2. Start letter
Today's Wordle answer is another toughie. According to the New York Times' WordleBot, the average player will complete Wordle #720 in 4.4 moves in easy mode or 4.1 for those 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, #719, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
So be warned: spoilers lie ahead for game #720. 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 is one repeat letter.
- One character is in the ten least 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 wood [sic.] cause even experienced puzzlers problems.
What does today's Wordle start with?
The answer to Wordle #720 starts with B, 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 #720?
Drumroll, please — it's BALSA.
Hello Wordlers. Another tricky one today, unless different kinds of wood are at the forefront of your mind when you're tackling your daily Wordle. Suffice it to say, they're not in mine, hence the disappointing five-turn win.
I began today's Wordle by playing RATIO, which didn't look too bad, given it turned 'A' green right from the get-go (although this is often the sign of a double letter, as it proved to be today.)
Unfortunately, 'A' being the second most common letter in the game, it left a whopping 181 possible answers remaining.
Some of WordleBot's best Wordle start words would have been significantly better today, with SLANT and SLATE reducing the number of possible solutions to 11 and seven respectively. LEAST is even better, taking it down to just three.
I wanted to test another vowel with 'E', and knowing that 'L' is the sixth most common letter in the game, PALED seemed like a good choice. It was, turning said 'L' green and leaving six possible answers. Quite the turnaround.
My luck got even better on the next turn. I tried BALMY, which gave me another green letter with 'B' and revealed that the word had to be BAL??.
Unfortunately, at this point, I was drawing a complete blank. I'll admit that my next pick came from entering letters into anything resembling a plausible-sounding word.
Eventually, I came across BALAS (I think I was thinking of BALLAST) which gave me three greens and two yellows. In other words, I just needed to swap my two yellow letters and the answer would be revealed: BALSA.
That was a tough one. Hopefully you did better than me today. I'll be back to try again tomorrow, with Saturday's puzzle. Until then, Wordlers.
Yesterday's Wordle answer
Reading this in a later time zone? The Wordle answer for game #719 was CRUMB.
Hello Wordlers. Today's puzzle is an interesting one, with only one really common letter in the mix ('R'). The rest are all firmly from the middle of the Wordle deck, with 'M' (16th) and 'B' (18th) being especially unusual. Even the single vowel - 'U' - isn't hugely common in 11th spot.
I managed to complete it in four turns, despite an inauspicious start. Playing RATIO revealed that 'R' was in the word, but nothing else, and that meant there were a daunting 137 possible answers remaining.
WordleBot's best Wordle start words were a weird mixed bag today, jumping between those with solutions in high triple figures (SLATE - 308) and those in the low teens (CRANE and TRACE both leave 13). In that context, RATIO splits the difference nicely.
With no vowels yet revealed, I was determined to find a word to test both remaining ones - 'E' and 'U'. I did that by playing UNDER which ruled out 'R' in a second position, and revealed that 'U' would be my only vowel today. It also reduced the number of possible answers to just 24.
I needed to find a word featuring 'R' within the middle three letters now, having ruled it out at both ends. So I played LURCH, which still didn't give me any greens, but did introduce a third yellow in the form of 'C'.
According to WordleBot, only two answers were left at this point, but I wasn't to know that. I was busy trying to think of five-letter words where 'R' is either the second or fourth letter, while also including a 'U' in the second half and a 'C' somewhere in the mix.
Eventually it came to me: CRUMB. I typed it in, and smiled ear-to-ear as every letter turned green. In case you're wondering, CRUMP was the other word - which isn't one I would ever have come up with myself.
Hope you did well today, Wordlers. See you tomorrow for Friday's puzzle.
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 #719: CRUMB
- Wordle #718: HATER
- Wordle #717: SCOUT
- Wordle #716: ENNUI
- Wordle #715: BEAST
- Wordle #714: NANNY
- Wordle #713: HUMID
- Wordle #712: JAZZY
- Wordle #711: AGILE
- Wordle #710: KNEEL
- Wordle #709: MOUSE
- Wordle #708: SKIMP
- Wordle #707: RAMEN
- Wordle #706: SWINE
- Wordle #705: BAGEL
- Wordle #704: UTTER
- Wordle #703: CLERK
- Wordle #702: IGLOO
- Wordle #701: BRASH
- Wordle #700: FLASK
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 second 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. We also have a page on today's Quordle answers, because it's our favorite.
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!
