2. Start letter
Today's Wordle answer isn't too tough. According to the New York Times' WordleBot, the average player completes Wordle #1,040 in 3.8 moves in easy mode, or 3.7 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, #1,039, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
So be warned: spoilers lie ahead for game #1,040. 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 are no repeated letters.
- Four 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 obvious.
What does today's Wordle start with?
The answer to Wordle #1,040 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 #1,040?
Drumroll, please — it's OVERT.
Hello Wordlers. Thankfully, today's puzzle is nice and easy after two very tricky ones in the last few days. OVERT contains four of the five most common Wordle letters, making it a doddle with a good start word.
ORATE uncovered all four of them right away. 'O' went green, while 'R', 'T' and 'E' turned yellow. That left just four possible answers, according to WordleBot*.
Most of WordleBot's best Wordle start words were good, but weaker than that. There are a couple of exceptions, though. ALERT and HEART both match OVERT with four possibilities left, while STORE drops it to three.
Normally, I'd aim to play a mix of 'I', 'N', 'S', 'C' and 'L' around my confirmed letters. But with four already in play, there didn't seem much scope for that.
Instead, I opted for OTHER. Amazingly, this merely ruled out all three of my yellow letters in a second position.
Still, only one option was left now. I typed in OVERT and completed the puzzle in three moves.
Hopefully you did well today, Wordlers. See you tomorrow.
* These were: OVERT, OTHER, OUTER and OTTER.
Yesterday's Wordle answer
Reading this in a later time zone? The Wordle answer for game #1,039 was ROVER.
Hello Wordlers. For the second time in three days, I'm recording a defeat. And for the same reasons again: as with JOLLY, with multiple green letters after a few turns, I couldn't successfully fill in the missing gaps. Grrr.
ORATE, which contains all five of the most common Wordle letters, should have set me up nicely. 'O', 'R' and 'E' all turned yellow, leaving me with just 47 possible answers, according to WordleBot.
That was better than plenty of WordleBot's best Wordle start words, but as per usual there were some exceptions. REACT leaves 30 options, while ROAST drops that to 17. After a long time scrolling, RILED is the most useful start word I could see with 15 possible answers left in play.
I aim to play a mix of 'I', 'N', 'S', 'C' and 'L' on my second turn, and LOSER was a good way of doing that.
It seemed almost too good to be true: alll three of my yellow letters turned green. But that was deceptive: there were still a massive 25 possible answers that can be spelled ?O?ER according to WordleBot*.
I tried DONER next to test 'N', but no new letters were revealed.
Then I tried POWER and had the same problem. I was now down to two turns with 11 possible options. Great.
I finally got a break on my fifth turn when COVER turned 'V' green. But I still had three options and only one go.
I could think of all three, too: MOVER, HOVER and ROVER. I didn't want to do a double 'R', so I discounted ROVER and opted for HOVER.
It was wrong. The answer was ROVER and I lost for the second time in three days: comfortably my worst ever patch of form.
Hopefully I'll put that right tomorrow. See you then.
* That list in full: BOXER, COVER, FOYER, HOMER, HOVER, POKER, POWER, MOVER, MOWER, ROVER, COWER, JOKER, ROWER, GOFER, BOWER, ROPER, WOOER, MOPER, CORER, ROGER, GONER, BONER, DOPER, DOZER and CODER.
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 #1,039: 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 #1,025: MERGE
- Wordle #1,024: BREED
- Wordle #1,023: VOILA
- Wordle #1,022: FINCH
- Wordle #1,021: WRIST
- Wordle #1,020: CLIMB
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!
