Today's Wordle hints and answer — solution #1,014, Friday, March 29

 Wordle displayed on a smartphone.
Wordle displayed on a smartphone.

Wordle today: Quick menu

Wordle is open on a phone held in a hand. TRAIN and GRIND have been played, with the RIN in GRIND all green.
Wordle is open on a phone held in a hand. TRAIN and GRIND have been played, with the RIN in GRIND all green.

1. Today's hints

2. Start letter

3. Today's answer

4. Yesterday's answer

Today's Wordle answer is moderately tricky. According to the New York Times' WordleBot, the average player completes Wordle #1,014 in 3.5 moves in easy mode or 3.4 if playing by hard rules.

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, #1,013, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

So be warned: spoilers lie ahead for game #1,014. 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:

* 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 its kingdom.

What does today's Wordle start with?

The answer to Wordle #1,014 starts with R, 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

The game Wordle displayed on two smartphones
The game Wordle displayed on two smartphones

So, what is today's Wordle answer for game #1,014?

Drumroll, please — it's REALM.

Hello Wordlers. A deceptively tricky one this. Sure, four characters are among the five most common Wordle letters, but words ending LM are pretty unusual.

ORATE set me up nicely though. 'A' turned green, while 'R' and 'E' went yellow, leaving me with just ten options still in play, according to WordleBot*.

That's good, but many of WordleBot's best Wordle start words were similar or even better. TRACE and CRANE leave nine options in play, while PLATE drops that to eight. If you played DEALT, just two possibilities would remain.

Wordle #1,014
Wordle #1,014

On move #2, I try and test a mix of 'I', 'N', 'S', 'C' and 'L' around my confirmed letters.

With three already there, my options were limited, so I plumped for REACH. This turned the first three letters green.

READY? Nope. 'D' and 'Y' went gray. Hmmm.

I was getting a bit desperate now, so tried REARS which was silly for two reasons. Firstly, it contains a double letter making it quite wasteful if it's wrong, and secondly it was extremely likely to be, given plurals aren't usually correct.

Nonetheless, with 'S' as common as it is, I figured it was worth a go. It was not: both the second 'R' and 'S' turned gray.

I was a bit stumped at this point. But eventually it came to me: REALM. I typed it in and completed the puzzle in five turns.

Hopefully you did well today, Wordlers. Have a good weekend.

* These were: BEARD, LEARN, WEARY, PEARL, YEARN, READY, REALM, REARM, REACH and HEARD.

Yesterday's Wordle answer

Reading this in a later time zone? The Wordle answer for game #1,013 was SPEAK.

Hello Wordlers. A nice and straightforward one for you today. SPEAK is a word that most people will use quite often, and it features the two most common Wordle letters around: 'E' and 'A'.

That meant that my opener of ORATE turned both yellow immediately. Though that's not as useful as you might think: they're both so common that their combined presence still leaves a massive 126 possible answers in play.

Plenty of WordleBot's best Wordle start words were more efficient today. PLANE leaves 17 possible solutions, while PLATE lowers that to 15. If you played LAPSE, just two options would be left available.

Wordle #1,013
Wordle #1,013

I aim to test a mix of 'I', 'N', 'S', 'C' and 'L' on my second turn if possible, and today SNEAK allowed me to try two of them.

Surprisingly, four turned green, including the letter I wasn't looking to test: 'K'.

The word had to be S?EAK, and that only left one possible answer. I typed in SPEAK and completed the puzzle in three turns.

Hopefully you did well today, 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 #1,013: SPEAK

  • Wordle #1,012: STUNG

  • Wordle #1,011: MAYOR

  • Wordle #1,010: SALLY

  • Wordle #1,009: TOWEL

  • Wordle #1,008: RISEN

  • Wordle #1,007: DECAY

  • Wordle #1,006: SHADE

  • Wordle #1,005: LINGO

  • Wordle #1,004: ABIDE

  • Wordle #1,003: SPELT

  • Wordle #1,002: SNORT

  • Wordle #1,001: TOXIN

  • Wordle #1,000: ERUPT

  • Wordle #999: SINCE

  • Wordle #998: LOCAL

  • Wordle #997: HEAVE

  • Wordle #996: PESKY

  • Wordle #995: GRASP

  • Wordle #994: CHEER

  • Wordle #993: EARLY

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 for its third 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 Connections

If you've solved Wordle and need help with other games from the New York Times, we suggest you check out our guide on how to play NYT Connections which will give you an overview of how the game works.

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!