Today’s Wordle answer is grueling — here’s why October 24's puzzle could break your streak

If you're a Wordle player, then you may want to brace yourself for today's puzzle because solving it will be an arduous task.

Every so often, a word comes along that tests players and, more often than not, can end up breaking a lot of people's streaks. Today could be one of those days.

Here on Tom's Guide, we run a daily Wordle hints and answers page, which you can check out for some helpful hints (and a fun new Guess the Number game that'll test your important tech date knowledge).

If you're really struggling, I'll give you the answer here too — but I'll put it further down the article underneath a spoiler warning so you don't accidentally read it if you're still figuring it out.

Our in-house Wordle expert checks his progress on every puzzle through the New York Times' WordleBot. The in-game AI helper analyzes the game after you've played it and does the same for every other player. That gives you an idea of how tough people are finding the puzzle, and Wordle #1,588 (October 24) is a doozy.

According to the 'bot, the average player completes today's puzzle in 4.1 moves on easy mode, or 4.2 on hard mode. If you're new to Wordle, you get six guesses to figure out the daily word. One of the toughest Wordle puzzles was #454 all the way back in September 2022 — that one had a score of 6.3.

I took a quick poll of our regular Wordle players here at Tom's Guide, and the average was five guesses (it took me six). Sure, it wasn't enough to break the streaks, but it was definitely a little close for comfort.

So, what makes today's answer so difficult? To discuss it, we're going to need to reveal the answer — so stop reading now if you haven't done it yet and don't want it spoiled...

Spoiler alert: Today's answer below

I'm going to assume you heeded the warning ahead and know that today's puzzle's answer is "Tuber."

Shockingly, the answer isn't difficult because of a repeated letter, as was the case the last time one of these backbreaking Wordle puzzles hit the scene (the answer was llama). In this one, it's just a word that a lot of people (myself included) are probably unfamiliar with.

If you're curious, the definition of Tuber, according to Google, is: "A much thickened underground part of a stem or rhizome, e.g., in the potato, serving as a food reserve and bearing buds from which new plants arise."

It starts with a T, which will give many Wordle players a strong start if they use some of the best Wordle start words. However, it veers off into a bunch of uncommon letters from there. There's also an E and an R, which fall right into the R, S, T, L, N, E sweet spot.

But despite that, this is still regarded as a tough challenge. Even if you have the letters (the U and B aren't as easy to come by) you need to either blindly stumble on the word or actually know what it means, which is probably not very common.

How did the Tom's Guide team find today's Wordle?

We've got a few seasoned players on the Tom's Guide team, so I asked for their thoughts on today's puzzle. Here's what some members of the team thought (they're really good at Wordle, apparently):

Millie Fender, Managing Editor, Homes: "I got today's Wordle in four guesses, but if REBUT hadn't been my third guess, it might've taken me a lot longer. Apparently, a tuber is the 'much thickened underground part of a stem or rhizome' — but I got there through deduction, as opposed to an in-depth knowledge of potato biology."

Matthew Murray, Head of Testing: "I have to say, I didn’t find it that much harder than most other Wordles. I guess it depends on how common you consider that word. Once I got the beginning and ending letters, figuring out the middle one was easy. But, again, as a potato lover, maybe I had it easier than other people might."

Tom Prichard, Phones Editor: "I rarely have patience for Wordle, and if I can't come close within the first few tries, I tend to just give up and deliberately fail just to figure out the answer. Today was not one of those days.

It was a tricky word, but once the letters started falling into place, I found the challenge to be quite refreshing. For once, I was reveling in the challenge, rather than getting annoyed — and when I finally got confirmation there was a T in there, it all fell into place. It took me all 6 attempts, but that's still a win."

Erin Bashford, Staff Writer, Reviews: "I got Wordle in five today — embarrassing. As soon as I played LONER for my second guess, I thought, "Could it be TUBER?". I then tried to outsmart the game by guessing the word I thought Wordle would want me to choose — DETER — before going with my gut and playing TUBER. Which, naturally, was the correct answer. So the lesson here is: Trust your gut."

Social media reacts

As you'd expect, plenty of players have taken to social media to comment on today's answer. On Twitter, #Wordle1588 began trending as people shared how they'd fared with the puzzle.

Meanwhile, this person seems to have lucked into the right anwer:

It's not hard to see why we've been given a difficult answer — Wordle has been running for a few years now, and most of the easy words have been used up.

Did you find it tough? Did you lose your streak? Let us know in the comments below.

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More from Tom's Guide

• I analyzed every Wordle answer to look for patterns — here's what I found
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