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 new NYT Strands today page for my verdict on the New York Times' latest brainteaser.
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 #1,036) - 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 #1,036) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is L.
L is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter in Wordle. Despite being the sixth most common letter overall, it's only ranked 12th at the beginning of a word.
Wordle hints (game #1,036) - 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 #1,036) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is D.
D is a fairly common letter to end a Wordle answer: it's the eighth most likely to be in that position in a solution.
Wordle hints (game #1,036) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1,036.
- Today's Wordle answer is clear minded.
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 #1,036)
- NYT average score: 3.7
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 3
- Best start word performance*: SLICE (11 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: PIGGY (372)
* From WordleBot's Top 20 start words
Today's Wordle answer (game #1,036) is… LUCID.
I don't know about you, but I'm not feeling particularly LUCID myself right now, probably because I woke at 4.30am today for some unknown reason. You might need to have your wits about you to solve it, though, because it's potentially harder than it might seem.
WordleBot says it has an average score of 3.7, which is on the lower side of things, but it's another one where a couple of starting words will have skewed that figure. Specifically, ADIEU left only eight solutions and AUDIO a mere four – and given that they're the two most popular openers in the game, that will have had an impact on the overall average.
The fact that despite that it's as high as 3.7 suggests that it might play more like a game more in the 3.9 to 4.1 range; not impossible by any means, but not easy either.
The letters are all reasonably common, but as I show in my analysis of every Wordle answer, U is the least common of the vowels, and D is only 13th overall. Admittedly, that D jumps to eighth when used at the end of a solution, but L is not a common starting letter, and C is fairly unlikely to appear in the middle of a word.
What you have here, then, is a word where even though you may have had three or four letters, they're more likely to have been yellow than green even quite late on. And for that reason, you may have ended up playing one of the various similarly spelled words, such as CLOUD, CUPID, FLUID or BUILD, all of which have four of the same letters and which were played in reasonably large numbers by lots of Wordlers today.
That's pretty much what happened to me. I had a terrible start, with my random word generator giving me the awful PIGGY. "Not what I would have picked, but I admire your creativity," said WordleBot. Not what I would have picked either, 'Bot.
PIGGY gave me a single yellow I and left 372 possible solutions. Compare that to the results for ADIEU and AUDIO and I was in a bad place. Not that some of the best Wordle starting words were that much better; STARE left 321 answers, SLATE left 106 and CRANE left 70.
So, what to for my second guess? Well, the most common letters left on the board were E, A, R, O, T, L and S. I was only going to play one more vowel to go with the yellow I, and A pairs more readily with it then E or O, so I jotted down AI. On the consonants front, R, T and L were the obvious inclusions then, and that gave me TRAIL.
WordleBot liked that, calling it a terrific choice, but it wasn't hugely lucky and still left 11 answers. I didn't know that at the time, but I came up with six of them: BELIE, LUCID, FOLIO, FLUID, ELFIN and SOLID. The five I missed were HELIX, COLIC, LEXIS, FOLIC and OLDIE, none of which I feel particularly bad about not spotting.
Based on what I had, FLUID seemed sensible – it would guarantee a solve on the next guess if I'd found all of the answers, and might have been correct in its own right. I got a little lucky here, because obviously I hadn't come up with the entire answers list, but it did its job anyway, giving me the green D and yellow U that confirmed LUCID as the solution.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1,035)
In a different time zone where it's still Friday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1,035, too.
- Wordle yesterday had vowels in three 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 E.
E is the most common letter to end a Wordle answer by far. That's one of the reasons why many of the best start words, including SLATE, CRANE, CRATE and STARE, all end with one.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1,035.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is to lift higher.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1,035)
- NYT average score: 3.0
- My score: 3
- WordleBot's score: 3
- Best start word performance*: PARSE (1 remaining answer)
- My start word performance: OWNER (189)
* From WordleBot's Top 20 start words
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1,035) was… RAISE.
I've been keeping track of the average score for each Wordle game since WordleBot launched in 2022 and now have the details for 747 answers. And by that measure, RAISE is the equal third easiest ever.
WordleBot says its current average is 3.0, which puts it behind only SLATE (game #548, average 1.5) and PLATE (#670, 2.9), and on a par with TRAIN (#319) and STALE (#505). It really is very, very easy.
The reasons for that are many. Letter-wise, we're firmly in ultra-common territory. As my analysis of every Wordle answer shows, all five are in the top 10 overall, while E, A and R form the top three. It's a common word, too – certainly compared to the likes of FACET, TITHE, SHANK or BLIMP. But the biggest factor behind the low score is simple: lots of people start with it.
RAISE is usually the fifth most commonly played starting word, behind only ADIEU, AUDIO, STARE and SLATE, and ahead of the likes of CRANE, TRAIN and its close cousin ARISE. Most days, around 3% of all Wordlers start with it – although today, rather suspiciously, that figure rose to 4%. Given that every one of those lucky people will have scored a fabled 1/6 today, that's going to bring down the overall average.
Consider also that several other popular start words cut down the options considerably too. ARISE, itself played by 2% of Wordlers, left just a single option. The same was true of ROAST and PARSE. STARE left four, as did ADIEU. So very many people will have scored a 1/6, and more still will have finished with a 2/6 or possibly a 3/6.
Frankly, I'd be surprised if anyone scored lower than a 4/6. I started today with OWNER, a fairly average opener which left 189 options, a long way from the bounty offered by those words above. Not thinking too hard about it, I followed up with STARE – which cut those options to three. These were RAISE, ARISE and PARSE, and I was also going to play the first of those, if only because I know that it's such a popular start word. No, that had no bearing on its chance of being the answer, but I decided there was safety in numbers. If the score was going to be low, then I wanted in on the action!
That instinct led me to my 3/6, which I'd normally be very happy with but that was only a par score today, given how easy others found it.
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 #1035, Friday 19 April: RAISE
- Wordle #1034, Thursday 18 April: FACET
- Wordle #1033, Wednesday 17 April: TITHE
- Wordle #1032, Tuesday 16 April: SHANK
- Wordle #1031, Monday 15 April: EQUIP
- Wordle #1030, Sunday 14 April: BLIMP
- Wordle #1029, Saturday 13 April: STEEL
- Wordle #1028, Friday 12 April: WHINY
- Wordle #1027, Thursday 11 April: LOUSE
- Wordle #1026, Wednesday 10 April: BROTH
- Wordle #1025, Tuesday 9 April: MERGE
- Wordle #1024, Monday 8 April: BREED
- Wordle #1023, Sunday 7 April: VOILA
- Wordle #1022, Saturday 6 April: FINCH
- Wordle #1021, Friday 5 April: WRIST
- Wordle #1020, Thursday 4 April: CLIMB
- Wordle #1019, Wednesday 3 April: PLAIT
- Wordle #1018, Tuesday 2 April: SERUM
- Wordle #1017, Monday 1 April: FROND
- Wordle #1016, Sunday 31 March: TABOO
- Wordle #1015, Saturday 30 March: FORCE
- Wordle #1014, Friday 29 March: REALM
- Wordle #1013, Thursday 28 March: SPEAK
- Wordle #1012, Wednesday 27 March: STUNG
- Wordle #1011, Tuesday 26 March: MAYOR
- Wordle #1010, Monday 25 March: SALLY
- 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
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.
