Today's Wordle hints and answer — solution #1,362, March 12

Most players find uncovering today's Wordle answer a little tricky. According to the New York Times' WordleBot, the average player will complete Wordle #1,362 in 4.1 moves in easy mode, or 4.0 if playing by 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, #1,361, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

So be warned: spoilers lie ahead for game #1,362. 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.
• Two characters are among 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 packed with vitamins.

What does today's Wordle start with?

The answer to Wordle #1,362 starts with M, 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 #1,362?

Drumroll, please — it's MANGO.

Hello Wordlers. Today's puzzle took me a bit longer than it should have time-wise, because I couldn't figure out how my four confirmed letters fit as I went into my final go.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I began, as ever, with ORATE, which contains all five of the most common Wordle letters. Today, it revealed two yellow ones — 'A' and 'O' — to leave 73 possible answers, according to WordleBot.

As you'd expect, the Bot's best Wordle start words improved on that no end. SANER leaves 28 answers, while GRATE lowers that to 24. If you opened with TONER, only ten answers would be left in play.

I like to play as many of 'L', 'I', 'S', 'N', and 'C' as possible on my second turn, and the best I could see today was VOCAL. It didn't seem to do much, merely ruling 'O' and 'A' out in different spots, but I was down to 21 possible answers, according to WordleBot*.

I tried WAGON next, and I lucked out. Not only did 'A' go green, but I added two more yellow characters: 'G' and 'N'.

Only one answer was left, but it took me a while to figure it out. I knew that 'O' had to sit in either third or last position, but neither seemed likely.

Eventually it hit me: MANGO! I typed it in and completed the puzzle in four moves.

Hopefully you managed it faster today, Wordlers. See you tomorrow.

* These were: BAYOU, KAZOO, YAHOO, KABOB, AGONY, AMONG, AUDIO, ADOBO, BANJO, PANKO, AXIOM, ADIOS, MANGO, WAGON, ANNOY, AMINO, MASON, MAMBO, AMIGO, NABOB and AXION.

Yesterday's Wordle answer

Reading this in a later time zone? The Wordle answer for game #1,361 was TRACK.

Hello Wordlers. Nothing too taxing here, given TRACK contains three of the five most common Wordle letters.

That meant that my usual opener of ORATE was especially effective, turning 'R' and 'A' green, while flipping 'T' yellow. Just 13 possible answers were left in play, according to WordleBot*.

The Bot's best Wordle start words were even stronger. TRAIN leaves seven answers, while CRANE lowers that to four. If you opened with TRACE or CARET, only two options would be left over.

I try and play a mix of 'L', 'I', 'S', 'N', and 'C' on my second turn, and I was able to optimize that today with TRAIL.

It was, as WordleBot described it, a "wonderful choice". But with only 'T' going green, I still had five possible options going into my third turn.

I beat those 5-1 odds by playing TRACK, which was the right answer. Lucky, as it could also have been TRANS, TRASH, TRAMP or TRACT.

Hopefully you were also lucky today, Wordlers. See you tomorrow.

* These were: TRACK, TRACT, TRANS, TRASH, TRAMP, CRAFT, DRAFT, GRAFT, GRANT, TRAIN, TRAIT, TRAIL and TRAWL.

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 #1,361: TRACK
• Wordle #1,360: SPITE
• Wordle #1,359: GREED
• Wordle #1,358: NAVEL
• Wordle #1,357: TROOP
• Wordle #1,356: ALERT
• Wordle #1,355: SCRUM
• Wordle #1,354: CHECK
• Wordle #1,353: SPEAR
• Wordle #1,352: DEITY
• Wordle #1,351: HOVER
• Wordle #1,350: FUZZY
• Wordle #1,349: LODGE
• Wordle #1,348: AWARD
• Wordle #1,347: DRYER
• Wordle #1,346: GLAND
• Wordle #1,345: OTTER
• Wordle #1,344: CREAM
• Wordle #1,343: CLOVE
• Wordle #1,342: ROACH
• Wordle #1,341: MADLY

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 it was actually started earlier 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 on into another 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 Strands answer

If you've solved Wordle and need help with other games from the New York Times, we suggest you check out our guide on today's NYT Strands answer, which will give you some hints as well as the full answer to today's puzzle.

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!