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 #1185) - 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 #1185) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is H.
H is not a particularly common starting letter in Wordle: only 69 games begin with it, and it ranks in 15th place.
Wordle hints (game #1185) - 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 #1185) - 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 #1185) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1185.
- Today's Wordle answer is a sweet substance.
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 #1185)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 5
- WordleBot's score: 3
- Best start word performance*: SANER (22 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: GASSY (243)
* From WordleBot's Top 20 start words
Today's Wordle answer (game #1185) is… HONEY.
There's something about Y-ending games that I struggle with. I'm not sure what it is, but the data clearly backs it up: my average for Wordle as a whole is 3.64, but on Y-ending words it's 3.95. That difference also appears to be shared among the wider Wordle population, with these words having an average of 4.14 versus 3.95 for the game as a whole.
The obvious reason why that might be is that not many of the top start words contain a Y. None of WordleBot's top 20 have one, and nor do any of the 10 most popular among the public. But I don't think that's why I struggle with them, not least because my start word today, chosen at random, did end in a Y – and I still ended up with a below-par 5/6! I think maybe I just have a mental block.
That said, HONEY does have a high-ish average score of 4.2, making it more difficult than yesterday's RECUR (see below), despite the fact that this doesn't contain a repeated letter as that one did.
I suspect the other complicating factor, and probably the one that lifted it above 4.0 today, is that there are a couple of other words with that -ONEY format – chiefly MONEY, but also BONEY. Both were played by large numbers of people today, and the latter cost me a guess here.
My start word was, er, GASSY, and that gave me the green Y but nothing else and left me with 243 options. I then slashed that figure to a mere six by playing CLONE; so far, so good. And then everything went downhill…
With six words to locate, I found three: ENJOY, ENVOY and BONEY. Yes, I missed MONEY and HONEY (plus TONEY, which I very much doubt is an answer in reality). I have no idea how I didn't spot MONEY and HONEY, given that they're probably the two most obvious words in that list, but somehow it happened.
So, I played ENJOY thinking it would give me the answer in four at worst, and when the E, N and O all stayed yellow, I thought it had to be BONEY. But it wasn't, of course. That then sparked a frantic search from me, during which time I found HONEY but STILL MISSED MONEY!!!
Fortunately, that didn't cost me any further guesses, and I was left to play HONEY next and score a very poor five.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1184)
In a different time zone where it's still Sunday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1184, 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 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 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.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1184.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is to happen again.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1184)
- NYT average score: 4.0
- My score: 3
- WordleBot's score: 3
- Best start word performance*: TASER (6 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: PLIER (12)
* From WordleBot's Top 20 start words
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1184) was… RECUR.
This game has a lot in common with RERUN from earlier this month: RE at the start, R repeated, U in there as the second vowel, another common consonant for the fifth letter. And it has a similar average score, too: 4.0 yesterday, versus 4.1 for RERUN.
My game went much more smoothly than it did for the earlier game, though, and for several reasons. For one, I was a lot luckier with my start word – today it was PLIER, which left only 12 possible solutions, versus the 223 that I had to contend with last week. Plus, I didn't make a stupid mistake as I did that day, and was therefore able to walk away with a 3/6 rather than the 5/6 I scored last time.
Three is clearly a good score today, because 4.0 is above the average for the game. The (relative) difficulty, presumably, comes from the repeated Rs – as my analysis of every Wordle answer shows, there are only 60 out of the original 2,309 solutions in which more than one R occurs, which is a mere 2.6% of all games.
I'd actually have expected it to have a higher average still, but mine wasn't the only start word to perform well today. CRANE, WordleBot's favorite, left 14 possible answers, as did CRATE, while CARET was at 11 and CARTE at 12. TASER (6) and SANER (7) were the top picks from the 'bot's 20 favorites, but aren't played by many people as far as I know.
With 12 words to choose from, I was able to draw up a shortlist, though I won't pretend I found them all. But I came up with most of them: DECOR, RECUR, SWEAR, SHEAR, SMEAR, CEDAR, FEMUR, ERROR, DEBAR, TENOR. The two I missed, REBAR and DEMUR, didn't ultimately impact my game.
I spent a long time deliberating as to what to play next, and in the end came up with MEATS. This was not guaranteed to give me the answer in three, but was as good as I could do. WordleBot suggested DEMON, which was theoretically slightly better, but as it happened both words left two possible answers.
In my case, they were DECOR and RECUR. For no particular reason I went with the latter, and was rewarded with a 3/6.
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 #1184, Sunday 15 September: RECUR
- Wordle #1183, Saturday 14 September: BROAD
- Wordle #1182, Friday 13 September: HARSH
- Wordle #1181, Thursday 12 September: BRASS
- Wordle #1180, Wednesday 11 September: AISLE
- Wordle #1179, Tuesday 10 September: REBEL
- Wordle #1178, Monday 9 September: DEBIT
- Wordle #1177, Sunday 8 September: DRAWN
- Wordle #1176, Saturday 7 September: OWNER
- Wordle #1175, Friday 6 September: RERUN
- Wordle #1174, Thursday 5 September: WIDEN
- Wordle #1173, Wednesday 4 September: STERN
- Wordle #1172, Tuesday 3 September: FAINT
- Wordle #1171, Monday 2 September: CAMEL
- Wordle #1170, Sunday 1 September: MUSHY
- Wordle #1169, Saturday 31 August: SPOUT
- Wordle #1168, Friday 30 August: KNAVE
- Wordle #1167, Thursday 29 August: FLUNK
- Wordle #1166, Wednesday 28 August: LITHE
- Wordle #1165, Tuesday 27 August: CROWN
- Wordle #1164, Monday 26 August: STAKE
- Wordle #1163, Sunday 25 August: SKATE
- Wordle #1162, Saturday 24 August: FILET
- Wordle #1161, Friday 23 August: LEECH
- Wordle #1160, Thursday 22 August: BRUTE
- Wordle #1159, Wednesday 21 August: MULCH
- Wordle #1158, Tuesday 20 August: DELAY
- Wordle #1157, Monday 19 August: METER
- Wordle #1156, Sunday 18 August: LANKY
- Wordle #1155, Saturday 17 August: STORM
- Wordle #1154, Friday 16 August: BRACE
- Wordle #1153, Thursday 15 August: ACORN
- Wordle #1152, Wednesday 14 August: SHORE
- Wordle #1151, Tuesday 13 August: NEIGH
- Wordle #1150, Monday 12 August: SKIFF
- Wordle #1149, Sunday 11 August: SCONE
- Wordle #1148, Saturday 10 August: MEDIC
- Wordle #1147, Friday 9 August: OUNCE
- Wordle #1146, Thursday 8 August: SAUCY
- Wordle #1145, Wednesday 7 August: MACAW
- Wordle #1144, Tuesday 6 August: ANVIL
- Wordle #1143, Monday 5 August: ENSUE
- Wordle #1142, Sunday 4 August: LOWER
- Wordle #1141, Saturday 3 August: SCALE
- Wordle #1140, Friday 2 August: FLAKE
- Wordle #1139, Thursday 1 August: CHALK
- Wordle #1138, Wednesday 31 July: PENNE
- Wordle #1137, Tuesday 30 July: FERAL
- Wordle #1136, Monday 29 July: SUPER
- Wordle #1135, Sunday 28 July: SMOCK
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.
