Your Guide to the February 16, 2025 Wordle Challenge
Searching for the Wordle solution for February 16, 2025? You’ve come to the right place! Here, we will provide hints, useful tips, and strategies, ultimately leading you to the answer. Today’s puzzle presents a moderate difficulty level; it took four attempts for me to finish it. Warning: Spoilers for Wordle #1,338 are below! If you wish to gather some clues (and then discover the answer) for the current Wordle, continue reading.
What is Wordle?
Wordle can be played here on the New York Times website. Each day at midnight, a new puzzle becomes available, tailored to your time zone.
Begin by attempting to guess a five-letter word. The colors of the letters will indicate your progress: green signifies a correct letter in its proper place, yellow indicates a correct letter in the wrong position, and gray reveals a letter that is not present in the secret word of the day. For further insights, refer to this comprehensive guide on playing Wordle, and my advanced strategy guide found at the end of this article, post-hints and answers.
Excited for the hints? Let’s dive in!
Are There Any Uncommon Letters Today?
Common letters can be identified through the old typographer’s expression ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Remember this! Pronounce it like “Edwin Shirdloo,” as if he were a friend of yours.)
Today’s puzzle contains four commonly used letters, with one letter being less frequent.
Can You Offer a Hint for Today?
The hint is: Smooth.
Are There Any Duplicate Letters?
No letters are repeated in today’s word.
How Many Vowels Are Present?
Today’s word features three vowels.
What Does Today’s Word Start With?
The word begins with the letter S.
What Is the Ending Letter?
The word concludes with the letter E.
What Is Today’s Solution?
Are you ready? The answer for today is SUAVE.
The Process of Solving Today’s Wordle
Commencing with RAISE and TOUCH, I then guessed SPADE, a suitable choice given the common consonants offered. This led me to the next guess of SUAVE.
Wordle 1,338 4/6 ⬛🟨⬛🟨🟩 ⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛ 🟩⬛🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Answer for Yesterday’s Wordle
Yesterday’s Wordle posed a medium challenge with the hint “a type of criminal.” It contained three common letters, one fairly common letter, and one rare letter.
Yesterday’s answer was CROOK.
Understanding the Basics of Wordle
The objective of Wordle is to identify the secret word of the day. When launching the game, you are greeted with an empty grid of letters. It is your turn to kick things off by inputting any five-letter word.
The color feedback will then assist in identifying the solution: Green signifies a correctly positioned letter, whereas Yellow denotes a letter that exists in the word but is misplaced. Gray indicates the absence of that letter in the solution.
-
Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position guessed. (Example: If you guessed PARTY, but the word is ROAST, R, A, and T will turn yellow.)
-
Gray means the letter is not present in the word at all. (If PARTY results in all gray squares, then the answer isn’t PURSE or ROAST.)
With this information, continue guessing until you identify the correct word within six tries.
Top Starter Words for Wordle
What should be chosen for that initial guess? The optimal starters frequently include common letters, enhancing the likelihood of receiving yellow and green results for effective guessing. While there is no universally accepted best word, the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot recommends starting with:
-
CRANE
-
TRACE
-
SLANT
-
CRATE
-
CARTE
Furthermore, an MIT analysis identified the most effective first guesses that eliminate possibilities:
-
SALET
-
REAST
-
TRACE
-
CRATE
-
SLATE
Other viable choices include ARISE or ROUND. While choices like ADIEU and AUDIO introduce more vowels, prioritizing consonants with words like RENTS or CLAMP could prove advantageous. Determine your strategy and observe the results.
Tips for Success in Wordle
For those who intend to delve deeper into Wordle strategies, numerous guides are available, which can be beneficial. One guide discusses leveraging consonants effectively, while another emphasizes using common letters. An additional advanced guide presents a three-step strategy to gather hints while optimizing chances of quickly solving.
Successful Wordle players differentiate themselves by utilizing their guesses to extract as much information as possible about the letters in the word. For example, if the ending must be -OUND, rather than guessing MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND in succession, try combining consonants for a guess like MARSH. If the H turns yellow, you’ll gain valuable insight.
One more point regarding tactics: the original Wordle employed a selection of around 2,300 potential solutions, but post-acquisition by NYT, the game now features a curated selection of words, occasionally introducing themes or unusual words, such as FEAST during a Thanksgiving edition. Being aware of possible themes may also influence your guessing approach.
Exploring Wordle Alternatives
If the excitement of five-letter guessing games captivates you, explore these popular Wordle alternatives, organized by difficulty:
-
Dordle and Quordle, which challenge you to solve two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles simultaneously, using shared guesses. There’s also Octordle, featuring eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.
-
Waffle, where you swap letters in a grid filled with various five-letter words to decipher the right arrangement.
-
Absurdle, a game that changes the solution after each guess, but remains consistent with previous feedback. You must navigate strategically until only one word remains as a possibility.
-
Squabble, where players compete in real-time against others while racing against a timer. Excessive delays between guesses may lead to penalties, and the last player standing triumphs.
-
Antiwordle, where your objective is to avoid guessing the daily solution. You are compelled to reuse letters guessed correctly, making longer guessing times more favorable.
