NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1328, Thursday, February 6
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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.
Wordle hints (game #1328) - 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 #1328) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is P.
P is a very common first letter among Wordle answers. It's the fifth most common in the alphabet and begins 141 solutions in total.
Wordle hints (game #1328) - 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 #1328) - 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 #1328) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1328.
- Today's Wordle answer is found in the eye, or in a classroom
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 #1328)
- NYT average score: 3.9
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 4
- Best start word performance*: PLATE, PLANE (7 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: ADORN (401)
* From WordleBot's Top 20 start words
Today's Wordle answer (game #1328) is… PUPIL.
One of the things I love about Wordle is the little stories it throws up. I realize that I am a massive geek and that many people just play it because they, y'know, like to solve a word puzzle – but I enjoy the narrative around it too. It's like a sport; nobody really enjoys baseball, right? You just like the stories and the stats. Wordle is like that for me. [Cue angry comments from baseball lovers].
Anyway, the story for today's Wordle is that PUPIL has exactly the same starting and ending letters as yesterday's PEDAL.
This is only the eighth time this has happened in Wordle's 1,329 games – with the last such example being STAKE / SKATE in August last year. That was of course far more notable in that it merely involved the positional swapping of two letters, but the PUPIL / PEDAL thing is still interesting to me.
Okay, yes, I am ridiculously boring. But cut me some slack, eh? I've been writing about this game every single day for three years now, I need to find ways to make it exciting!
The other interesting thing about PUPIL is that it contains a repeated P that is not also a double P – as in HAPPY.
This is uncommon. P is not particularly likely to be repeated anyway (only 18 of the original 2,309 games contain more than one P), and in 11 of those 18 the Ps appear together.
PAPER (game #35 before anyone was playing), PULPY (#138, ditto), POLYP (#778), PIPER (#980), PAPAL (#1075) and PRIMP (#1275) have all appeared already, so that's seven of the eight done – except it's not, because PRIMP was an extra word added by the NYT. So there are at least two more of these repeated-but-not-doubled P-words to follow.
Fascinating stuff, eh?
It's not a particularly tough Wordle; average score 3.9, according to WordleBot, so a little higher than PEDAL, most likely due to that repeat. I had a slightly better time of it, though, despite an even worse opening guess. I had high hopes for ADORN, but no – another blank return for me, and this time still 401 answers remaining.
My luck was a little better today, however. SLICE – chosen for its common letters – gave me two yellows and cut the shortlist to 14. WordleBot said it preferred STILE, but only just (it gave them both a 99 skill rating).
Next, I employed a little trick I learned from the 'Bot some time ago – namely repeating a letter in order to turn it green. On the one hand, playing LIMIT reduced the number of distinct letters from five to four, but few words end in an I, and not that many start with one, so putting it in both second and fourth spot almost guaranteed it would go green.
And it did – in the fourth spot. That immediately ruled out the likes of HILLY/FILLY/BLLY and WILLY, plus MILKY, FILMY (which I didn't think of), LIGHT, IMPLY, VIGIL, FILTH and LIPPY. Meanwhile, the fact that the T stayed gray accounted for TULIP.
All of which that meant PUPIL was the only word left. I played it next for a straightforward four.
How did you do today? Send me an email or let me know in the comments.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1327)
In a different time zone where it's still Wednesday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1327, 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 P.
P is a very common first letter among Wordle answers. It's the fifth most common in the alphabet and begins 141 solutions in total.
- 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 #1327.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is a foot-operated control.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1327)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 5
- WordleBot's score: 3
- Best start word performance*: PLANE (4 remaining answers)
- My start word performance: GUILT (257)
* From WordleBot's Top 20 start words
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1327) was… PEDAL.
Sometimes Wordle can just be so frustrating. Yesterday was one of those days – I didn't play badly, but had very little luck and ended up with a five – a five! – against an overall average of 3.8. WordleBot scored a three; such an annoying little digital nerd.
PEDAL does not have any of the hallmarks of a difficult answer, and I doubt too many others will finish with a five or six. I may just have to write this off as a bad day at the office.
I don't want to do that, though, so instead I'll forensically examine my guesses in a burst of self-recriminatory anguish.
The first guess was not my fault, at least. I use a random opening word, and today my generator gave me GUILT – which could be a great word but which was unlucky yesterday (you'll see those words written again, trust me) and which left 257 possibles. CRANE, WordleBot's opener, was at 107 – so better, but not great either.
On the second guess, however, I played SNARL and that was a mistake. Not a terrible one – 82 for skill – but it had an expected number of solutions of 16. CANOE, the 'Bot's choice, would have been expected to cut the options to 10. PARSE, its second choice, would have expected to cut them to 12. So I could have done better.
Luck – or rather, bad luck – was a bigger factor though. My actual number of remaining answers for SNARL was 17, so one worse than the prediction. The result for PARSE? Just three.
My third guess was great. I played LACED, having identified that lots of my remaining answers contained a C and/or D – for instance PEDAL, MEDAL, MODAL, DECAL for the D, and the last one of those plus FOCAL, LOCAL, CABAL, FECAL and VOCAL for C.
WordleBot loved this, but again it was unlucky, leaving two solutions rather than only the one. And of course on the 50/50 – between MEDAL and PEDAL – I guessed wrong first time and had to settle for that five.
So, what did I do wrong? Well, first off, I was unlucky. That isn't my fault as such, but it's nobody else's fault either. It must be karma paying me back for doing something wrong.
More importantly, I didn't optimize that second guess. It was a silly decision not to include a second vowel, particularly as I didn't have any at that stage and given that I hadn't played E yet. Must. Do. Better.
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 #1327, Wednesday 5 February: PEDAL
- Wordle #1326, Tuesday 4 February: TOOTH
- Wordle #1325, Monday 3 February: REVUE
- Wordle #1324, Sunday 2 February: CHORE
- Wordle #1323, Saturday 1 February: RIVET
- Wordle #1322, Friday 31 January: TOAST
- Wordle #1321, Thursday 30 January: FALSE
- Wordle #1320, Wednesday 29 January: UDDER
- Wordle #1319, Tuesday 28 January: FEVER
- Wordle #1318, Monday 27 January: SHUNT
- Wordle #1317, Sunday 26 January: SUNNY
- Wordle #1316, Saturday 25 January: CRISP
- Wordle #1315, Friday 24 January: CREPE
- Wordle #1314, Thursday 23 January: UPPER
- Wordle #1313, Wedneday 22 January: REACH
- Wordle #1312, Tuesday 21 January: ICING
- Wordle #1311, Monday 20 January: SQUID
- Wordle #1310, Sunday 19 January: ROWER
- Wordle #1309, Saturday 18 January: SILLY
- Wordle #1308, Friday 17 January: PROSE
- Wordle #1307, Thursday 16 January: FLINT
- Wordle #1306, Wednesday 15 January: KNACK
- Wordle #1305, Tuesday 14 January: FANCY
- Wordle #1304, Monday 13 January: CLOAK
- Wordle #1303, Sunday 12 January: TOTAL
- Wordle #1302, Saturday 11 January: DINGY
- Wordle #1301, Friday 10 January: CRAWL
- Wordle #1300, Thursday 9 January: WAFER
- Wordle #1299, Wednesday 8 January: DRAFT
- Wordle #1298, Tuesday 7 January: ATLAS
- Wordle #1297, Monday 6 January: SPRIG
- Wordle #1296, Sunday 5 January: CYBER
- Wordle #1295, Saturday 4 January: RELAX
- Wordle #1294, Friday 3 January: CHEAP
- Wordle #1293, Thursday 2 January: CHOSE
- Wordle #1292, Wednesday 1 January: NERVE
- Wordle #1291, Tuesday 31 December: LEMUR
- Wordle #1290, Monday 30 December: STARE
- Wordle #1289, Sunday 29 December: MAMBO
- Wordle #1288, Saturday 28 December: DECRY
- Wordle #1287, Friday 27 December: GRAIN
- Wordle #1286, Thursday 26 December: AFFIX
- Wordle #1285, Wednesday 25 December: SHARE
- Wordle #1284, Tuesday 24 December: EAGLE
- Wordle #1283, Monday 23 December: SAUNA
- Wordle #1282, Sunday 22 December: BRAWN
- Wordle #1281, Saturday 21 December: BLADE
- Wordle #1280, Friday 20 December: FLASH
- Wordle #1279, Thursday 19 December: STRAY
- Wordle #1278, Wednesday 18 December: HEFTY
- Wordle #1277, Tuesday 17 December: SCOWL
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.
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. 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.What is Wordle?
What are the Wordle rules?
