A new NYT Wordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today’s game’ while others are playing ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for Saturday’s puzzle instead then click here.
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.
Your Wordle expert
Your Wordle expert
Marc McLaren
Wordle hints (game #1422) – 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 #1422) – 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.
• 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.
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Wordle hints (game #1422) – 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 #1422) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1422.
Today’s Wordle answer is a piece of wood used in holes.
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 #1422)
(Image credit: New York Times)
NYT average score: 4.6
My score: 3
WordleBot’s score: 4
My skill score: 94
My luck score: 61
My start word performance: SIREN (190 remaining answers)
WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (273)
Tomorrow’s start word: DRUID
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1422) is… DOWEL.
I’m not surprised to see that DOWEL has a really high average score of 4.6 at the time of writing, because it’s not exactly a widely used word in most circles.
It’s not obscure as such – anyone who’s put together a piece of Ikea furniture will be all too familiar with the little wooden cylinders, one of which will inevitably get lost under the sofa and prevent you being able to finish building the bed your four-year-old daughter has been excited about for weeks until you spend another hour hunting for it. And yes, I do speak from experience.
But that aside, it’s not like DOWEL is used on a daily basis by people outside of carpenters and the like. Plus, there are more common alternatives that differ from it by only one letter: VOWEL, BOWEL and TOWEL.
Despite that, many Wordlers today instead got tripped up by MODEL, which also differs by one letter but which also moves the D into a different place.
Across the second, third and fourth guesses, 15% of players selected MODEL, making it by far the most widely played incorrect answer. On the fourth guess in particular, 7% played MODEL, while 4% went with BOWEL and 3.6% with VOWEL. Either way, there will have been a lot of unhappy folk today walking away with a five or six.
I managed a three, completing an excellent weekend after yesterday’s two. And once again, I enjoyed a huge slice of luck, this time on my second guess.
I began with SIREN, a very good start word that didn’t work so well today, leaving 190 options.
With R and N ruled out, and with E confirmed in position #4, I figured D, L and Y were the most likely letters to go after that E, so went with BADLY.
This was a “wonderful choice” and also incredibly lucky, cutting my solutions list to 10. Or so WordleBot said; in reality it was less than that, because the ‘Bot included ED-ending words such as LOVED and HOLED that are very unlikely to be answers.
I omitted all of those by default, instead coming up with only DOWEL as a possible solution. And indeed, it was the only one of the ‘Bot’s list that didn’t end ED, so in reality it was always a sure thing.
In a different time zone where it’s still Saturday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1421, 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 Y.
Y is not a common starting letter at all. In fact, it’s the third least common ahead of only Z and X!
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 T.
T is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only E and Y are more likely in that position.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1421.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer is used in bread and beer.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1421)
(Image credit: New York Times)
NYT average score: 4.2 (revised)
My score: 2
WordleBot’s score: 4
My skill score: 85
My luck score: 89
My start word performance: SPREE (31 remaining answers)
I don’t score many twos: 61 out of 1,214 games, apparently, which is only 5% and not exactly impressive. Then again, a two is in many ways the hardest score to achieve in Wordle.
Sure, a one is technically more difficult, but in another sense it’s entirely devoid of skill. Beyond picking a good start word – which does require a little bit of brainpower, but not exactly a lot – it’s completely random.
A two, on the other hand, does sometimes involve skill. You have to weigh up the options, consider which format the word might take, think about which letters you can play that will narrow down the word pool and also potentially be correct… there’s a lot going on.
I was really pleased with my second guess because I did think it through. WordleBot wasn’t completely convinced, awarding me only 85/99 for it, but there was a rationale behind my choice.
My first guess, SPREE, gave me a yellow S and E. With S confirmed but not going at the start, there was a fairly high likelihood that it would go near the end, ahead of a T. But equally, I knew that E couldn’t go at the end either, and that R had also been ruled out. That made Y a likely ending letter too.
I came up with some words that would fit. WordleBot told me later that there were 31 of them, but I didn’t find that many – just a handful including GUEST, QUEST, CHEST, BEAST, LEAST, MESSY, ZESTY and TESTY. I was torn as to whether to end with a Y or a T, so figured I’d play YEAST instead.
This would give me two shots at finding the ending – if it wasn’t T, the Y would probably turn yellow and I’d be able to move that to the end on the next guess.
There was logic behind my choice, then, but I really did not expect to solve it. But luck is a thing in Wordle, and YEAST proved to be the correct answer.
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 #1421, Saturday 10 May: YEAST
Wordle #1420, Friday 9 May: TRIPE
Wordle #1419, Thursday 8 May: BALMY
Wordle #1418, Wednesday 7 May: MACHO
Wordle #1417, Tuesday 6 May: SUITE
Wordle #1416, Monday 5 May: SHUSH
Wordle #1415, Sunday 4 May: TROUT
Wordle #1414, Saturday 3 May: PATSY
Wordle #1413, Friday 2 May: WHOSE
Wordle #1412, Thursday 1 May: ADEPT
Wordle #1411, Wednesday 30 April: IDLER
Wordle #1410, Tuesday 29 April: BLISS
Wordle #1409, Monday 28 April: DUMMY
Wordle #1408, Sunday 27 April: WEEDY
Wordle #1407, Saturday 26 April: CLASH
Wordle #1406, Friday 25 April: KNOWN
Wordle #1405, Thursday 24 April: GENIE
Wordle #1404, Wednesday 23 April: OZONE
Wordle #1403, Tuesday 22 April: ARTSY
Wordle #1402, Monday 21 April: SPATE
Wordle #1401, Sunday 20 April: PATCH
Wordle #1400, Saturday 19 April: INBOX
Wordle #1399, Friday 18 April: DIRGE
Wordle #1398, Thursday 17 April: STOOD
Wordle #1397, Wednesday 16 April: MORAL
Wordle #1396, Tuesday 15 April: ASHEN
Wordle #1395, Monday 14 April: CREST
Wordle #1394, Sunday 13 April: LAUGH
Wordle #1393, Saturday 12 April: NURSE
Wordle #1392, Friday 11 April: ARROW
Wordle #1391, Thursday 10 April: TURBO
Wordle #1390, Wednesday 9 April: WHEAT
Wordle #1389, Tuesday 8 April: SPARE
Wordle #1388, Monday 7 April: HAZEL
Wordle #1387, Sunday 6 April: VILLA
Wordle #1386, Saturday 5 April: FOAMY
Wordle #1385, Friday 4 April: KRILL
Wordle #1384, Thursday 3 April: SHEAR
Wordle #1383, Wednesday 2 April: CURSE
Wordle #1382, Tuesday 1 April: JEWEL
Wordle #1381, Monday 31 March: BOOTY
Wordle #1380, Sunday 30 March: QUOTA
Wordle #1379, Saturday 29 March: SORRY
Wordle #1378, Friday 28 March: VERSE
Wordle #1377, Thursday 27 March: SHEET
Wordle #1376, Wednesday 26 March: ELBOW
Wordle #1375, Tuesday 25 March: SHELF
Wordle #1374, Monday 24 March: ANGLE
Wordle #1373, Sunday 23 March: DOPEY
Wordle #1372, Saturday 22 March: AMBLE
Wordle #1371, Friday 21 March: NUDGE
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 2025.
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’ Games 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.
12. The NYT has added in some of its own words, that weren’t in that list of 2,309 solutions. More will undoubtedly come over the next few years.
