2. Start letter
Today's Wordle answer is moderately taxing. According to the New York Times' WordleBot, the average player completes Wordle #1,235 in 4.0 moves in both easy and hard modes.
Each day, we will update this article with Wordle hints and tips to help you find today's answer. And if the hints aren't enough, we'll even give you the answer, in case you're really stuck or just haven't had time to complete today's puzzle. Plus, we are also including an analysis of yesterday's puzzle, #1,234, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
So be warned: spoilers lie ahead for game #1,235. Only read on if you want to know today's Wordle answer!
Today's Wordle answer — hints to help you solve it
Our first tip is that you should use one of the best Wordle start words for every game you play. But if you want some more specific clues to today's Wordle answer, then here you go:
- It contains two of the five vowels.*
- There is one repeated character.
- It includes three of the five most common Wordle letters (and one is used twice).
* By vowel, we mean A, E, I, O, U. There are other letters that are sometimes considered to be vowels, depending on how they are used.
Those hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Wordle answer. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then skip down further for that.
Alright then, here's a larger hint: Today's Wordle answer is made up of eight parts.
What does today's Wordle start with?
The answer to Wordle #1,235 starts with O, so combined with the hints above you should now have all the clues you need to get the answer and not break a Wordle streak.
OK, it's now time to scroll down for the answer…
Today's Wordle answer
So, what is today's Wordle answer for game #1,235?
Drumroll, please — it's OCTET.
Hello Wordlers. While today's puzzle doesn't contain any rare characters at all (only 'C' is outside the five most common Wordle letters, in 10th position), the double 'T' complicates things.
Still, ORATE set me up brilliantly, with 'O' going green, and both 'T' and 'E' turning yellow. That meant just five possible answers were left over, going into my second turn, according to WordleBot*.
Most of WordleBot's best Wordle start words were understandably weaker than that, but a few were even more efficient. SCRAP, for example, leaves three answers, while SCANT, CATER and CARET all leave only the correct solution.
Usually, I try and play a mix of 'L', 'I', 'S', 'N' and 'C' on my second turn, but with three confirmed characters, I didn't have much flexibility, so I played OUTED. This was highly effective, turning 'T' and 'E' green to join 'O'.
How about OFTEN? Nope: no new letters revealed.
There was, according to WordleBot, only one answer left, but it took me a while to spot, despite it including a character from my common-letter hitlist.
I was kicking myself when I got it: I typed in OCTET and completed the puzzle in four moves.
Hopefully today's Wordle didn't end your streak. See you tomorrow.
* These were: OFTEN, OCTET, ONSET, OUTED and OPTED.
Yesterday's Wordle answer
Reading this in a later time zone? The Wordle answer for game #1,234 was VINYL.
Hello Wordlers. A bit of a tricky one today, but not insurmountable. While it starts with the very rare 'V' and doesn't contain any of the five most common Wordle letters, 'L', 'I' and 'N' all crack the top ten.
Still, this meant that ORATE came up empty. All five letters turned gray, meaning there was a massive 253 possible answers left, according to WordleBot.
While most of the 'Bot's best Wordle start words left 50+ answers, there were a few gems in the mix. TRAIL, for example, leaves 13 answers, while PLANE lowers that to 11. If you opened with LEANT, only nine options would be left over.
With no characters on the board, my attention turned to the five next most common letters: 'L', 'I', 'S', 'N' and 'C'.
SLINK was a good way to test four of them at once, and it was extremely effective, with 'L', 'I' and 'N' all turning yellow. That meant only one answer was left, according to WordleBot, which duly granted me a skill score of 98% and a luck one of 93%.
The next move was anything but lucky, however, as I picked a word that WordleBot didn't consider: LINDY.
"LINDY is a valid guess, but it’s unlikely to be a solution based on what I’ve learned from playing Wordle," WordleBot explains.
Still, with two green letters and a new yellow 'Y', the answer was obvious. I typed in VINYL and completed the game in four moves.
Hopefully today's puzzle didn't trip you up, Wordlers. See you tomorrow.
Previous Wordle answers
If you're looking for a list of older Wordle answers, we can also help. Here's a list going back 20 games.
- Wordle #1,234: VINYL
- Wordle #1,233: BLAZE
- Wordle #1,232: SNOOP
- Wordle #1,231: SIXTH
- Wordle #1,230: WEIRD
- Wordle #1,229: EASEL
- Wordle #1,228: TUNIC
- Wordle #1,227: BAWDY
- Wordle #1,226: SANDY
- Wordle #1,225: WREAK
- Wordle #1,224: FROWN
- Wordle #1,223: BOSSY
- Wordle #1,222: GOOFY
- Wordle #1,221: SHOUT
- Wordle #1,220: SPOON
- Wordle #1,219: DICEY
- Wordle #1,218: FIBER
- Wordle #1,217: STINT
- Wordle #1,216: HALVE
- Wordle #1,215: GRANT
Wordle tips — how to win at Wordle
The best tip I can give is to use one of the best Wordle start words. I can't stress this enough — it makes a massive difference.
Without one, you'll be scrabbling around in the dark trying (and possibly failing) to find the right five letters (or possibly fewer) out of the 26 possibles. But clever people (not me) have done the math and identified the best start words based on both frequency in English and frequency among Wordle answers. So use them!
Secondly, think about combinations, especially at the start and end. Some options are far more common than others — for instance, SH, ST, CR and CH all feature frequently.
Vowels obviously need consideration too: not all Wordle answers will contain more than one, but plenty do, and some even have three. A good Wordle start word should have used a couple, but if they don't feature you might well want to try another one or two on your next go. Plus, remember the Y — this sometimes acts as a surrogate vowel, and is easy to forget. It also appears at the end of plenty of words.
Finally, try out possibilities. So long as you don't press 'Enter' you can try possible answers to see how they look on screen. Put in likely letters plus any you know are definitely in the word, then mentally change one to the other available options. This technique has worked for me multiple times, and it's particularly helpful when the word in question is not an obvious one (like FJORD or ISLET).
But if you're still struggling with Wordle, check out how Tom's Guide's Wordle experts have honed their strategy after playing a lot of Wordle after it first launched.
We also have plenty of Wordle tips and tricks to share, like how we've analyzed every Wordle answer used to look for trends and have some further advice for you there. And if you're new to the game you should also take a look at our What is Wordle? guide.
What else should I know about Wordle?
Wordle officially launched in October 2021, but actually started in June of that year and celebrated its first birthday on June 19, 2022. (You can read my thoughts on the 5 things Wordle needs to improve if it's to keep us playing on into a fourth and fifth year.)
However, it only grew in popularity towards the end of the year, then went viral in January as the world woke up to its charms. In fact, it proved so successful that The New York Times bought Wordle for a seven-figure sum in early February and the game is now part of NYT Games.
It's played via the NYT Games website here, and is entirely free. Both the NYT and the game's creator, Josh Wardle, have stated that it will remain free. Some people think that Wordle has got harder since the NYT takeover, but it really hasn't.
Wordle is a simple game in which your challenge is to guess a five-letter word in six attempts. Each time you guess, you're told which of your chosen letters are in the target word, and whether they are in the right place.
If a letter is in the correct place, it turns green. If it's in the word but in the wrong place, it turns yellow. And if it's not in the word at all, it turns gray.
There's just one puzzle a day, and everyone completes the same one. It resets at midnight each day. You'll find more information about the game in our What is Wordle? article.
NYT Strands answer
If you've solved Wordle and need help with other games from the New York Times, we suggest you check out our guide on today's NYT Strands answer, which will give you some hints as well as the full answer to today's puzzle.
Wordle Alternatives
If you're eager for another game to pass the time while you wait, we've put together a list of the best Wordle alternatives.
Other Wordle alternatives to try are the ultra-stressful (but very good) Squabble and the soccer-themed, Who Are Ya?. We also like the geography-based Wordle clone Worldle, the Star Wars-themed SWordle and the math-based Mathler.
There are certainly plenty of options once you've finished Wordle for the day!
