NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1388, Monday, April 7
Looking for Wordle hints? I can help. Plus get the answers to Wordle today and yesterday.
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 Sunday'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.
Wordle hints (game #1388) - 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 #1388) - 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 #1388) - 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 #1388) - 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 #1388) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1388.
- Today's Wordle answer is a color.
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 #1388)
- NYT average score: 4.9
- My score: 5
- WordleBot's score: 5
- My start word performance: INCUR (670 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (107)
Today's Wordle answer (game #1388) is… HAZEL.
WordleBot doesn't often score a five, and neither do I – so the fact that we both ended up with that today is a clear sign that this is a difficult one.
The average score tells a similar story: 4.9, so only slightly easier than KRILL and a lot tougher than yesterday's fairly-hard-in-its-own-right VILLA.
The obvious complication here is the Z. As my analysis of every Wordle answer shows, it's the fourth most uncommon letter in the game, appearing only 40 times across the original 2,309 solutions. Given that it appears twice in five games, that means it only actually features in 35 different Wordles overall – a mere 1.5% of them.
That's not the only problem, though. The H at the start is also relatively uncommon compared to the usual Ss, Ts and Cs that being so many, but I reckon a bigger issue is that -A-EL format.
There are nine of these – BAGEL, CAMEL, EASEL, GAVEL, HAZEL, LABEL, LAPEL, NAVEL, PANEL – and they generally use different consonants in the first and third positions. Therefore, in order to eliminate them all, you'd need to rule out/in B, G, C, M, S, G, V, H, Z, P and N, plus potentially a repeated E or L.
That was what did for both myself and WordleBot today. My opening INCUR left 600-plus options, the 'Bot's starting CRANE left just over 100.
We both reduced the possible answers list to manageable levels on the second guess: in my case, STALE cut the shortlist to 21. And then we both started playing -A-EL words.
I went with LAPEL first, in order to rule out LABEL and PANEL as well as LAPEL itself. The 'Bot chose BAGEL.
On the fourth guess, I had a choice of GAVEL, HAZEL or BAGEL – but I knew the latter had been a past Wordle answer, so I picked GAVEL. The 'Bot, meanwhile, still had EASEL as a possibility, so went with that.
And then finally, on the fifth guess, we both played HAZEL – now the only option left. It was a frustrating experience, but I doubt I'll be the only one to have struggled today.
How did you do today? Send me an email or let me know in the comments.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1387)
In a different time zone where it's still Sunday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1387, 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 A.
A is a relatively common ending letter. It ranks 10th in this regard and today's game is one of 63 in which you'll find an A there.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1387.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is a type of dwelling.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1387)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My start word performance: MIGHT (155 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (187)
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1387) was… VILLA.
It seems like only yesterday we had a Wordle with an uncommon letter at the start and a double-L, but it isn't – it was three days ago, of course.
That was KRILL, which had a high average score of 5.0, but VILLA is not as difficult as that one. WordleBot says people are solving it in 4.2 guesses on average, which means it's hard – but not necessarily a streak-ender.
I had another middling start – one green letter, I, which left 155 options. I'd expected slightly more from MIGHT, but I and T aside the letters are all in the middle of the pack, frequency-wise, so it's perhaps not surprising that none appeared.
My second guess was LONER – chosen to guard against the chance of it being an ER word. This is something I now do with almost every second guess if the E and R have not yet been played (or indeed if one or both have but could still appear in those final two slots).
It was not an ER word, and it's worth noting that we are now overdue one. There are 141 among the original 2,309 solutions, which means you'd expect one every 16 or so games. However, the last one was TIMER, and there have now been 19 since then. You have been warned.
LONER was a good guess, according to WordleBot, but unlucky. I still had 10 words to choose from, apparently, and found nine of them myself: SILKY, SILLY, FILLY, WILLY, BILLY, DILLY, VILLA, PILAF and CILIA. The only one I missed was CIVIL, which is annoying given that it's a far more common word than CILIA, DILLY or PILAF.
I really struggled to find a good word to narrow down my shortlist. The 'Bot told me afterwards that I should have played BAWLS, and indeed that would have left only one solution. Instead, I played BALDY – and still had three to pick from.
Fortunately, these three were PILAF, CILIA and VILLA, and I don't think there's much debate as to which of those is most likely to be a Wordle answer. Although that said, I would have thought the same if KRILL was among them.
Anyway, I played VILLA with some possibly misplaced confidence and was rewarded with yet another four, my fourth in a row.
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 #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
- 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
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?
