If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for February 21, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is easier; I got it in three. Beware, there are spoilers below for February 21, Wordle #977! 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! Four 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?

To construct or make larger. 

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

No repeated letters today. 

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

There are two vowels. 

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with B. 

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with D. 

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is BUILD.

How I solved today’s Wordle

With ARISE and TOUCH, I got only two vowels, but given the placement of the I, I guessed that the UI might be a combination. BUILD uses other common letters. 

Wordle 977 3/6

⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

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.

Chrome version 122 is finally rolling out, and Google says it will bring quite a few changes to the browser, including an AI writing assistant and few other tweaks. The update started rolling out recently, so if it’s not available for you yet, hold tight.

To try out the new AI-powered writing assistant, start composing a message. After typing in a few words, select Help Me Write. Google says the feature should help you create longer and properly formatted messages, but as I noted above, I haven’t had a chance to test out its usefulness just yet. Google also hasn’t said which version of its Gemini AI is powering the tool. That’s an important bit of information, as there are some stark differences between the kind of results you’ll get with the free version of Gemini and Gemini Advanced. This new tool is part of Google’s ongoing play to expand its AI offerings across devices, and we’ll no doubt see more Gemini-powered features in future Chrome updates, too.

Chrome 122 will also bring Read Aloud to everyone on Android that uses Google Chrome. This feature will read out any text on the screen that you’ve selected, which should come in handy for users with vision impairments. Chrome 122 will also offer a bit of a performance boost thanks to changes to Safe Browsing, Google’s attempt to point out dangerous websites before you visit them. You’ll still be notified that a website isn’t safe, but HowtoGeek notes that the feature won’t contribute to page load times anymore.

To check for updates in Chrome, simply press the three vertical dots at the top of the browser, select Help, then About Google Chrome. If any updates are available, you’ll see them there.

When it comes to the best noise-canceling earbuds, none do it better than the Bose QuietComfort Ultra, which you can get right now for $249 (originally $299). I can say this is the best price they’ve been after checking my usual price tracking tools. (If you’d rather have noise-canceling over-ear headphones, check out our roundup to determine the best fit for you.)

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds are great at tuning out low and high frequencies alike. The included ear tip options make it easier to ensure a snug fit, which is crucial for noise canceling. After improving on 2022’s Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II, the third generation of the QuietComfort earbuds from 2023 improved some aspects of an already very good pair of earbuds. The active noise cancellation (ANC) technology is the same, but Bose added spatial audio (they call it immersive audio), which is a way of hearing the world around you with your earbuds on. They also added AptX Adaptive codec, so that you can hear high-quality streamed media better.

Like most Bluetooth earbuds these days, the earbuds have touch controls, letting you tap or swipe to control your media. They also have an IPX4 rating, which means you can splash water or sweat on them without worrying they’ll get damaged. You can expect to get four to six hours of charge time after a full charge and 12 to 18 hours from the case, depending on usage. They take about two hours to fully charge.

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 20, 2024 — Today, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the Biden-Harris Administration is investing nearly $500 million from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to expand work on the USDA Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy to reduce risk to communities, critical infrastructure and natural resources from the nation’s ongoing wildfire crisis, which is exacerbated by climate change.

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for February 20, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is medium difficult; I got it in four. Beware, there are spoilers below for February 20, Wordle #976! 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.)

Three of today’s letters are in our mnemonic, and the other two are also fairly common. No unusual letters today.

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

Used to light a fire—or the title of a sporting competition. 

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

No repeated letters today. 

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

One vowel today. 

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with M. 

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with H. 

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is MATCH.

How I solved today’s Wordle

After ARISE and TOUCH, the only thing left to guess was the first letter, since it seemed likely that the combination of the solved letters was -ATCH rather than -TACH. There were a handful of possibilities—LATCH, PATCH, CATCH, BATCH, MATCH—so I guessed LATCH first because L is a common letter. MATCH seemed like the best next choice and the correct answer. 

Wordle 976 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.

Reducing energy costs is a top priority for homeowners these days—not to mention having an efficient and reliable home energy system. Home heating is often a high energy user, so having an efficient system for that can reduce your energy costs significantly. Imagine if you could combine efficient heating with power production. You can: it’s called a micro combined heat and power (mCHP) generator.

Where did mCHP generators come from?

Originally designed for use in manufacturing, combined heat and power generators are single appliances that can generate power from propane at the same time as they generate heat and hot water. The system can be self-contained so that it doesn’t rely on electricity from the grid and can include solar and battery storage, making it resilient during power outages as well. A micro CHP or mCHP generator is the same idea, but scaled for individual homes.

Micro CHP generators are extremely efficient

A mCHP generator captures excess heat produced by its generator engine and uses it to produce usable heat and hot water for a home. According to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, mCHP generator technology can reach 93% efficiency—about 60% better than the average efficiency of power coming from the grid. Even at its worst, an mCHP generator will work at about 35% energy efficiency, which is 2% better than average grid performance.

Micro CHP generators are more expensive to install

Since mCHP generators usually require retrofitting to add to an existing system, installing them is likely more expensive than other options. The simplest installations can start at around $5,000 and the largest, most complicated installations can cost around $40,000 as compared to between $4,000 and $25,000 for a traditional whole-house generator. The cost of installation is heavily dependent on the area you live, the size of your system, and the complexity of the system, including the volume of hot water you need and the area of your home you need to heat.

How to calculate your energy savings with mCHP

It’s not easy to predict even the average savings that an mCHP system can produce because of the variable cost of fuel, the variable low temperature regionally, and the efficiency (or lack thereof) of your current system. However, taking into account your current energy usage (found on your electric bill as kilowatt hours (kWh)) as well as the amount and cost of the fuel you currently use for heating if you use natural gas, oil, or other fuel, and then comparing that usage against the average expected fuel usage for an mCHP generator sized for your home, you can get some idea of your potential savings. If your mCHP system saves you an average of 15% of energy expended, you can expect around 15% savings on your bill. However, the savings when using an mCHP system is heavily dependent on the circumstances of your particular system, so it’s important to calculate your needs in conjunction with an mCHP specialist to make sure it’s actually a savings for you.

How to find a contractor that can install an mCHP generator

The Combined Heat and Power Alliance lists their members, many of whom are manufacturers and contractors that specialize in mCHP generators. That could be a good starting point to search for a reliable installation specialist for your job. You can also try looking at local natural gas utilities, as they sometimes partner with installers that specialize in equipment that uses natural gas, like mCHP generators. Since the technology is still emerging in the U.S., you might have to do some digging to find a contractor. Make sure to read reviews and ask lots of questions before choosing one, to make sure you’re hiring someone who has experience installing mCHP systems.

Installing mesh wifi in my home was a game changer. I no longer had to work on top of my router, or worry about wifi calls dropping off in my kitchen. My home, built with the same ethos as a Faraday cage, a home that had challenged any tech the cable company sent my way, had finally been conquered. It went so well, I convinced every person I know that mesh would solve their coverage problems at home—and usually, I was right. Mesh wifi points came down in price, and I bought a few more to bolster my signal. I had not, until shiny new mesh routers arrived from Google, considered that there was better wifi to be had. I was, as usual, wrong.

What is mesh wifi?

First, let me explain what mesh wifi is, for the uninitiated. Wifi generally comes into your home through a modem. In all likelihood, there is a cable somewhere that comes in from outside, and ultimately dead ends at your modem, which you either own or lease from your internet provider. You could plug your computer into your modem using a cat5 cable, and get the same internet speeds the modem does, which should be the speed you pay for from the internet provider, since there’s nothing diminishing that signal yet.

These days, modems are also usually a router, although you could have a separate device—and a router is what makes wifi possible. A router takes that signal from the modem, and sends it out horizontally as wifi. Each router has a different range, but they are hampered by obstructions like appliances or other giant pieces of metal. Thus, devices like repeaters and extenders were invented, which you could put elsewhere in your house, and it would pick up that signal and extend it, but in doing so, it diminished the signal. So you had “less” wifi, but over a larger space.

Mesh is a different idea—it’s a series of points, one of which is connected to your modem, and it redistributes wifi where it’s needed most at any time. These points create a network, so you gain a greater area of coverage. There is some debate about what these devices are called. Technically, they’re called routers, but once in place in your home, you’d consider them wifi “points.”

With a newer system, you won’t need as many points

I upgraded to newer Google Nest wifi routers (Nest WiFi Pro, $319.99 for a three-pack), and went from five points to three, instantly. In fact, I likely don’t need all three. The coverage is fantastic (2200 square feet vs. 1500 square feet for the original Google wifirouters I was replacing), penetrating into every possible space with no regard for obstructions.

Aside from newer hardware internally, which will cover more area, new routers use the newer Wi-Fi 6 standard (802.11ax). If your routers are more than three years old, they’re likely just Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac). Wi-Fi 6 has much faster throughput speeds so it can transfer data much more efficiently. This can help with network congestion and even reduces your power consumption, which is a real bonus. Wi-Fi 6 does this using a method not unlike mesh—it looks at what your household is trying to do with wifi, and then assigns channels to each device, putting wifi power where it’s needed, and pulling it from channels that don’t.

There’s boosted capacity, too, not just at 6Ghz, but at 2.4Ghz radio frequency service, which is the frequency servicing most of your smart-home devices. Additionally, Wi-Fi 6 can use predictive technology to figure out when you’ll likely need wifi, and appropriate battery for it, which is going to save your battery life overall on devices that need it. This should translate to longer battery life for video doorbells, cams, and anything else wireless relying on batteries. 

Newer mesh devices are more secure

Wi-Fi 6 devices support WPA3 encryption (the latest data security standard), and much beefier password protection. Wifi signals don’t broadcast over a broad spectrum and go directly to clients, which eliminates a huge risk exposure, and 256-bit encryption algorithms work to make it harder to hack in. 

Mesh networks generally update themselves, which means you’re getting cybersecurity updates as well. To provide even more security, mesh systems make it easy to spin up a guest network, sometimes more than one, and change the password or issue temporary passwords. This keeps your home network insulated from guests having access to devices on your home network and poking around. 

It’s not a painful process to make the switch

No matter how excited I was by better wifi, I was reluctant to make the switch. Even though I live alone, I have a bazillion smart home devices, four hubs and my coffeemaker connected to my current system, and the idea of reconnecting them all gave me palpitations.

I’m happy to relay that the process was unexpectedly smooth. I remained in the same ecosystem (Google) and decided to keep my SSID and see if that would help. It took longer to mount the new routers than it did to re-associate all my devices. All mesh systems will now have an associated app that will allow you to control the wifi, and that app will help you set up the new system. It won’t feel different from setting up a new smart home device. 

Once my wifi reconnected with the new modems, I began to get notifications about various hubs and devices, and in each case, I just had to go in and reauthorize the connection. If the SSID or password had changed, I’d have needed to change the settings. As reluctant as I am to admit it, it turned out to be a good experience overall; it forced me to clean house and delete devices that were long offline or had been excised from my place.

Recommended products

• Vilo Mesh Wi-Fi System: $115.99

• Eero 6+ : $109.99

• ASUS ROG Rapture GT6 2-Pack: $429.99

• ASUS ZenWiFi AX XT8 2-Pack: $321.14

• Ubiquiti Networks UniFi 6+ Access Point: $129

Ultimately, the switchover was a good thing. Remember back when I explained above how your signal, coming into your modem, is the strongest signal possible, because there’s nothing to diminish it yet? The signal is diminished as it’s broadcasted out via wifi, depending on where you are, but there are speed tests that you can access to see how your wifi speeds compare to what you’re paying for. The cable company doesn’t have control over it once it leaves your modem—this is just for you. I was really pleased with how the speed jumped, not just on downloads, but on uploads. The newer devices simply did a better job of broadcasting the signal from the modem.

In the weeks since the switchover, I’ve noticed less streaming pauses, less outages of my smart home devices and Zoom has not dropped out once.