Today's Wordle hints and answer — solution #1,046, Tuesday, April 30
Wordle today: Quick menu
2. Start letter
Today's Wordle answer is quite tough. According to the New York Times' WordleBot, the average player completes Wordle #1,046 in 4.1 moves in easy mode, or 3.9 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, #1,045, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
So be warned: spoilers lie ahead for game #1,046. 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 one of the five vowels.*
There are no repeated letters.
Two characters feature among the five most common Wordle letters.
* 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 on the hunt.
What does today's Wordle start with?
The answer to Wordle #1,046 starts with P, 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 #1,046?
Drumroll, please — it's PROWL.
Hello Wordlers. I didn't find today's puzzle to be too tough, but I can see how it might be tricky for some: PROWL isn't a hugely common word and 'W' is the sixth rarest character in the game.
Still, ORATE (which contains all five of the most common Wordle letters) set me on the way to a good start with 'R' turning green, and 'O' going yellow. That meant that 42 answers were left in play, according to WordleBot.
We weren't short of better options from WordleBot's best Wordle start words today, though. PLANT leaves 12 possible solutions, while TROPE lowers that to nine. If you played TRAIL, just six options would be left over.
On my second turn, I try and play a mix of 'I', 'N', 'S', 'C' and 'L' around my confirmed characters.
CROWN was the best I could do today, and it was extremely effective. 'O' and 'W' joined 'R' by turning green, leaving two possible solutions according to WordleBot.
I could see them both, and it was a coin toss between GROWL and PROWL next. In the end I opted for the latter, and was rewarded with a three-turn win.
Hopefully you did well today, Wordlers. See you tomorrow.
Yesterday's Wordle answer
Reading this in a later time zone? The Wordle answer for game #1,045 was CRAFT.
Hello Wordlers. A reasonably easy puzzle today: 'R', 'A' and 'T' all feature among the five most common Wordle letters, and it's a well-known word. True, 'F' is the eighth-rarest character, but once you have the big three green, everything falls neatly into place.
ORATE turned both 'R' and 'A' green, while giving me a yellow 'T'. That was a great start, leaving just 13 possible answers in play, according to WordleBot*.
That's good, but a few of WordleBot's best Wordle start words drove that down to single figures today. TRAIN and CRANE leave seven answers apiece, while CARTE and CARET drop that down to two. If you played TRACE, only the solution would be left over.
I try to play a mix of 'I', 'N', 'S', 'C' and 'L' around my confirmed letters on my second go.
TRAIN did that nicely. 'T' was ruled out in a second location, meaning the word had to be ?RA?T.
I tried CRAFT and was rewarded with a three-turn win. That was actually kind of lucky, as it could equally have been GRAFT or DRAFT.
Hopefully you found today's puzzle simple enough. See you tomorrow, Wordlers.
* These were: TRACK, TRACT, TRASH, TRAMP, TRAWL, CRAFT, DRAFT, GRAFT, TRAIL, TRAIT, TRAIN, TRANS and GRANT.
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 #1,045: CRAFT
Wordle #1,044: PRUNE
Wordle #1,043: GLEAM
Wordle #1,042: VAPID
Wordle #1,041: INTRO
Wordle #1,040: OVERT
Wordle #1,039: ROVER
Wordle #1,038: LASER
Wordle #1,037: JOLLY
Wordle #1,036: LUCID
Wordle #1,035: RAISE
Wordle #1,034: FACET
Wordle #1,033: TITHE
Wordle #1,032: SHANK
Wordle #1,031: EQUIP
Wordle #1,030: BLIMP
Wordle #1,029: STEEL
Wordle #1,028: WHINY
Wordle #1,027: LOUSE
Wordle #1,026: BROTH
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 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 an overview of how the game works and how to solve the 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!
