Today's Wordle hints and answer — solution #901, Thursday, December 7

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 nice and easy. According to the New York Times' WordleBot, the average player completes Wordle #901 in 3.3 moves in easy mode or 3.1 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, #900, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

So be warned: spoilers lie ahead for game #901. 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 repeated letter.
  • It features just one of the five most common Wordle letters (but it appears twice).

* 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 looking well rested.

What does today's Wordle start with?

The answer to Wordle #901 starts with S, 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 #901?

Drumroll, please — it's SLEEP.

Hello Wordlers. A middle-of-the-road Wordle puzzle today. On one hand, double letters can cause problems, but on the other, SLEEP is a word that plenty of people use on a daily basis. Plus, 'S', 'L' and 'E' all feature in the top eight most common Wordle letters.

But only 'E' is in the top five, which meant my start word of ORATE was blunted today. It revealed a single yellow 'E', leaving a massive 191 possible answers in play.

Suffice it to say, plenty of WordleBot's best Wordle start words left mine in the dust today. LEAST leaves 17 possible answers, while DEALT lowers that to 14. There are also plenty in single figures too, including SPLAT (5), TALES (4), SLATE (2) and PLATE (2).

Wordle #901

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

As regular readers will know, I try to shoehorn in the next five most common letters into my second answer. That list is composed of 'L', 'I', 'S', 'N' and 'C'.

I struggled to find an efficient way to get lots of these characters in for a few minutes, before trying SPELD without really expecting it to be accepted. 

But accepted it was, and it was a doozie: Both 'S' and 'E' went green, while 'P' and 'L' turned yellow. That meant the word had to be SLEP?, SLE?P or S?EPL.

With that in mind, the answer was obvious. I typed in SLEEP and won the game in three.

Hopefully you had the same luck as me today, Wordlers. See you tomorrow.

Yesterday's Wordle answer

Reading this in a later time zone? The Wordle answer for game #900 was WOMAN.

Hello Wordlers, and welcome to puzzle number 900! I'm a relative latecomer to the game, having only been playing it since taking on the column last year. But well done if you've been playing from day one (especially if you have a 500+ winning streak!).

I began the puzzle, as ever, with ORATE, which contains all five of the most common Wordle letters. That gave me both vowels right away, albeit both in yellow, leaving 71 possible answers still in play.

Scrolling through WordleBot's best Wordle start words confirms it could have been a far worse start, but it could equally have been better. CLONE leaves 60 answers, while TRAIN more than halves it to 24. If you played TALON, just eight answers would be available to you. 

Wordle #900

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

On my second go, I like to prioritize the five next most common letters in the game: 'L', 'I', 'S', 'N' and 'C'. So CLOAK felt like a decent play.

And it was, even though it didn't look like it at the time. 'A' went green, and 'O' was ruled out in a second slot. While that technically meant it could sit in last position, in reality the word had to be ?O?A?.

I thought NOMAD was a good choice next, and it was, giving me the lovely combo of three greens and a yellow — which is, to all intents and purposes, four greens. The word had to be ?OMAN. 

Only one option was left. I typed in WOMAN and won the game in four.

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 #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 #882: THINK
  • Wordle #881: TARDY

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