Wordle players might need a Wordle hint today, because November 18's puzzle is looking like a tricky customer. Here at Tom's Guide, we've been covering Wordle for years, so we know a word comes along every once in a while that could potentially end a streak or two.
If you're really struggling, you can find out today's Wordle answer here (I'll put it further down this article underneath a spoiler warning too) if you really need to know.
Our in-house Wordle expert checks his progress on every puzzle through the New York Times' WordleBot. The in-game AI helper analyzes the game after you've played it and does the same for every other player. That gives you an idea of how tough people are finding the puzzle, and Wordle #1,613 (November 18) is a doozy.
According to the 'bot, the average player completes today's puzzle in 3.6 moves in easy mode, or 3.5 if playing by hard rules. That's not as hard as we've seen in recent times, but enough to give you pause.
One of the toughest Wordle puzzles was #454 all the way back in September 2022 — that one had a score of 6.3. Back on October 24, we had another tough puzzle that WordleBot scored at 4.1 moves on easy mode, or 4.2 on hard mode. If you're new to Wordle, you get six guesses to figure out the daily word.
So, what makes today's answer so difficult? To discuss it, we're going to need to reveal the answer — so stop reading now if you haven't done it yet and don't want it spoiled...
Spoiler alert: Today's answer below
I'm going to assume you heeded the warning ahead and know that today's puzzle's answer is "Opine."
In the case of our own resident Wordle writer, today's answer wasn't too hard because his start word is "Orate" containing all five of the most common Wordle letters. If you have a similar starting word, like "Olive", you may not have found this one so hard.
With "O" and "E" both accounted for at the beginning and end of the word, there were only eight possible answers left, according to WordleBot. If you started with "Plant" as your Wordle start word, you'd be in an even better position.
I discussed today's puzzle with two of my colleagues, Erin and Josh, both of whom didn't lose their streak but found today's puzzle tough.
"Today was quite tricky because of the triple-vowel situation, but I don't think that was the only reason," Erin said. "I feel like Wordle tends to use nouns more regularly than verbs, so when the answer is a verb, it trips people up subconsciously. Perhaps we should all look out for verbs now."
I feel like Wordle tends to use nouns more regularly than verbs, so when the answer is a verb, it trips people up subconsciously.
Erin Bashford, Senior Writer
Josh, meanwhile, said that he found the answer in four attempts. "I found it easy to complete the puzzle by using my constant starter: Plate. That gave me a good basis to build on in subsequent words as I knew that at least one letter was P."
"However, I had never heard the word in question before," he added.
Meanwhile, our Global Editor in Chief Mark Spoonauer, confirms he got the word in five — just protecting his streak.
"I can say this is one of the few times where I've gotten all 5 letters and am still having trouble figuring out the answer," he said.
Part of the difficulty, as Josh pointed out, is that opine isn't a verb many of us would use in day-to-day speech. The definition, according to Merriam-Webster, is "to express opinions." It's derived from Latin and first entered usage back in the 15th century.
So, utilizing vowels will serve you well with today's puzzle, but despite that, it's posing a tough challenge to those of us unaccustomed to vocal pontificating.
Did you find it tough? Did you lose your streak? Let us know in the comments below.
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.
