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.
Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been obsessed with Wordle for more than two years. He's authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar and its sister site Tom's Guide, including a detailed analysis of the most common letters in Wordle in every position. He's also played every Wordle ever and only lost once and yes, he takes it all too seriously.
Wordle hints (game #1089) - 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 #1089) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is D.
D is the ninth most common starting letter in the game, so maybe slightly less likely than you might expect.
Wordle hints (game #1089) - 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 #1089) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is 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.
Wordle hints (game #1089) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1089.
- Today's Wordle answer is to discourage.
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 #1089)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 3
- WordleBot's score: 3
- Best start word performance*: TRADE (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: LODGE (203)
* From WordleBot's Top 20 start words
Today's Wordle answer (game #1089) is… DETER.
Question: what's worse than an ER word? Answer: an ER word containing a repeated letter, of course!
Want proof? Here goes. The overall average for the game, based on every puzzle for which we have a WordleBot score (which currently stands at 801), is 3.962. So far, there have been 45 ER words among those 801, and the average for those is 4.358. But among ER words that also have a repeat – of which there have now been 15 – the average is a mighty 4.642.
So there you have it: the combo of an ER ending a repeated letter adds more than a half guess on to the average score, and tips a Wordle over from being straightforward to being rather difficult.
DETER is far from the hardest of these, given that it has an average of 4.2, whereas ROVER in April was at 5.0 and PIPER in February was 5.2. And indeed, it's not even as high as yesterday's SWUNG (4.4, see below) or Sunday's MANGA (a whopping 4.8). But it is undeniably tough.
On the plus side, the repeated letter is an E – and as my analysis of every Wordle answers shows, that's by far the most likely one to appear twice in an answer. The fact that the other three letters are D, T and R will also have helped, particularly if your start word was TRADE, which left only a single solution.
But TRADE is not a particularly popular opener, so more likely is that your shortlist will actually have been a longlist: CRANE left 191 options, SLATE left 117. STARE was better, at 43, but that's still a way off the single-figure totals that mark out an easy game.
My opener was in the same ballpark as CRANE, with LODGE leaving me with 203 possible solutions, despite the fact that I had two yellow letters. Fortunately, I spotted the pitfall ahead of me and managed to get home in three. Any time that an E turns yellow at the end of my first guess I play for an ER word (unless the R is ruled out, of course), because if I do have to solve one I want as many attempts at it as possible.
So with that in mind I played DINER next, reasoning that if the R didn't turn green then maybe the N would be at the end instead. I suspected that the D wouldn't be there, because ED words are not generally included among Wordle answers (though there have been some exceptions, such as FRIED).
As it happened, the D, E and R all turned green, instantly cutting my word list from 200-plus to a mere four: DETER, DRYER, DEFER and DATER. And the really good news was that I could now guarantee a 4/6 by playing DETER. Why? Well, if the E turned green but the T didn't, it would have to be DEFER. If the T turned green without the E, it would be DATER. If neither changed colour, it would be DRYER. Playing any of the other three would not guarantee that four, because it would potentially still leave me a 50/50, or even a three-way split if I'd played DRYER.
So, it made sense to play DETER anyway, and as luck would have it I didn't need to worry about guaranteeing a four – because both the E and T turned green, meaning I scored a three.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1088)
In a different time zone where it's still Tuesday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1088, too.
- Wordle yesterday had 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).
- 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 G.
G is not a common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only 41 of Wordle's 2,309 games finish with one.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1088.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is to have swayed to and fro.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1088)
- NYT average score: 4.4
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 3
- Best start word performance*: SAINT (11 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: NYLON (224)
* From WordleBot's Top 20 start words
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1088) was… SWUNG.
If you want proof of how diverse Wordle can be, consider today's answer, SWUNG, compared to Sunday's MANGA.
MANGA had an average score of 4.8, SWUNG is currently at 4.4. So, both are very difficult games compared to the norm, which is around 3.9. However, MANGA's difficulty stemmed from its repeated letter As, and from the fact that lots of people had never heard of the word.
SWUNG, by contrast, has entirely different complications. There are no repeated letters here, obviously, and as a word it could hardly be described as obscure.
So, what are the problems? Well, one of the letters, W, is relatively uncommon: as my analysis of every Wordle answers shows, W is the sixth least likely letter to appear in a solution. But I very much doubt that's why it has a high score. The other letters definitely won't be a factor, either, as they are all either very or somewhat common in the game.
Instead, you need to look at the relatively high number of other words that differ by only one or two letters. Lots of Wordlers played SWING, SLUNG, STUNG, SHUNT, SKUNK, SLUNK and FLUNG today, in varying quantities and at different stages of the game. That's because the S-UN- and S--NG formats are both relatively common, so people may simply have ended up needing one or two extra guesses in order to find the right answer.
That implies that not too many people will necessarily fail today – more likely is that lots just scored a four where they would otherwise have got a three, or ended up with a five rather than a four. There were probably lots who faced a 50/50, or maybe a one-in-three guess, and just picked the wrong option.
The way to avoid that is to not try to guess outright early on, but to instead narrow things down – though of course you can't do that on hard mode.
Not that my game developed that way anyway, mostly because my start word was so terrible (yet again). None of WordleBot's top choices were particularly helpful either – CRANE left 68, SLATE left 71, STARE left 80 – but they were still far better than my NYLON, which left 224 possibles.
I followed up by playing CRANE, because I wanted to place the yellow N in its most common position, and add in the most common remaining letters. Technically that would have meant including T rather than C, but I couldn't think of a way to do that.
CRANE turned the N green, but nothing more. However, it did cut those 224 options to a more manageable 15.
I soon realized that many of those started with an S, and most also included an I or U plus a G, K or T at the end; I had SWING, SWUNG, SKUNK, STING, STINT, STUNG, SWUNG, STUNT, STINK, STUNK and SHUNT. I also had a few that started with T – THING and THINK – plus USING. The ones I missed? SUING and SPUNK.
So, what to do? Well, playing SIGHT would not quite guarantee me a solve in four, but it would take me most of the way there. And indeed it did – the S turned green, the G turned yellow, the I, H and T all stayed gray. That meant SWUNG was now the only possible solution, so I played that next for my 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 #1088, Tuesday 11 June: SWUNG
- Wordle #1087, Monday 10 June: MANGA
- Wordle #1086, Sunday 9 June: CROWD
- Wordle #1085, Saturday 8 June: HENCE
- Wordle #1084, Friday 7 June: MELON
- Wordle #1083, Thursday 6 June: ETHER
- Wordle #1082, Wednesday 5 June: ORGAN
- Wordle #1081, Tuesday 4 June: GROOM
- Wordle #1080, Monday 3 June: STARK
- Wordle #1079, Sunday 2 June: BRAVO
- Wordle #1078, Saturday 1 June: BASIN
- Wordle #1077, Friday 31 May: CHAOS
- Wordle #1076, Thursday 30 May: GUMMY
- Wordle #1075, Wednesday 29 May: PAPAL
- Wordle #1074, Tuesday 28 May: MINUS
- Wordle #1073, Monday 27 May: SKIER
- Wordle #1072, Sunday 26 May: BEVEL
- Wordle #1071, Saturday 25 May: TITAN
- Wordle #1070, Friday 24 May: GLIDE
- Wordle #1069, Thursday 23 May: SWISH
- Wordle #1068, Wednesday 22 May: EXALT
- Wordle #1067, Tuesday 21 May: DINGO
- Wordle #1066, Monday 20 May: NICER
- Wordle #1065, Sunday 19 May: HITCH
- Wordle #1064, Saturday 18 May: BRINY
- Wordle #1063, Friday 17 May: TUTOR
- Wordle #1062, Thursday 16 May: STALL
- Wordle #1061, Wednesday 15 May: PINCH
- Wordle #1060, Tuesday 14 May: AMASS
- Wordle #1059, Monday 13 May: CUMIN
- Wordle #1058, Sunday 12 May: OUTER
- Wordle #1057, Saturday 11 May: TIDAL
- Wordle #1056, Friday 10 May: MEDIA
- Wordle #1055, Thursday 9 May: JERKY
- Wordle #1054, Wednesday 8 May: PIOUS
- Wordle #1053, Tuesday 7 May: MUSTY
- Wordle #1052, Monday 6 May: SHAVE
- Wordle #1051, Sunday 5 May: DECAL
- Wordle #1050, Saturday 4 May: VALUE
- Wordle #1049, Friday 3 May: EBONY
- Wordle #1048, Thursday 2 May: SLICE
- Wordle #1047, Wednesday 1 May: DIARY
- Wordle #1046, Tuesday 30 April: PROWL
- Wordle #1045, Monday 29 April: CRAFT
- Wordle #1044, Sunday 28 April: PRUNE
- Wordle #1043, Saturday 27 April: GLEAM
- Wordle #1042, Friday 26 April: VAPID
- Wordle #1041, Thursday 25 April: INTRO
- Wordle #1040, Wednesday 24 April: OVERT
- Wordle #1039, Tuesday 23 April: ROVER
- Wordle #1038, Monday 22 April: LASER
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.
