4.4. Spare a thought, too, for the 0.6% of people today who played, er, KELLY, or the 0.4% who went with FELLY. No, me neither.
I did play BELLY, however, and that – on a 50/50 – was the difference between a decent score and a lackluster one. LATER, my opening guess, had left 75 answers; an average result on most days, at best, but not too bad here given that CRANE left 273 and STARE 248.
I followed up with CLONE, which was simply a case of me playing the percentages, and though I cut that list to 17, WordleBot said I was unlucky and that it would have expected me to have only half of that number of options by now. My third guess was far more successful, with DEVIL cutting the list to only BELLY and JELLY. However, that was as far as my luck went, so I had to settle for that disappointing five. I won't be the only one, I'm sure.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1252)
In a different time zone where it's still Friday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1252, 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 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 L.
L is a really common letter to find at the end of a Wordle. There are 155 games that finish with an L, and it ranks as the fifth most likely letter there.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1252.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is precious.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1252)
- NYT average score: 3.5
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 3
- Best start word performance*: PLANE, PLACE, PLATE, PARSE (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: CHORE (35)
* From WordleBot's Top 20 start words
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1252) was… PEARL.
It was another low-scoring day yesterday. Or should that be high scoring? Probably both, given that people are getting good scores by getting low scores. Anyway, the average yesterday was 3.5, the same as for the previous day's SPINE (see below), and I'm not in the slightest surprised.
PEARL has four ultra-common letters, plus one – P – that is only ranked in the middle overall (15th) but that's the fifth most likely to start an answer. If you didn't expect that, consider how often it precedes an R or L for PRIDE or PRONG or PLUMB or PLANK and so on.
It doesn't do that here, instead being followed by an E – which as everyone knows by now is the most common letter of all. A is only just behind it and R third, so merely playing the odds here will probably have worked out just fine.
Indeed, that's evident in the results for WordleBot's top 20 start words. Thirteen of them – CRANE, SLATE, TRACE, CRATE, PLATE, STARE, LEAST, STALE, PARSE, SNARE, TRADE, PLANE and PLACE – left fewer than 10 possible solutions today, while the P-starters among them all left only a single option. Even my random start word, CHORE, was not a disaster (for once), reducing the options to 35.
Sadly, I was unable to turn that into a three. I deliberated for a while as to what to play next, and decided to go with DERBY. This was based on the green R and yellow E that I had suggesting an --RRY answer such as BERRY, MERRY, FERRY or TERRY, an ERY ending for EVERY, EMERY, QUERY or LEERY, or an -EARY word such as TEARY or WEARY. I did have a few others, including BEARD and WEIRD, so DERBY seemed to tick a lot of boxes, letter-wise.
It worked well enough but still left five words: LEARN, PEARL, REARM, TETRA and PETRI. And – full disclosure – I only found the first two of those. In my defence, I think the other three are a lot less likely (though not impossible) to be actual answers, so I'm not beating myself up too much for playing LEARN next.
It wasn't right, of course, but it did leave PEARL as the only possible answer, so I ended up with my starting-to-become-customary score of four.
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 #1252, Friday 22 November: PEARL
- Wordle #1251, Thursday 21 November: SPINE
- Wordle #1250, Wednesday 20 November: NICHE
- Wordle #1249, Tuesday 19 November: GOING
- Wordle #1248, Monday 18 November: FRAIL
- Wordle #1247, Sunday 17 November: TALLY
- Wordle #1246, Saturday 16 November: VISOR
- Wordle #1245, Friday 15 November: TACKY
- Wordle #1244, Thursday 14 November: UVULA
- Wordle #1243, Wednesday 13 November: PRIMP
- Wordle #1242, Tuesday 12 November: FLOWN
- Wordle #1241, Monday 11 November: STOIC
- Wordle #1240, Sunday 10 November: INNER
- Wordle #1239, Saturday 9 November: SWELL
- Wordle #1238, Friday 8 November: READY
- Wordle #1237, Thursday 7 November: EVENT
- Wordle #1236, Wednesday 6 November: TRULY
- Wordle #1235, Tuesday 5 November: OCTET
- Wordle #1234, Monday 4 November: VINYL
- Wordle #1233, Sunday 3 November: BLAZE
- Wordle #1232, Saturday 2 November: SNOOP
- Wordle #1231, Friday 1 November: SIXTH
- Wordle #1230, Thursday 31 October: WEIRD
- Wordle #1229, Wednesday 30 October: EASEL
- Wordle #1228, Tuesday 29 October: TUNIC
- Wordle #1227, Monday 28 October: BAWDY
- Wordle #1226, Sunday 27 October: SANDY
- Wordle #1225, Saturday 26 October: WREAK
- Wordle #1224, Friday 25 October: FROWN
- Wordle #1223, Thursday 24 October: BOSSY
- Wordle #1222, Wednesday 23 October: GOOFY
- Wordle #1221, Tuesday 22 October: SHOUT
- Wordle #1220, Monday 21 October: SPOON
- Wordle #1219, Sunday 20 October: DICEY
- Wordle #1218, Saturday 19 October: FIBER
- Wordle #1217, Friday 18 October: STINT
- Wordle #1216, Thursday 17 October: HALVE
- Wordle #1215, Wednesday 16 October: GRANT
- Wordle #1214, Tuesday 15 October: CORER
- Wordle #1213, Monday 14 October: GAMUT
- Wordle #1212, Sunday 13 October: PRONE
- Wordle #1211, Saturday 12 October: STAIN
- Wordle #1210, Friday 11 October: GUSTY
- Wordle #1209, Thursday 10 October: CARVE
- Wordle #1208, Wednesday 9 October: MOMMY
- Wordle #1207, Tuesday 8 October: JOINT
- Wordle #1206, Monday 7 October: FLOUR
- Wordle #1205, Sunday 6 October: LAGER
- Wordle #1204, Saturday 5 October: MINER
- Wordle #1203, Friday 4 October: TITLE
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.
