NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1362, Wednesday, March 12

It’s time for your guide to today’s Wordle answer, featuring my commentary on the latest puzzle, plus a selection of hints designed to help you keep your streak going.

Don’t think you need any clues for Wordle today? No problem, just skip to my daily column. But remember: failure in this game is only ever six guesses away.

Want more word-based fun? TechRadar’s Quordle today page contains hints and answers for that game, and you can also take a look at our NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for our verdict on two of the New York Times’ other brainteasers.

SPOILER WARNING: Today’s Wordle answer and hints are below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to see them.

Wordle hints (game #1362) – clue #1 – Vowels

How many vowels does today’s Wordle have?

Wordle today has vowels in two places*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Wordle hints (game #1362) – clue #2 – first letter

What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?

The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is M.

M is a middling letter when it comes to starting a word. It sits 10th in the rankings, with 107 occurrences in the 2,309 answers.

Wordle hints (game #1362) – clue #3 – repeated letters

Does today’s Wordle have any repeated letters?

There are no repeated letters in today’s Wordle.

Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it’s still more likely that a Wordle doesn’t have one.

Wordle hints (game #1362) – clue #4 – ending letter

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

The last letter in today’s Wordle is O.

O is a middling ending letter. It ranks 12th in this regard, and finishes 58 Wordle answers in total.

Wordle hints (game #1362) – clue #5 – last chance

Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1362.

  • Today’s Wordle answer is a fruit.

If you just want to know today’s Wordle answer now, simply scroll down – but I’d always recommend trying to solve it on your own first. We’ve got lots of Wordle tips and tricks to help you, including a guide to the best Wordle start words.

If you don’t want to know today’s answer then DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER BECAUSE IT IS PRINTED BELOW. So don’t say you weren’t warned!


Today’s Wordle answer (game #1362)

NYT Wordle answer for game 1362 on a green background

(Image credit: New York Times)

  • NYT average score: 4.1
  • My score: 3
  • WordleBot’s score: 4
  • My start word performance: SMELL (144 remaining answers)
  • WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (65)

Today’s Wordle answer (game #1362) is… MANGO.

The thing about MANGO is that it tastes amazing, but you always have to consider the pleasure-versus-effort equation inherent to it.

It is simply impossible to just eat it in the way you can an apple or banana or peach.

Peeling it is fiddly and unless you’re skilled you lose about 30% of it in the process of doing so. It inevitably makes a massive mess over everything. Oh, and when you eat it you’ll almost certainly spill some on yourself too.

Great fruit, but what an ordeal.

Fortunately, solving today’s Wordle was not such a problem for me, although others seem to be struggling; it has an average score of 4.1 at the time of writing.

The only issues with it, to my mind, are that it contains two middling letters in the form of M and G, and that the O is in a relatively uncommon position at the end of the word.

These don’t seem big enough factors to make it a 4-plus answer, but who am I to question WordleBot’s data…

I thought I was in for a tough time when my random word generator gave me SMELL. Not only does it contain an M (I’d rather have had an R or T or C) but it gave me two Ls, when one would have been plenty.

And indeed it didn’t perform that well, leaving 144 words. But it did give me a yellow M, which would help later on.

The real star of my game, though, was my second guess. I figured the M would be most likely at the start (it’s a lot more common there than it is elsewhere) and otherwise packed the word with common letters: two more vowels plus R and N, to make MOURN.

MOURN was a “terrific choice” according to the ‘Bot, and cut my possible answers list to only one. But it did take me a while to find it.

I had a green M plus yellow O and N, and spent about 15 minutes moving those letters around before I realized the O might go at the end and everything slotted into place.

If only eating a mango were as simple.

How did you do today? Send me an email or let me know in the comments.


Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1361)

In a different time zone where it’s still Tuesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1361, too.

  • Wordle yesterday had a vowel in one place.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

  • The first letter in yesterday’s Wordle answer was T.

T is one of the most common starting letters in the game, beginning 149 of Wordle’s 2,309 answers. That gives it a ranking of fourth in the alphabet, behind only S, C and B.

  • There were no repeated letters in yesterday’s Wordle.

Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it’s still more likely that a Wordle doesn’t have one.

  • The last letter in yesterday’s Wordle was K.

K is much more common at the end of a Wordle answer than at the start, and in fact ranks ninth overall in this regard.

Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1361.

  • Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a path or to follow something.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1361)

NYT Wordle answer for game 1361 on a green background

(Image credit: New York Times)

  • NYT average score: 3.1
  • My score: 4
  • WordleBot’s score: 2
  • My start word performance: WIDTH (330 remaining answers)
  • WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (4)

Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1361) was… TRACK.

You thought Monday’s SPITE was easy? It was, but yesterday’s was easier still.

TRACK currently has an average score of 3.1, making it the equal second easiest so far in 2025 (level with CHORE and 0.1 behind REACH) and the equal eighth easiest ever.

Much of that is down to the results for several of the best Wordle start words. CRANE, WordleBot’s opener of choice, left a mere four possible solutions, but even better were CARTE and TRICE (which left three), and TRACE, CRATE and CARET (only two).

Given that popular openers such as TRAIN (just seven) and IRATE (10) were also helpful today, many people will have had a shorter-than-usual shortlist for the second guess.

It’s also worth noting that TRACK is a very common word that will have jumped into people’s brains sooner than some of the others.

Take the results for CRANE as an example: the ‘Bot and others were left with a choice of TRACK, TRACT, WRACK and FRACK. Which of those would you play next? Exactly.

Although that said, in the same situation I probably would have gone for a word like WAIST, which would have guaranteed me a three; playing TRACK here might have left a 50/50 between WRACK and FRACK, and I’m not one to take such risks.

The ‘Bot was, though, and scored a two – which is fair enough given that it’s had a bad time of it lately.

My game was the opposite. I started badly, with WIDTH leaving 330 options, and though my follow-up STARE cut that to six, I was never going to guess at this stage.

Instead, I played CRAFT – which was guaranteed to narrow down my shortlist of GRANT, GRAFT, CRAFT, TRACK, TRACT and TRAMP. It gave me the yellow C, yellow T, green A and green R that left only TRACK as a possible answer, so I had to settle for a four and miss out on all of the fun.



Wordle answers: The past 50

I’ve been playing Wordle every day for more than three years now and have tracked all of the previous answers so I can help you improve your game. Here are the last 50 solutions starting with yesterday’s answer, or check out my past Wordle answers page for the full list.

  • Wordle #1361, Tuesday 11 March: TRACK
  • Wordle #1360, Monday 10 March: SPITE
  • Wordle #1359, Sunday 9 March: GREED
  • Wordle #1358, Saturday 8 March: NAVEL
  • Wordle #1357, Friday 7 March: TROOP
  • Wordle #1356, Thursday 6 March: ALERT
  • Wordle #1355, Wednesday 5 March: SCRUM
  • Wordle #1354, Tuesday 4 March: CHECK
  • Wordle #1353, Monday 3 March: SPEAR
  • Wordle #1352, Sunday 2 March: DEITY
  • Wordle #1351, Saturday 1 March: HOVER
  • Wordle #1350, Friday 28 February: FUZZY
  • Wordle #1349, Thursday 27 February: LODGE
  • Wordle #1348, Wednesday 26 February: AWARD
  • Wordle #1347, Tuesday 25 February: DRYER
  • Wordle #1346, Monday 24 February: GLAND
  • Wordle #1345, Sunday 23 February: OTTER
  • Wordle #1344, Saturday 22 February: CREAM
  • Wordle #1343, Friday 21 February: CLOVE
  • Wordle #1342, Thursday 20 February: ROACH
  • Wordle #1341, Wednesday 19 February: MADLY
  • Wordle #1340, Tuesday 18 February: INDIE
  • Wordle #1339, Monday 17 February: TRAIL
  • Wordle #1338, Sunday 16 February: SUAVE
  • Wordle #1337, Saturday 15 February: CROOK
  • Wordle #1336, Friday 14 February: DITTY
  • Wordle #1335, Thursday 13 February: RUMBA
  • Wordle #1334, Wednesday 12 February: RAPID
  • Wordle #1333, Tuesday 11 February: SCORE
  • Wordle #1332, Monday 10 February: GOODY
  • Wordle #1331, Sunday 9 February: BONUS
  • Wordle #1330, Saturday 8 February: STEEP
  • Wordle #1329, Friday 7 February: SWATH
  • Wordle #1328, Thursday 6 February: PUPIL
  • Wordle #1327, Wednesday 5 February: PEDAL
  • Wordle #1326, Tuesday 4 February: TOOTH
  • Wordle #1325, Monday 3 February: REVUE
  • Wordle #1324, Sunday 2 February: CHORE
  • Wordle #1323, Saturday 1 February: RIVET
  • Wordle #1322, Friday 31 January: TOAST
  • Wordle #1321, Thursday 30 January: FALSE
  • Wordle #1320, Wednesday 29 January: UDDER
  • Wordle #1319, Tuesday 28 January: FEVER
  • Wordle #1318, Monday 27 January: SHUNT
  • Wordle #1317, Sunday 26 January: SUNNY
  • Wordle #1316, Saturday 25 January: CRISP
  • Wordle #1315, Friday 24 January: CREPE
  • Wordle #1314, Thursday 23 January: UPPER
  • Wordle #1313, Wedneday 22 January: REACH
  • Wordle #1312, Tuesday 21 January: ICING
  • Wordle #1311, Monday 20 January: SQUID

What is Wordle?

If you’re on this page then you almost certainly know what Wordle is already, and indeed have probably been playing it for a while. And even if you’ve not been playing it, you must surely have heard of it by now, because it’s the viral word game phenomenon that took the world by storm last year and is still going strong in 2024.

We’ve got a full guide to the game in our What is Wordle page, but if you just want a refresher then here are the basics.

What is Wordle?

Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day. You get six guesses, with each one revealing a little more information. If one of the letters in your guess is in the answer and in the right place, it turns green. If it’s in the answer but in the wrong place, it turns yellow. And if it’s not in the answer at all it turns gray. Simple, eh?

It’s played online via the Wordle website or the New York Times’ Crossword app (iOS / Android), and is entirely free.

Crucially, the answer is the same for everyone each day, meaning that you’re competing against the rest of the world, rather than just against yourself or the game. The puzzle then resets each day at midnight in your local time, giving you a new challenge, and the chance to extend your streak.

What are the Wordle rules?

The rules of Wordle are pretty straightforward, but with a couple of curveballs thrown in for good measure.

1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.

2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow.

3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray.

4. Answers are never plural.

5. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.

6. Each guess must be a valid word in Wordle’s dictionary. You can’t guess ABCDE, for instance.

7. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses unless you play on Hard mode.

8. You have six guesses to solve the Wordle.

9. You must complete the daily Wordle before midnight in your timezone.

10. All answers are drawn from Wordle’s list of 2,309 solutions. However…

11. Wordle will accept a wider pool of words as guesses – some 10,000 of them. For instance, you can guess a plural such as WORDS. It definitely won’t be right (see point 4 above), but Wordle will accept it as a guess.

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