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? TechRadar's Quordle today page contains hints and answers for that game, and you can also take a look at our NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for our 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 #1354) - 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 #1354) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is C.
C is a very common starting letter in Wordle – in fact, it's the second most common of all, behind only S.
Wordle hints (game #1354) - 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 #1354) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is K.
K is much more common at the end of a Wordle answer than at the start, and in fact ranks ninth overall in this regard.
Wordle hints (game #1354) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1354.
- Today's Wordle answer is to inspect or examine.
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 #1354)
- NYT average score: 3.9
- My score: 3
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My start word performance: STUCK (26 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (25)
Today's Wordle answer (game #1354) is… CHECK.
Sometimes Wordle can delight in leading you around the board, as you chase yellow letters in search of greens and with little idea of what the final word might look like. And then other days it all just comes together and you wonder how this game could ever be difficult.
CHECK is firmly in the latter camp for me: two greens on the first guess, two more on the second, one answer available for the third guess. As a measure of how things panned out, WordleBot awarded me a 99 skill rating – only the fourth I've had in the past month – and a very high luck score of 80.
It's another middling answer in general, with an average score of 3.9 – the same as for Sunday's DEITY, but above that for yesterday's easy SPEAR (3.6). Others will not find it so easy as I did, and luck will (as always) play a big role in that.
It contains a repeated letter C, which should make it harder, but then again those Cs are paired with an H and a K, two letters that it often goes with – so finding them both may not have been too tricky.
Plenty of the best Wordle start words made the task easier today, with TRACE the pick of the bunch; it left only eight options. But the likes of CRATE (21), PLACE (13) and CRANE (25) were pretty good too – as was my opening STUCK, which left 26.
Though I had one possible answer more than WordleBot did with CRANE, I think I was in the better place – because I already had the CK bit in place at the end.
Finding those options was therefore pretty straightforward, and I came up with 21 of them myself, including the likes of CRACK, CLICK, CLOCK, FROCK, FLACK, BLACK, BLOCK, WRECK and CHECK.
There was no way for me to guarantee a solve in three at this stage, but I worked out that playing CHOIR would come close. WordleBot preferred CORAL, but CHOIR was its third choice, and as it happened both left just a single answer.
That was CHECK, and I played it next for my three.
How did you do today? Send me an email or let me know in the comments.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1353)
In a different time zone where it's still Monday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1353, 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 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.
- 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 R.
R is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – it's actually the 4th most common there, behind E, Y and T.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1353.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is a throwing weapon.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1353)
- NYT average score: 3.6
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My start word performance: YEAST (30 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (87)
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1353) was… SPEAR.
S is such a familiar guest at the start of Wordle answers that it's easy to forget just how regularly it appears. And it really is a lot.
Of the original 2,309 Wordle solutions, 365 begin with S; that's a staggering 15.8% of all games, meaning you'd expect one every six or seven days. Given that there have so far been 1,354 Wordles (the first was game #0), you'd therefore expect there to have been 213 that started with an S – and in reality SPEAR is the 207th, so we're maybe a little behind, but only a tiny bit. Probability is, effectively, working as you would hope it would.
I know that WordleBot prefers CRANE as its choice of the best Wordle start words, but I'd always go for an S-led word for that reason. Mine was STARE for a long time, and if I returned to a fixed opener, as opposed to playing a random word each day, I'd probably choose SANER due to it also having the ER format that makes some games so tough.
As it is, I'm still going random – and yesterday I had to contend with YEAST, a word that uses several letters in slightly uncommon places and which gave me three yellows rather than any greens. It was still helpful, though, leaving only 30 answers.
Meanwhile RAISE, which many more people begin with, left only six – and that probably contributed to a low average score of 3.6.
I did play SANER second time out, and it worked nicely enough in cutting those 30 words down to a quartet of SMEAR, SHEAR, SWEAR and SPEAR, all of which I found myself.
I thought about trying for a three, but couldn't recall if any had been past Wordle answers, so instead played WHOMP. This was guaranteed to give me the answer in four based on which of W, H or P changed color (and if none of them did, it would point the way to SHEAR).
As it happened, it was the P that turned yellow, meaning I could play SPEAR next for a straightforward solve.
Wordle answers: The past 50
I've been playing Wordle every day for more than three 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 #1353, Monday 3 March: SPEAR
- Wordle #1352, Sunday 2 March: DEITY
- Wordle #1351, Saturday 1 March: HOVER
- Wordle #1350, Friday 28 February: FUZZY
- Wordle #1349, Thursday 27 February: LODGE
- Wordle #1348, Wednesday 26 February: AWARD
- Wordle #1347, Tuesday 25 February: DRYER
- Wordle #1346, Monday 24 February: GLAND
- Wordle #1345, Sunday 23 February: OTTER
- Wordle #1344, Saturday 22 February: CREAM
- Wordle #1343, Friday 21 February: CLOVE
- Wordle #1342, Thursday 20 February: ROACH
- Wordle #1341, Wednesday 19 February: MADLY
- Wordle #1340, Tuesday 18 February: INDIE
- Wordle #1339, Monday 17 February: TRAIL
- Wordle #1338, Sunday 16 February: SUAVE
- Wordle #1337, Saturday 15 February: CROOK
- Wordle #1336, Friday 14 February: DITTY
- Wordle #1335, Thursday 13 February: RUMBA
- Wordle #1334, Wednesday 12 February: RAPID
- Wordle #1333, Tuesday 11 February: SCORE
- Wordle #1332, Monday 10 February: GOODY
- Wordle #1331, Sunday 9 February: BONUS
- Wordle #1330, Saturday 8 February: STEEP
- Wordle #1329, Friday 7 February: SWATH
- Wordle #1328, Thursday 6 February: PUPIL
- Wordle #1327, Wednesday 5 February: PEDAL
- Wordle #1326, Tuesday 4 February: TOOTH
- Wordle #1325, Monday 3 February: REVUE
- Wordle #1324, Sunday 2 February: CHORE
- Wordle #1323, Saturday 1 February: RIVET
- Wordle #1322, Friday 31 January: TOAST
- Wordle #1321, Thursday 30 January: FALSE
- Wordle #1320, Wednesday 29 January: UDDER
- Wordle #1319, Tuesday 28 January: FEVER
- Wordle #1318, Monday 27 January: SHUNT
- Wordle #1317, Sunday 26 January: SUNNY
- Wordle #1316, Saturday 25 January: CRISP
- Wordle #1315, Friday 24 January: CREPE
- Wordle #1314, Thursday 23 January: UPPER
- Wordle #1313, Wedneday 22 January: REACH
- Wordle #1312, Tuesday 21 January: ICING
- Wordle #1311, Monday 20 January: SQUID
- Wordle #1310, Sunday 19 January: ROWER
- Wordle #1309, Saturday 18 January: SILLY
- Wordle #1308, Friday 17 January: PROSE
- Wordle #1307, Thursday 16 January: FLINT
- Wordle #1306, Wednesday 15 January: KNACK
- Wordle #1305, Tuesday 14 January: FANCY
- Wordle #1304, Monday 13 January: CLOAK
- Wordle #1303, Sunday 12 January: TOTAL
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.
