February 2024

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for February 9, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is medium difficulty; I got it in four. Beware, there are spoilers below for February 9, Wordle #965! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.

How to play Wordle

Wordle lives here on the New York Times website. A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight, your local time.

Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)

Ready for the hints? Let’s go!

Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?

We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)

They’re almost all common letters today! Three of them are in our mnemonic, and there’s one letter that isn’t but is also fairly common. No unusual letters today.

Can you give me a hint for today’s Wordle?

A cadaver.

Does today’s Wordle have any double or repeated letters?

There is one double letter in today’s Wordle.

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

There is one vowel today.

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with S.

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with F.

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is STIFF.

How I solved today’s Wordle

After ARISE and TOUCH, I guessed that the S and T had to be combined either as ST- at the beginning of the word or as -TS at the end. I took a chance on STILL with a repeated letter and that left the most likely solution as STIFF.

Wordle 965 4/6

⬛⬛🟩🟨⬛
🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

A primer on Wordle basics

The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word.

Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word:

Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)
Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)
Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)

With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.

The best starter words for Wordle

What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:

CRANE
TRACE
SLANT
CRATE
CARTE

Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:

SALET
REAST
TRACE
CRATE
SLATE

Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.

How to win at Wordle

We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.

The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.

One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.

Wordle alternatives

If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:

Wheeldle, which lets you play one puzzle after another
Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.
Waffle, which shows you several five-letter words, scrambled in a grid; you play by swapping the letters around until you solve.
Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.
Squabble, in which you play Wordle against other people with a timer running. You take damage if you spend too much time between guesses; winner is the last one standing.
Antiwordle, in which you are trying not to guess the day’s solution. You’re required to reuse any letters that you (oops) guessed correctly, so the longer it takes you, the better you are at the game.

The cheapest cars to operate in the U.S.

Rather than a single, comprehensive ranking, the report has separate lists for conventional gas-powered vehicles, and electric vehicles (EVs). There are also separate rankings for replacement parts, and car registration fees by state.

There are a lot of data contained in the report, but the focus here will be on the cheapest conventional vehicles to operate in the U.S., based on fuel efficiency and auto insurance costs. The top-10 from Zutobi’s report are listed below. Note that two of the 10 cars specify a model year that evidently was more cost efficient than others:

Honda Fit 2018 4cyl 1.5L Automatic

Hyundai Accent 4cyl 1.6L Automatic (AV-S1)

Honda Civic 4Dr 4cyl 1.5L Automatic

Mini Cooper Convertible 3cyl 1.5L Automatic (AM-57)

Toyota Yaris 2020 4cyl 1.5L Manual 6-spd

Toyota RAV4 4cyl 2.5L Automatic (S8)

Toyota Corolla 4cyl 1.8L Automatic

Nissan Rogue 3cyl 1.5L Automatic (AV-58)

Honda CR-V AWD 4cyl 1.5L Automatic

Subaru Forester AWD 4cyl 2.5L Automatic (AV-57)

Key takeaways to consider when shopping for a new car

When Lucas Waldenback, the co-founder of Zutobi, compiled and analyzed the data from his company’s recent report, several themes emerged that could come in handy the next time you’re shopping for a new car:

Compact and subcompact cars tend to be the most affordable to drive

This is hardly surprising, but the data from the report supports the idea that the fuel efficiency and maintenance costs of compact and subcompact cars make them some of the cheapest cars to operate, Waldenback says.

Hatchbacks and sedans are solid mid-size options

If you need a slightly larger vehicle but still have a small budget, Waldenback suggests considering hatchbacks and sedans. While they have more room for passengers and cargo, they’re still relatively compact compared to SUVs, minivans, and trucks, and tend to be more fuel efficient.

Consider the model, instead of where it was manufactured

While some people don’t give much thought to where a vehicle is made, others have strong opinions on the subject—firmly believing that domestic cars are always a better value than foreign cars, or vice versa. But given that there’s a mix of domestic and foreign manufacturers on the list of the cheapest cars to operate, Waldenback says that the emphasis should be on the efficiency of individual models, rather than their origin. He recommends that prospective buyers look into the specifics of each model, “considering factors such as reliability, maintenance costs, and fuel efficiency.”

What about electric vehicles?

There are separate sections in the Zutobi report that rank the cheapest EV models to operate, as well as a breakdown comparing the costs of operating gas vs. electric cars. For even more information, check out the hidden costs of EVs and why it might makes sense to hold off on buying a used EV—at least for now.

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Today’s Wordle Hints (and Answer) for Friday, February 9, 2024