NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1371, Friday, March 21

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 #1371) - clue #1 - Vowels

* 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 #1371) - clue #2 - first letter

N is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter. Only 37 games begin with it and it ranks just 18th in this regard.

Wordle hints (game #1371) - clue #3 - repeated letters

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 #1371) - clue #4 - ending letter

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.

Wordle hints (game #1371) - clue #5 - last chance

Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1371.

• Today's Wordle answer is to push gently.

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 #1371)

• NYT average score: 4.3
• My score: 4
• WordleBot's score: 3
• My start word performance: PIZZA (1,022 remaining answers)
• WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (24)

Today's Wordle answer (game #1371) is… NUDGE.

A tricky end to the working week culminates in a puzzle with an average of 4.3, following the 4.8 for yesterday's BASTE (see below).

NUDGE has some of the same qualities – namely that too-many-answers problem that afflicts so many of the toughest Wordles. Or rather, that afflicts so many Wordles that have a high average score.

Those two things are not necessarily the same. NUDGE, like BASTE, can be solved relatively easily if you do not play on hard mode. The problem is that even now, three years after the game rose in prominence, people still play with no strategy beyond blindly guessing.

Let's not get too serious about this – it is only a game, after all. But I don't understand why, when faced with a word like NUDGE, people guess the likes of FUDGE and JUDGE and BUDGE on successive guesses – and they did, in fairly high numbers – rather than playing a single word that narrows down the four major possibles here.

All you needed was to play BANJO and you'd rule out three and be sure to get the answer next time around. But instead people take that -UDGE format as a challenge.

Or not, maybe it's just that lots of people had a 50/50 between NUDGE and BUDGE and chose the wrong one, and I'm being far too critical. Probably a bit of both.

I didn't need to narrow down the options in that way myself, because the -UDGE format never came into play for me until the end.

I began with PIZZA – which is emphatically not one of the best Wordle start words – and had more than 1,000 possible answers to choose from for my second.

Obviously I made a list of all 1,022, missing only… no, of course I didn't. I played STORE.

This was a "terrific choice" according to WordleBot, but it still left 35 answers. I did have a green E in place at the end, but nothing more and still plenty of possible solutions.

That E was likely to be preceded by a consonant, and I guessed that it would be one of C, N or G, as these featured in lots of my now-shortlisted words: LEDGE and LUNGE and DUNCE and HEDGE and FENCE and BULGE and so on.

So I played CLUNG, and that did the job – it gave me three yellow letters, and after toying with them for a while I decided that NUDGE had to be the answer and was rewarded with a four.

How did you do today? Send me an email or let me know in the comments.

Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1370)

In a different time zone where it's still Thursday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1370, 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 B.

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.

• 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.

B is a very, very common starting letter in Wordle. In fact, it's the third most common overall, behind only S and C.

Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1370.

• Yesterday's Wordle answer is to cover food with liquid.

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1370)

• NYT average score: 4.8
• My score: 4
• WordleBot's score: 4
• My start word performance: GRAFT (100 remaining answers)
• WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (57)

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1370) was… BASTE.

Looks like we have ourselves a tough one.

BASTE currently has an average score of 4.8, making it the equal fourth hardest Wordle so far in 2025. Only ROWER (5.6), FUZZY (5.1), WAFER (5.0) have been more difficult, while GOODY also came in at 4.8.

The problem is an obvious one – it's one of those too-many-answers Wordles we all love to hate.

In this case, your choice was between WASTE, TASTE, PASTE, HASTE, CASTE and BASTE, so six differing only by that first letter.

That's not the worst – the -ATCH format has seven (WATCH, PATCH, LATCH, HATCH, MATCH, BATCH and CATCH), while -OUND has eight (WOUND, ROUND, POUND, HOUND, FOUND, SOUND, MOUND and BOUND).

It's certainly up there, though, especially when you consider that a Y on the end could also give you the likes of NASTY, TASTY and HASTY.

I'm pretty pleased to have escaped with a four, helped by a lucky second guess. My first was not so great – CRAFT left 100 solutions exactly, which was nearly double what CRANE left (57).

The real winners among the best Wordle start words today were SLATE and STARE, though; both left only six words.

The fact that even the players of those words still needed on average 4.2 guesses shows how tricky this one is. Well, unless you played sensibly and narrowed down your options of course.

I didn't do that on my second guess, because I could see I had far too many words to pick from. Instead, I just played the obvious STEAL. This gave me four yellows and left seven words.

The only problem was that six of them were among those -ASTE words, with the other apparently being TASED. I didn't find the latter – and I'm pretty sure it won't be a solution ever – but did come up with PASTE, WASTE, HASTE, TASTE, CASTE and BASTE.

The trouble was that there was no word that would guarantee me the answer in four. The best I could do was PATCH, which might leave a three-way between TASTE, WASTE and BASTE (plus TASED, officially).

Fortunately, I was pretty sure that TASTE and WASTE had both been past Wordle answers.

I didn't check, but I had a strong hunch and decided to risk a guess on the fourth go, knowing that even if wrong I wasn't in danger of losing my streak (a six would have been the worst I could get).

As it happened, my memory was correct – a fact that was confirmed when I played BASTE on my fourth guess and with relief saw all five letters turn green.

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 #1370, Thursday 20 March: BASTE
• Wordle #1369, Wednesday 19 March: SPARK
• Wordle #1368, Tuesday 18 March: TIMER
• Wordle #1367, Monday 17 March: LASSO
• Wordle #1366, Sunday 16 March: STAMP
• Wordle #1365, Saturday 15 March: LADLE
• Wordle #1364, Friday 14 March: PIECE
• Wordle #1363, Thursday 13 March: CHASE
• Wordle #1362, Wednesday 12 March: MANGO
• Wordle #1361, Tuesday 11 March: TRACK
• Wordle #1360, Monday 10 March: SPITE
• Wordle #1359, Sunday 9 March: GREED
• Wordle #1358, Saturday 8 March: NAVEL
• Wordle #1357, Friday 7 March: TROOP
• Wordle #1356, Thursday 6 March: ALERT
• Wordle #1355, Wednesday 5 March: SCRUM
• Wordle #1354, Tuesday 4 March: CHECK
• Wordle #1353, Monday 3 March: SPEAR
• Wordle #1352, Sunday 2 March: DEITY
• Wordle #1351, Saturday 1 March: HOVER
• Wordle #1350, Friday 28 February: FUZZY
• Wordle #1349, Thursday 27 February: LODGE
• Wordle #1348, Wednesday 26 February: AWARD
• Wordle #1347, Tuesday 25 February: DRYER
• Wordle #1346, Monday 24 February: GLAND
• Wordle #1345, Sunday 23 February: OTTER
• Wordle #1344, Saturday 22 February: CREAM
• Wordle #1343, Friday 21 February: CLOVE
• Wordle #1342, Thursday 20 February: ROACH
• Wordle #1341, Wednesday 19 February: MADLY
• Wordle #1340, Tuesday 18 February: INDIE
• Wordle #1339, Monday 17 February: TRAIL
• Wordle #1338, Sunday 16 February: SUAVE
• Wordle #1337, Saturday 15 February: CROOK
• Wordle #1336, Friday 14 February: DITTY
• Wordle #1335, Thursday 13 February: RUMBA
• Wordle #1334, Wednesday 12 February: RAPID
• Wordle #1333, Tuesday 11 February: SCORE
• Wordle #1332, Monday 10 February: GOODY
• Wordle #1331, Sunday 9 February: BONUS
• Wordle #1330, Saturday 8 February: STEEP
• Wordle #1329, Friday 7 February: SWATH
• Wordle #1328, Thursday 6 February: PUPIL
• 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

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.