If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for February 16, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is easy; I got it in three. Beware, there are spoilers below for February 16, Wordle #972! 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 all common letters today! 

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

As a noun, a hidden collection of something. (It can also be a verb.)

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

There is one repeated letter today. 

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

Two vowels 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 H. 

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is STASH.

How I solved today’s Wordle

ARISE and TOUCH gave me most of the information I needed. I guessed that T was most likely the second letter, which left A as the third and only the first unknown. Looking at the remaining available letters, it seemed more likely that S was repeated, leaving STASH as the best answer. 

Wordle 972 3/6

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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.

You can get an A-Frame or V-Frame BirdBike on sale for $699.97 right now (reg. $2,299) through February 21 for Presidents’ Day. The A-Frame bike is taller and better suited for riders who are 5’8″ and taller, while the V-frame is better for riders 5’0″ to 5’10”. Both bikes have the same 500W motor and max weight of 265 pounds. The BirdBikes have a range of up to 20 miles with its engine, or you can increase the range to 50 miles by activating pedal-assist mode. The embedded IP65-waterproof dash displays your distance traveled, battery life, and speed. The BirdBike app also controls the security system that activates a 120-decibel alarm if someone tries to take your bike.

You can get a BirdBike on sale through February 21 at 11:59 p.m. PT, though prices can change at any time.

• BirdBike e-Bike (Gray V-Frame) on sale for $699.97 (reg. $2,299.99)

• BirdBike e-Bike (Black A-Frame) on sale for $699.97 (reg. $2,299.99)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2024 — The Departments of Agriculture and the Interior today announced a proposal to strengthen Alaska Tribal representation on the Federal Subsistence Board (FSB), which manages subsistence use on federal lands and waters in Alaska. For thousands of years, subsistence practices have been immensely important for Alaska Native communities, and remain deeply intertwined with their lifeways, food security, and cultures.

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for February 15, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is easy; I got it in three. Beware, there are spoilers below for February 15, Wordle #971! 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?

An accessory and the (partial) name of a famous British horse racing event. 

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 A.

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with T. 

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is ASCOT.

How I solved today’s Wordle

ARISE and TOUCH gave me all five letters, so I just had to figure out how to arrange them. Since I knew the word started with A, this was easier to narrow down. I thought it likely that there was an SC- or ST- pair and guessed ASCOT. 

Wordle 971 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.

While I typically shy away from promoting outright evil hacks here at Lifehacker (unless it’s Evil Week), I’d like to tell you about a gadget that can be used for mild evil: the Flipper Zero. Despite its toy-like looks, this pocket-friendly multitool can be used for all kinds of hacking and penetration testing. It gives anyone, even newbs, an easy-to-understand way to interact with the invisible waves that surround us, whether they’re RFID, NFC, Bluetooth, wifi, or radio. It’s like a hacker Swiss army knife that you can buy for less than $200.

You can use a Flipper Zero to control your TV, cheat on your Nintendo, replace your work ID, open your hotel room door, and more. I’m sure you could see where the “evil” part could come in—it was certainly enough for the Canadian government, which recently moved to ban them because they can make it easier to steal certain cars. On the other hand, a Flipper Zero is just a tool, and its ability to commit crimes is way overstated. Here are some of the shady—and not so shady—things you can do with a Flipper Zero.

Is the Flipper Zero legal?

Despite its potential to be used for illegal purposes, and despite what the Canadian government thinks of them, the Flipper Zero is legal in the United States. But it seems to be making some people here nervous too: A shipment of 15,000 Flippers was seized by customs in 2022, but later let through. In April 2023, South Dakota Fusion Center alerted authorities across the country about the potential use of the device by domestic terrorists, and Amazon banned sales of the Flipper Zero on their site for being a “card-skimming device.”

How does a Flipper Zero work?

The Flipper Zero is basically a two-way remote control that can receive, read, store and transmit a variety of wireless signals. There are plenty of other devices that can do some of these things, but the Flipper puts them all together. Plus, it’s easy to understand—anyone could pick one up and use it to read the NFC code on a credit card, or use it to turn off the TV at their neighbor’s house. The Flipper Zero’s gamified presentation and ease of use could be seen as a means to demystify the technology that surrounds us, or it could be seen as a way of giving people with limited knowledge a powerful tool to cause chaos. It’s all about how you use it.

What can you do with a Flipper Zero?

This is anything but a comprehensive list of things you can do with a Flipper Zero—there are a lot of possibilities—but here are some common ways the device can be used.

Get your own (before they’re banned, probably):

• Flipper Zero $169

Use it as a universal remote

You can use the Flipper Zero to replace an infrared remote control, so your stereo, TV, air conditioner, and more can all be controlled from the same device. The Flipper uses “brute force” to send its library of IR codes wherever you point it, so you could use it to control devices with an IR remote that’s in range—unless they’re paired to their specific remote control. So you could use it to change the channel of the TV at a bar, or turn down your neighbor’s stereo at 2AM. (You shouldn’t, but you could.)

Take your pet’s temperature

If you’ve had a microchip implanted in your pet, a Flipper can read your pet’s identification number and take its temperature if it’s a thermo chip. Just hold it near where the RFID chip is inserted for a few seconds and bam—your pet’s number. If you don’t know where the chip was inserted, you can “scan” your pet with the Flipper and find it too. It cannot locate a lost pet, but neither can any scanner.

Clone keyless entry cards

If you have an ID that opens a door, you can (probably) clone it with a Flipper Zero, whether it’s your work badge or a hotel room key. That sounds like a security nightmare, but you have to have the original key to clone, so you can’t open any hotel room lock, just the one you have a keycard for already—and they’ll make you another copy at the front desk anyway.

Read your credit card information

A Flipper Zero can read credit cards. This is the functionality that got the device banned from Amazon, but it’s really not as bad as it seems. If you scan a card with a Flipper, it can read the card number and sometimes the date, but it can’t transmit the information or read the CVC number, so you won’t be able to use it to make purchases or empty someone’s bank account.

Crash smartphones

You can use a Flipper Zero to crash nearby Androids by flooding them with Bluetooth messages. It’s not exactly easy—you need to load a developer build of third-party firmware in order to run the “crash my enemy’s phone” app—but it’s possible.

Update: 12/15/2023 This used to be possible on iPhones, but in the latest iOS update, iOS 17.2, Apple has removed the Flipper’s ability to overload iPhones with spam Bluetooth requests. You can still send the requests, but it won’t cause the target to shut down. No word yet on a similar patch for Android phones.

Open a Tesla charging port

You can’t use a flipper to steal a Tesla, but you can use it to troll a Tesla owner by opening their car’s charging port (assuming this vulnerability hasn’t been fixed.)

Open garage doors or security gates

This one is iffy. Some older garage doors and security gates can be opened with a device like this. Newer models have better security and use rolling codes, so storing a code on a device like this wouldn’t work.

Ring someone’s doorbell from a distance

This will only work with some kinds of wireless, usually older doorbells—Ring or Nest doorbells are probably safe—and you need to first read the doorbell to get the right frequency, but if you do that, you can play ding-dong-ditch from a distance.

Cloning Amiibos

Nintendo’s Amiibos are basically RFID chips surrounded by figurines. You can use a Flipper to scan and emulate the code and feed it back to your Nintendo Switch. Or you can use this database of Amiibo codes and skip the middleman to unlock in-game extras without buying a vinyl doll.

Explore the invisible world around you

Many people who purchase a Flipper are no doubt disappointed by its limitations—it’s not a universal hack-anything device. It is, though, a tool for checking out all the invisible fields around you. You can use it to see where your wifi signal is weakest, or discover exactly how often your iPhone is shooting IR waves at your face. You can use it to test the security of all your devices—doorbells, garage doors, locks, etc.—to make sure no one else can use a Flipper to mess with you.

Play video games

Update: 12/15/2023 The just-released Flipper Video Game Module is a Raspberry Pi-powered add-on that turns the Flipper Zero from a hacking/testing tool into a miniature game system. The Video Game Module adds motion sensing through a gyroscope and accelerometer, a controller port, a USB port, and a video-out jack, so you can use your TV as a Flipper Zero display. Read more of the details here.

Things a Flipper Zero can’t do

There’s a lot of misinformation about the capabilities of the Flipper Zero. It’s not a pocket device that can instantly hack anything, and there are safeguards in place to prevent the most obvious illegal uses. (This is not to say that Flipper Zero itself couldn’t be hacked to offer darker possibilities, of course.) So here are some evil things the Flipper can’t do—at least right out of the box.

Steal a car

Despite TikTok videos that suggest otherwise, you can’t use a Flipper to open and start a car, even your own. Keyless entry cars open when the fob sends a radio signal to a receiver in the car. That’s a piece of cake for a Flipper, except that all but the oldest cars with keyless entry use rolling codes that change every time you use one. So you might be able to use it one time, but that’s it. Still, setting up a single-use car door opening is an easy way to impress your friends. (There may be exceptions, however.)

Change the prices of gasoline

 The TikTok videos that show a Flipper user changing the prices on a sign at a gas station are fake.

Steal money from an ATM

Obviously, you can’t empty an ATM with a commercially available handheld device.

Change traffic signals

This one is complicated, because you could use a Flipper to control a set of external infrared LED lights that mimics an Opticom—a device that can change some traffic signals—but it’s not really the flipper that’s changing the signal, it’s the LED lights, and you could use something else to control them, too.

Open someone else’s hotel room door

While the Flipper can store and transmit the RFID signals needed to open a locked hotel room door, it can’t do it without physically holding the card near the device first. So you can’t open all the doors in a hotel—unless the establishment has a master keycard that you somehow get your hands on. But then why would you need the Flipper?

Is the Flipper Zero evil?

The Flipper Zero is not evil. If anything, for evil hacking, it’s overrated. The Flipper is a collection of tools bundled together in an attractive package—it’s useful and cool, but it’s not going to let you break into a bank vault or steal someone’s identity. While a nefarious person could use a Flipper to do a limited set of nefarious things, they could also use a hammer to smash windows instead of driving nails. In other words: It’s just a tool. The evil comes from how you use it.

I recently had one of those lunch conundrums where I only had tumbleweeds rolling through my fridge, and a few mismatched condiments. I didn’t have the means to make an egg sandwich, but I did have the awkward remains of a cheese board—jams, nuts, cheese, mustard. I admit, I had my doubts, but taking a risk sometimes pays off. I present to you: the cheese board sandwich.

It was a cold sharp cheddar and blackberry jam sandwich that enlightened me. (Sure, I was beside myself with hunger, but it was truly damn good.) Distinctly different from a grilled cheese sandwich, this one had only cold or room temperature components. The cheddar was tangy, salty, and robust, and the jam was sweet, earthy, and mellow. With a spongy ciabatta holding it all together, each giant bite I took was better than the last. 

I was initially surprised at the combination, and then realized, oh, of course—any combination that you would eat in small bites on a cheese board is going to absolutely rock in large portions as a whole sandwich. What is a cheese board anyway, but a selection of ingredients that combine to make the perfect, most flavorful, most texturally appealing mouthful? Instead of daintily balancing each offering on a tiny, weakling cracker, I say, cram it all between two big slices of bread.

A good sandwich only requires a balance of flavors

The combinations are only limited by your choice of cheese board accessories. Like a cracker, your sandwich bread is a vehicle for any flavorsome bites you can fit on top—cheese, jams, tapenades, honey, or mustard. Add slices of fruit, fresh or dry, along with nuts, pickles, or olives. 

I toasted up a couple slices of ciabatta, but you can use a baguette, bagel, or regular old soft wheat slices. Now it’s time for the most difficult and most liberating part: pairing flavors. Think about combining two or three parts of the five flavors: salty, acidic, bitter, sweet, and umami. Try slices of salty parmesan with sliced sweet pears and candied pecans in your sandwich. How about a swipe of black olive tapenade with ripe figs and manchego? Layer slabs of blue cheese with toasted walnuts and dried apricots on a roll and drizzle it all with honey. 

Upon first glance, you might not have the most perfectly matched meal in your fridge, but don’t give up. I bet you can make a great sandwich with components that make no sense on paper. When you think about it, the cheese board sandwich makes perfect sense. And yet, there are a lot of notions restricting what makes a sandwich a sandwich. Does it need meat? Does it require cheese or lettuce? Are nuts allowed? It seems folly to look for limitations. If it makes a good nibble on a cracker, then it’ll make a fantastic meal between two slices of bread.