Today's Wordle hints and answer — solution #895, Friday, December 1

Wordle displayed on a smartphone
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
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.

(Image credit: Mike Kemp / Getty Images)

1. Today's hints

2. Start letter

3. Today's answer

4. Yesterday's answer 

Today's Wordle answer is pretty straightforward. According to the New York Times' WordleBot, the average player completes Wordle #895 in 3.8 moves in easy mode, or 3.7 if playing with 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, #894, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

So be warned: spoilers lie ahead for game #895. 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 already spoken for.

What does today's Wordle start with?

The answer to Wordle #895 starts with T, 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

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

So, what is today's Wordle answer for game #895?

Drumroll, please — it's TAKEN.

Hello Wordlers. A nice and easy one today. Not only is TAKEN a very common word but, 'K' aside, the letters involved are anything but rare.

My starting word of ORATE contains all five of the most common Wordle letters, which meant I got three yellow characters right off the bat. Just 39 possible answers were still in play.

Despite that, some of WordleBot's best Wordle start words were more efficient. SLANT, for example, leaves 12 possible solutions, while TALES takes that down to eight. If you played LEANT, just two possibilities would remain.

Wordle #895

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

On my second go, I usually like to play more of the most common Wordle letters — a list containing 'L', 'I', 'S', 'N' and 'C'. 

While this hitlist was less pressing with three characters already confirmed, I did spy an easy way to fit two more in with TALES. This didn't reveal anything new, but did turn all three of my yellow letters green.

The word had to be TA?E?, and that only leaves four possibilities in play. 

I opted for TAKEN and all five letters turned green for a three-turn win. A little lucky, as it could equally have been TAMED, TAPED or TAXED.

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 #894 was RESIN.

Hello Wordlers. Today's puzzle isn't too tricky, even if RESIN isn't exactly a word that most people will find themselves using on a daily basis. With two vowels and no rare letters (all of them are in the top nine), it shouldn't take players too long to figure out.

I began with ORATE which, given it contains the five most common Wordle letters, immediately gave me two yellows: 'R' and 'E'. That meant that by my second turn, I had 141 possible answers still in play.

Plenty of WordleBot's best Wordle start words would have been more efficient. SLATE, for example, leaves 34 possible solutions while LEAST takes that down to 19. If you played TRAIN, just four possibilities would be left over.

Wordle #894

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

On my second turn, I like to introduce as many of the next most common letters as possible, while retaining my confirmed characters. That meant I needed two to three of 'L', 'I', 'S', 'N' and 'C'.

CLERK felt decent, but it wasn't great today. It ruled out all three of my new letters, and left both 'E' and 'R' yellow in two new spots. I only succeeded in reducing the number of solutions to 75, which is still quite a lot with four turns left.

Thankfully, my next move was a doozie. I looked for a way of bringing in 'I', 'S' and/or 'N', and eventually opted for SERIF. 

This was a great move, turning both 'E' and 'I' green, giving me a yellow 'S' and ruling out 'R' in a third location.

There was only one option left. I typed in RESIN and won the game in four turns.

Hopefully you breezed through today's puzzle. See you tomorrow for a fresh one.

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 #894: RESIN
  • Wordle #893: SUSHI
  • Wordle #892: SCOPE
  • Wordle #891: TAWNY
  • Wordle #890: SOLID
  • Wordle #889: GUIDE
  • Wordle #888: THROW
  • Wordle #887: QUEEN
  • Wordle #886: PIXEL
  • Wordle #885: PIANO
  • Wordle #884: CANDY
  • Wordle #883: QUEUE
  • Wordle #882: THINK
  • Wordle #881: TARDY
  • Wordle #880: TRUST
  • Wordle #879: SIGHT
  • Wordle #878: SASSY
  • Wordle #877: GREEN
  • Wordle #876: MEANT
  • Wordle #875: ACTOR
  • Wordle #874: LEASH

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 every Wordle so far and losing only once.

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.

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!

Alan Martin

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.

With contributions from
  • fraochmuir
    There is no yellow E in Stare for March 27th.
    Reply
  • John II
    I used to use SUITE which uses 3 common vowels and 2 common consonants. Lately, it seems like some of the words have been a bit more obscure, so I've switched to HAVER (thanks goes out to The Proclaimers and 500 Miles for this obscure word). If no hits, that's fine, I burn some more letters to narrow the field by using two more vowels and other common consonants... MOIST. Yeah, I know... no one likes MOIST, but it reveals two more vowels and three more consonants . That combo helped me get today's HAIRY on the third guess! 🆒
    Reply
  • Nhobuna
    The may 10th answer might also be a double. I was working through it but I have a b,u, and t as letters that are in the actual word.
    Reply
  • TexTechie
    There are 2 answers again evidently.. I have the same word as you and it's not gecko obviously 😅
    Reply
  • Scotth71
    Far from Gecko for me. Not sure what is going on but seems someone has mucked up.
    Reply
  • SS2021user
    Was in the exakt same position with the end of 335, but chose wrong. Didn't think GAMER would be a very likely word, so I chose GAZER instead. Goodbye 40 day streak!
    Reply
  • Jarmeister
    Ugh. Today's (#344) was near impossible for a non native English speaker. Word I've only heard in couple of songs and would probably not use naturally in conversation.
    Reply
  • JES2000
    I'm surprised to see the misspelled "alright" in a wordle story.
    Reply
  • SS2021user
    I got Wordle 348 in 3 guesses as well, but I got... slightly luckier with my second guess. After guessing STARE I guessed PHONY, leaving me with 1 possible solution, and 4 green letters.
    Reply
  • R_macus
    Streak ended with #357. Stare, House, poise, loose, moose, noose.
    Reply