Today's Wordle hints and answer — solution #904, Sunday, December 10
Wordle today: Quick menu
2. Start letter
Today's Wordle answer isn't too taxing. According to the New York Times' WordleBot, the average player completes Wordle #904 in 3.3 moves in easy mode or 3.2 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, #903, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
So be warned: spoilers lie ahead for game #904. 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.
It features just one of 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 made up of links.
What does today's Wordle start with?
The answer to Wordle #904 starts with C, 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 #904?
Drumroll, please — it's CHAIN.
Hello Wordlers. Nothing too taxing today: CHAIN contains two vowels and four of the ten most common Wordle letters in 'C', 'A', 'I' and 'N'. 'H', meanwhile, is close to the middle: the 14th most common letter of 26.
Despite the flurry of common letters, my start word of ORATE failed to turn up much, with just the 'A' turning green. That meant that after my first turn, 79 possible answers were still in play.
Plenty of WordleBot's best Wordle start words were more efficient today as a result. LEANT leaves 18 possible answers, while SLANT reduces it to 12. If you played TRAIN, just five solutions would be left over.
On my second go, I look for words with as many of 'L', 'I', 'S', 'N' and 'C' in as possible.
Today I almost hit the jackpot on that score, by getting in three with CLAIM. And it was a doozie of a move, turning 'C' and 'I' green and leaving me with one possible answer.
So: C?AI?. It didn't take me long to fill in the gaps and try CHAIN. All five letters turned green for a swift three-turn win.
Hopefully you did well today too. See you tomorrow for the start of another Wordling week.
Yesterday's Wordle answer
Reading this in a later time zone? The Wordle answer for game #903 was SHIFT.
Hello Wordlers. Huh: for the third day running, a Wordle answer beginning with 'S'. Probably not a record (I'm not about to go back through over 900 Wordle puzzles to check), but pretty unusual all the same.
Of course, my start word — ORATE — doesn't contain 'S', but it does feature the five most common Wordle letters which is a helpful strategy more often than not.
Today was a 'not' day, however: just the 'T' turned yellow, leaving 75 answers still in play.
Unsurprisingly, plenty of WordleBot's best Wordle start words proved more effective than that. LEAST leaves 23 possible answers, while SLANT lowers that to 19. If you played SHALT, just seven options would be possible.
As ever on my second turn, I was looking for words with 'L', 'I', 'S', 'N' or 'C' in. The aim being to fit as many as possible around a new position for my yellow 'T'.
I could only find a word with two in: SIGHT. But it was extremely effective, and a bit lucky, frankly. 'S' and 'T' went green, and I got two yellows in the forms of 'I' and 'H'.
That meant only one answer was left, but I didn't get it immediately, as I attempted to juggle the yellow 'I' and 'H' around the three unclaimed slots.
But I got there in the end. I typed SHIFT and won the game in three moves.
Hopefully you did well today too, Wordlers. See you tomorrow.
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 #903: SHIFT
Wordle #902: SHARP
Wordle #901: SLEEP
Wordle #900: WOMAN
Wordle #899: YOUNG
Wordle #898: WORST
Wordle #897: ADAPT
Wordle #896: GENRE
Wordle #895: TAKEN
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 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!
