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 #1009) – clue #1 – Vowels
How many vowels does today’s Wordle have?
• Wordle today has 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).
Wordle hints (game #1009) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is T.
T is one of the most common starting letters in the game, beginning 149 of Wordle‘s 2,309 answers. That gives it a ranking of fourth in the alphabet, behind only S, C and B.
Wordle hints (game #1009) – 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 #1009) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is 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.
Wordle hints (game #1009) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1009.
- Today’s Wordle answer gets wet as it dries.
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 #1009)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: LEAST (14 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: TENSE (35)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1009) is… TOWEL.
Another day, another middling Wordle answer – in terms of difficulty at least. WordleBot says it has an average score of 3.8, which is about the norm for the game overall in recent weeks. The W in the middle of the word is the only outlier; it’s an uncommon letter in general, and only appears in the third slot in 26 out of Wordle’s original 2,309 solutions. That might have made it slightly more difficult to find, but the other four letters are ultra-common and there’s nothing to be particularly wary of.
That said, it was quite an up-and-down game for me: decent first guess, poor second, good third and a solve in four. But you wouldn’t know that based on WordleBot’s verdict – it continues to be confused by ED words, and was, I think, unfairly harsh on my play.
My random opener was TENSE, which was quite a fortunate one in some repects, giving me the green T at the start of the answer plus a yellow E to go with it. That left me with 35 possibles, which was considerably fewer than those available to players of some of the most popular start words; CRANE left 273 and STARE 92, for instance. But some words did work well, with the 19 for SLATE and 14 for LEAST standing out in particular.
I followed up with PRICE, which I don’t think is as bad as WordleBot said but which may not have been the absolute best. The ‘bot awarded me only 54 out of 99 for skill for that one, but I don’t see why it’s that low; all five letters are common and it left me with only five possible answers.
Or did it? WordleBot said I still had 11 to pick from, but once again it included several ED answers – the likes of TAMED and TAXED. Maybe that’s why it didn’t think PRICE was a good guess, because it was swayed by words which I think won’t be real answers. We may never know.
Anyway, in my head I had four to choose from: TOWEL, THEFT, TWEAK and THETA; I missed TOTEM in addition to those six ED words. I went with THEFT because the H would point the way to THETA if it was wrong, and the E in the middle to TWEAK. I was wrong – but my reasoning was sound, and I was able to play TOWEL on the fourth guess and equal the grumpy WordleBot’s score.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1008)
In a different time zone where it’s still Saturday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1008, 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 R.
R is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter. Despite ranking third overall in Wordle, it’s merely the 11th most likely to begin an answer.
- 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 N.
N is a pretty common ending letter in Wordle: it’s the seventh most likely in that position and features in 130 solutions.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1008.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer has ascended.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1008)
- NYT average score: 3.6
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- Best start word performance*: TASER, SANER (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: PATCH (792)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1008) was… RISEN.
Arrrgghh! Sometimes this game is so frustrating. RISEN is not a particularly tough Wordle – it has an average score of 3.6, making it the week’s easiest. But I could only score a 4/6 after being on the wrong end of some terrible luck.
Still, I won’t have been the only one. While the overall average is low, I suspect plenty of people will have scored a 4/6 or lower having plumped for one of several other words that shares all or most of the same letters as RISEN.
The culprit for me was RESIN, which is a relatively rare beast in Wordle: a pure anagram of the answer. SIREN and RINSE are two others, although they do at least mix up the characters more. RIPEN and RISER were also played by lots of people today.
A start word that placed the I or E may well have been key to solving it in three guesses or fewer, which is why TASER and SANER were both so successful; they each only left one answer. Neither appears among the most popular start words, but RAISE and ARISE do, and they left only three and eight solutions respectively.
Once again, my random start word was not so helpful. PATCH is not a bad choice in general (WordleBot awards it 88/99 for skill), but it left me with 792 possible answers. I did the best I could from there: the obvious thing to do was to play the most common remaining letters, which were E, R, O, L, I, N and S. I only needed two vowels, so ditched the I, and couldn’t think of a good word using the L, so played SNORE instead.
This was nearly perfect: it cut those 792 choices to a pair, RISEN and RESIN. Unfortunately my fate lay in the hands of the Wordle gods now, and today they didn’t smile on me. I played RESIN first and had to settle 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 #1008, Saturday 23 March: RISEN
- Wordle #1007, Friday 22 March: DECAY
- Wordle #1006, Thursday 21 March: SHADE
- Wordle #1005, Wednesday 20 March: LINGO
- Wordle #1004, Tuesday 19 March: ABIDE
- Wordle #1003, Monday 18 March: SPELT
- Wordle #1002, Sunday 17 March: SNORT
- Wordle #1001, Saturday 16 March: TOXIN
- Wordle #1000, Friday 15 March: ERUPT
- Wordle #999, Thursday 14 March: SINCE
- Wordle #998, Wednesday 13 March: LOCAL
- Wordle #997, Tuesday 12 March: HEAVE
- Wordle #996, Monday 11 March: PESKY
- 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
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.
