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 #1010) – 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 #1010) – 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 #1010) – 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 #1010) – 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 #1010) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1010.
- Today’s Wordle answer is to burst forth.
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 #1010)
- NYT average score: 4.4
- My score: 5
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- Best start word performance*: STALE (2 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: SPAWN (45)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1010) is… SALLY.
The first Wordle of the working week (for me at least) is a difficult one: SALLY has an average score of 4.4 according to WordleBot. That makes it the toughest since HUNCH in early March and the joint seventh hardest so far in 2024.
The double-L in the middle is the obvious problem you’ll have had to deal with, but it’s not the only one – I also struggled with the fact that it isn’t the most obvious word, and I suspect others will have suffered in the same way.
SALLY is a perfectly acceptable word. Yes, it’s a name, but as most people know it also means a sudden rushing forth, particularly in a military context. It’s not in wide use, though, and the WordAndPhrase website states that it’s only the 34,357th most common word in the English language. Certainly some of the other similarly spelled words may have jumped more readily to mind.
It’s not all bad, though. As I show in my analysis of every Wordle answer, S is the most common starting letter, A the most common in position #2 and Y the second most likely at the end. Oh, and L is the third most common letter to be repeated. It’s difficult, but not impossible.
It still took me five guesses though, and that was despite an opening word that WordleBot said was “a lucky choice”. SPAWN gave me the green S and yellow A and left 45 solutions, but it was nowhere near as helpful as SLATE (which left nine), let alone top-of-the-class STALE (which left only two).
I decided to leave out the S in favor of playing an extra letter, and LATHE seemed like a good choice. OK, so it includes an H – which isn’t a particularly common letter – but H often follows an S, so it was played with that in mind. As it turned out, the H wasn’t needed, but the L was. With the A turning green too, I now had a decent amount of info – it had to be either SAL–, SA-L- or SA–L.
I hunted through each of them and came up with five possible answers, which is the same number that WordleBot found: SALLY, SALSA, SALVO, SALAD and SADLY. With hindsight, I should have played another narrowing-down word to identify which of the five was correct – for instance, COULD would have guaranteed a solve in four. But instead I went for SALAD, which would definitely point the way to SADLY and SALSA, as well as being an answer in its own right, but which might have left me with a 50/50 between SALVO and SALLY.
It was a risk, then, but only a small one. Unfortunately, it was a risk too far – the L turned green but the second A and D stayed grey, which meant… yes, a 50/50.
I couldn’t fail now of course – it was a 5/6 at worst for me. But I never like scoring a five, so I was disappointed when SALVO wasn’t right either and I had to play SALLY on the next guess. Still, it was a difficult day, so I won’t be the only one to struggle.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1009)
In a different time zone where it’s still Sunday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1009, 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 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.
- 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 #1009.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer gets wet as it dries.
Yesterday’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
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1009) was… 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.
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 #1009, Sunday 24 March: TOWEL
- 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
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.
