NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1379, Saturday, March 29

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 #1379) - 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 #1379) - clue #2 - first letter

S is the most common starting letter in the game, featuring in 365 of Wordle's 2,309 answers. In fact, it's almost twice as likely to begin an answer as the next most common starting letter, C.

Wordle hints (game #1379) - 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 #1379) - clue #4 - ending letter

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 #1379) - clue #5 - last chance

Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1379.

• Today's Wordle answer is an expression of regret or sympathy.

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 #1379)

• NYT average score: 3.5
• My score: 3
• WordleBot's score: 3
• My start word performance: SLAIN (106 remaining answers)
• WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (106)

Today's Wordle answer (game #1379) is… SORRY.

SORRY might well be my most used word. Is someone walking towards me, face lost in their phone screen, and I have to step out the way to avoid a collision? I'd better say sorry. Have I just made someone a lovely dinner and they've said thank you? 'Sorry' is the obvious reply, right? It's pretty much just my default response to anything – it's safer that way.

And with that in mind I shall say SORRY to everyone who played today's Wordle and scored lower than a three. Partly because it's a seemingly easy one with an average score of 3.5, and partly because I managed a three myself despite an unpromising first guess.

You might be surprised by that low average, because it contains a repeated R – our third game in a row with a repeated letter.

However, as with yesterday's game, STARE left only a handful of answers (11 in this case), which will have skewed the total. The S at the start will definitely have helped out plenty of people, and R is such a popular letter to play early on that many people will have had an S--R- format on the first or second guess. Narrowing it down from there should not have been too tricky once a few letters were ruled out.

That's pretty much what happened with my game. I began with SLAIN, which left 106 possible solutions, but TROPE gave me a yellow R and O. Almost as importantly, it ruled out T and E – both of which were strong contenders to end the answer.

That left me with only one answer that I could see, SORRY. WordleBot also suggested SCROD, but that is not a word I have ever come across or one that I am likely to use (it's a young fish, apparently).

With SCROD not on my menu, I was able to play SORRY without any deliberation and was very happy to score a three. Though I will also say sorry for having done so, of course.

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

Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1378)

In a different time zone where it's still Friday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1378, 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 V.

V is a fairly uncommon starting letter in Wordle. There are only 43 answers that begin with a V, and it ranks just 16th.

• 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 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 #1378.

• Yesterday's Wordle answer is a poem or part of a song.

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1378)

• NYT average score: 4.1
• My score: 4
• WordleBot's score: 3
• My start word performance: SANER (209 remaining answers)
• WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (46)

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1378) was… VERSE.

This was one of those rare days on which I could hold my head up high and say that I genuinely could not have played it any better than I did.

And I have proof of that: WordleBot awarded me a fabled 99/99 skill score.

This does not happen often; my average over the past 15 games is 92, and the last time I achieved top marks was for NAVEL on March 8.

It's just as well that I did play smartly yesterday, because VERSE is a potentially difficult Wordle. It has an average score of 4.1, and combines a repeated E with an uncommon V.

Throw in the fact that it is has a similar spelling to multiple words including TERSE, VERGE, VERVE, CURSE, PURSE, SERVE and others, and you have a recipe for… well, not quite disaster, but a tricky game all the same.

My opening guess was not a great one. FABLE gave me a green E at the end, but nothing more, and left 209 possible answers. But WordleBot doesn't include the first guess in its skill rating, and I use a random word generator anyway, so that failure was not on me.

For the second attempt I went with SNORT. This was a straightforward option based on a few hunches.

With E being confirmed, I didn't need to play it again, and would probably only need one more vowel. A was ruled out, so O made sense next.

S, N, R and T are all common letters, and all regularly sit before an E at the end of a word. I could have put C in there instead, but SNORT seemed like a good bet and it did pretty well in giving me two yellows.

This cut my shortlist to four words: CURSE, PURSE, VERSE and REUSE. I found them all and knew that I needed to play one of the first two next. Either would guarantee me the answer in four, even if wrong here, whereas the other two might have left a 50/50 and a possible score of five.

I went with PURSE, and though that was wrong it confirmed that VERSE had to be the answer. I only beat the average by a tiny amount, but I was pleased with my efforts yesterday.

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 #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
• 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

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.