Today's Wordle hints and answer — solution #1,004, Tuesday, March 19

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 very tough indeed — or so I thought. But according to the New York Times' WordleBot, the average player completes Wordle #1,004 in 3.6 moves in both easy and hard modes.

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, #1,003, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

So be warned: spoilers lie ahead for game #1,004. 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 will accept the rules.

What does today's Wordle start with?

The answer to Wordle #1,004 starts with A, 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 #1,004?

Drumroll, please — it's ABIDE

Hello Wordlers. A nasty puzzle this one, I thought. Even though it contains three vowels, ABIDE is an odd word that won't be on the tip of everyone's tongue. As a result, I scraped across the line in six turns.

My opening word of ORATE — which contains all five of the most common Wordle letters — set me off on a reasonable start. It ruled out all but 54 possible answers, according to WordleBot.

As you might imagine, words featuring 'I' were WordleBot's best Wordle start words today. PAINT leaves 21 answers in play, while TRIED reduces that to 12. If you played SLIDE, just six options would be left.

Wordle #1,004

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

I usually aim to play a mix of 'I', 'N', 'S', 'C' and 'L' on my second go, but words ending in 'E' always make me blank out. 

In the end, I opted for VAGUE just to test a second vowel while moving 'A' along. It didn't seem to help much, ruling out three new letters and proving that the word had to be A???E or ???AE. Still, that left only 11 possibilities, according to WordleBot*.

I couldn't think of anything ending 'AE', so I opted for APPLE. 'A' was confirmed green, but I'd wasted two slots on 'P' which went gray in both. 'L' was also ruled out.

ANIME? Better! I got a third green letter in the form of 'I'. I now had three vowels and just two gaps to fill between them.

ASIDE? Nope. But with 'D' turning green, only one option was left. I typed in ABIDE and squeaked home in six turns.

Hopefully you did better today Wordlers. See you tomorrow.

* These were: ABIDE, ASIDE, ANIME, ANISE, AISLE, ANKLE, AMBLE, ADDLE, ALIKE, AMPLE and APPLE.

Yesterday's Wordle answer

Reading this in a later time zone? The Wordle answer for game #1,003 was SPELT.

Hello Wordlers. A pretty tricky one today, given SPELT isn't a word on the tip of most people's tongues. Nonetheless, it does contain three of the six most common Wordle letters in 'L', 'T' and 'E'.

My start word of ORATE immediately picked out the latter two, turning both yellow. That meant that, according to WordleBot, I was down to 87 possible solutions.

Quite a few of WordleBot's best Wordle start words were more efficient, however, especially those that managed to squeeze 'L' and 'P' in. 

PLACE and PLANE both leave 13 possible answers, while PLANT drops that to just three. If you played PLATE, only two solutions would be left in play.

Wordle #1,003

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

I like to play a mix of 'I', 'N', 'S', 'C' and 'L' on my second turn, so I opted for STEIN. This turned both 'S' and 'E' green, while proving that 'T' had to sit in last position. 

In other words, the answer had to be S?E?T. That left just eight possible answers, according to WordleBot*.

Thankfully, my desire to play the common letters first led me to win that 8-1 shot. I wanted to play 'L' and saw a way to do it with SPELT. All the letters turned green for a three-turn win.

Hopefully you did well today too, Wordlers. See you tomorrow.

* These were: SHEET, SWEET, SKEET, SLEPT, SWEPT, SLEET, SPELT and SMELT.

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 #1,003: SPELT
  • Wordle #1,002: SNORT
  • Wordle #1,001: TOXIN
  • Wordle #1,000: ERUPT
  • Wordle #999: SINCE
  • Wordle #998: LOCAL
  • Wordle #997: HEAVE
  • Wordle #996: PESKY
  • Wordle #995: GRASP
  • Wordle #994: CHEER
  • Wordle #993: EARLY
  • Wordle #992: CLONE
  • Wordle #991: TEARY
  • Wordle #990: HUNCH
  • Wordle #989: FLAME
  • Wordle #988: STATE
  • Wordle #987: URBAN
  • Wordle #986: FORTY
  • Wordle #985: IMAGE
  • Wordle #984: DEVIL
  • Wordle #983: SENSE

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 Connections

If you've solved Wordle and need help with other games from the New York Times, we suggest you check out our guide on how to play NYT Connections which will give you an overview of how the game works.

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