If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for January 31, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is medium-hard; I got it in five. Beware, there are spoilers below for January 31, Wordle #956! 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.)

Two of the letters today are in our mnemonic. There’s one letter that isn’t but is also fairly common, while the final two are a bit more unusual.

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

It’s an adjective used to describe something that takes up a lot of space. 

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

There are no repeated letters today. 

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

Two, but one of them is that “sometimes” vowel.  

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 Y. 

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is BULKY.

How I solved today’s Wordle

TRACE and MINOR gave me nothing, so I tried PUSHY, which confirmed the U and Y and eliminated common letters S and H. I went with FULLY next, after which BULKY seemed like the most likely (and correct) solution.

Wordle 956 5/6

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩
⬛🟩🟩⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

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.

My family is weird about toasters. My stepmom and I long insisted that the toaster is a redundant and unnecessary appliance—you can toast bread under the broiler—while my father and boyfriend would much prefer access to the dedicated unitasker. My parents now have a toaster, however, and I’m not far behind. (The boys win this round.) Though I’ve been toasting all my bread in the air fryer, I recently had to admit to myself that it makes terrible toast.

Air fryers dry out toast

A toaster is a simple appliance that works by browning a slice of bread on both sides with direct, radiant heat. If it’s a decent toaster, this results in evenly toasted bread. An air fryer also uses direct, radiant heat, but only from the top down. This means that only one side of your toast is seeing that heat at any given moment. This is obviously solved by flipping the bread halfway through, which is a minor inconvenience, but not my main issue with air-fryer toast. My big gripe is those darned whipping winds.

Air fryers are great at getting food crispy because they are great at drying. The hot, circulating air efficiently removes moisture, which is why it’s such a good appliance for re-heating french fries (or making SPAM fries). It is, however, not great for toast, as those same hot gusts remove moisture from your bread, leaving it dry and cracker-like, instead of tender but toasted.

How you can toast bread in the air fryer

If you are determined to toast bread in your air fryer, slice it thick, choose a fairly moist bread, and keep a close eye on it. You can also lean into the textural aspect and make one giant crouton. No one could be mad at a giant crouton. I, however, will be purchasing a toaster. What about the broiler, you ask? Well, flipping halfway through really is inconvenient if you’re cooking something in addition to the toast.

The iPad Air is the thinnest—and one of the best—tablets Apple has to offer, and it’s going for a pretty good price right now. You can get the latest 5th generation iPad Air with 64GB of memory for $449.99 (originally $599.99) at Best Buy, which also includes three months of Apple TV. For reference, this is similar to the price Amazon sells the used version for. (Amazon was matching the price for this Best Buy deal, but they’ve already run out of stock.)

There are rumors that there is a new iPad Pro and iPad Air coming out in March, according to the Bloomberg. This could explain why we’re seeing these steep discounts at the moment. But as with all leaks and rumors, take it with a grain of salt.

On Jan. 23, Best Buy featured the iPad Air on its app for the same discounted price. It was only available for a couple of hours before it sold out. This wifi-enabled iPad Air with 64GB of internal memory was released in 2022. You’ll get an M1 system-on-a-chip (SoC), a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display, a 12MP front and back camera, as well as Touch ID through the tablet’s power button. It’s just a tenth of an inch thinner than the iPad Mini, but about twice as heavy. As PCMag described it in its “outstanding” review, the iPad Air offers many of the same features of the iPad Pro, like the M1 processor and second-gen Apple Pencil support, for almost half the price with the current discount. Just don’t expect the same camera, audio, or graphics as the Pro.

Rocksteady’s upcoming open-world co-op shooter Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League just can’t catch a break. The beleaguered game isn’t even out yet, and already it’s faced delays, lukewarm preview impressions, and pre-launch woes—including a major leak that spoiled the game’s story and a strange bug during its early access period this week that forced Rocksteady to take it offline and lock early buyers from the game’s main preorder bonus.

While it’s always possible Suicide Squad will stick the landing for its full launch on Feb. 2, this is one of the rockiest game releases we’ve seen since Cyberpunk 2077 dropped in 2020 and performed so poorly that Sony pulled the game from the PlayStation Store and numerous online retailers extended their refund policies so players could get their money back.

Nothing like that has happened to Suicide Squad yet, and unless things go really bad, it’s unlikely we’ll see such drastic measures taken by third-party storefronts. Still, between the development woes and early access issues, players may be looking to get a refund on their preorders for the game. Whether that’s possible will depend on where you purchased it.

Can I refund my Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League preorder?

For physical preorders, you’ll need to contact the store where you ordered the game and see if they accept cancellations. Most do, but the exact refund terms may vary between locations.

Digital preorders, however, are a bit messier, since each storefront has its own preorder cancellation policy. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is available on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, so let’s quickly go over the preorder cancelation and refund policies for each.

PlayStation Store preorder cancellation policy

Preorders made more than 14 days before a game’s release date can be refunded before the game launches as long as you have not downloaded the game files to your console. If you preordered fewer than 14 days before the launch date, you can request a refund up to 14 days after the game’s release, again provided you have not downloaded the game files. 

You can request a PlayStation Store refund here.

Xbox Store preorder cancellation policy

You can cancel any Xbox Store preorder up to 10 days before the release date. After that, you need to contact Xbox to request a refund. Xbox’s official support states refunds are not eligible for games for which you have “accumulated a significant amount of playtime,” though there is no specific hour count listed. That is to say, refunds are issued on a case-by-case basis, and it may take a few business days to get a ruling.

You can request an Xbox Store refund here.

Steam (PC) preorder cancellation policy

Steam preorders can be refunded at any time ahead of the game’s release, or up to two weeks after launch, as long as the game has been played for less than two hours. You can request a Steam refund here.

Epic Games Store (PC) preorder cancellation policy

Epic Games Store refunds are available for any unreleased game prior to its final release date—or up to 14 days after launch—as long as you have less than two hours total playtime. That includes early access playtime, as was offered with some Suicide Squad preorders. Any game that meets this criteria is self-refundable. Check the Epic Games Store help page for instructions.

Third-party storefronts preorder cancellation policy

Third-party key sellers like Fanatical, Humble Bundle, and Green Man Gaming also offer preorders on PC and console games, and any games purchased via one of these sites must be refunded through them as well. Their refund policies will differ, so check the links above to review their eligibility requirements. But in general, preorders are available for refunds within a few weeks of purchase and as long as the game key has not been redeemed.

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for January 30, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is medium-hard; I got it in five. Beware, there are spoilers below for January 30, Wordle #955! 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 the letter today are common. One is medium-common, and one is pretty unusual. 

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

To kick out, like from school. 

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

One of the letters is repeated, but in two different places in the word (not in a row).

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

Only one, but it appears twice.

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with E. 

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with L. 

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is EXPEL.

How I solved today’s Wordle

After CRATE, I went with ENJOY to see if I could get the E in the correct position and eliminate additional vowels. I guessed EBBED to test vowel placement and another common consonant, found the second E, and eliminated a bunch of common words that utilize the letters already knocked out. EX- seemed like a likely beginning, which led to EXCEL and—the answer—EXPEL.  

Wordle 955 5/6

⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟩⬛⬛🟩⬛
🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

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.

You can get Microsoft Office Pro 2019 for Windows and Windows 11 Pro together on sale for $79.99 right now (reg. $408). Windows 11 Pro includes support for biometrics login (for compatible devices), encrypted authentication, and Bitlocker device encryption. Windows 11 Pro also expands hardware compatibility with support for up to two CPUs with a max of 128 cores and up to 2TB RAM. This Microsoft Office 2019 key comes with the 2019 version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access. It’s a one-time purchase that can be installed on one computer. 

You can get Microsoft Office Pro 2019 and Windows 11 Pro together on sale for $79.99 right now (reg. $408), though prices can change at any time. 

Security cameras can get expensive, especially when you add in the cost of monthly subscriptions most of them charge. Eufy is one of the few brands that doesn’t force you to get a subscription plan with them to be able to use their cameras. Right now, Amazon is having a sale on Eufy products going up to 59% off. Here are the best ones.

The Eufy Security Kit

The Eufy Security Kit brings you the basics to get started. I got this kit about six months ago and have been enjoying not paying monthly services to use it. It brings the battery-powered Eufy Security Video Doorbell S220 2K (which can also be hardwired) and the Eufy Homebase hub, which connects the camera to the Internet via your home router. You can get the Eufy Security Kit for $99.99 (originally $199.99) after a 45% discount and a $10 clip-on coupon. This is one of the lowest prices I have seen for this kit.

• Eufy Security Kit for $99.99 (originally $199.99)

The Eufy Floodlight Cam E221

This Floodlight Cam E221 is cheaper right now than it was after last year’s biggest discount. You can get it right now for $89.99 (originally $219.99). As I’ve previously said, here’s what you can expect from this floodlight camera:

As with any smart floodlight, you’ll get to keep tabs on your property remotely with 1080p footage, motion detection, and bright LED lights. Arguably, the best thing you get from this floodlight camera (and any Eufy security camera) is the absence of monthly service fees, which can easily save you hundreds of dollars a year. However, a trade-off that can be good or bad, depending on your preferences, is that the lack of a monthly service means the device saves its footage on local storage rather than the cloud, which most of the competition uses. It has 4GB of eMMC memory, which can store up to 14 days of video. If that doesn’t seem like enough to you, know that you can expand the storage to 30 days for one device by signing up for their $2.99-per-month Basic Plan (which defeats the purpose of having no monthly fees).

The Floodlight Cam E221 works with Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands, allowing you to set up routines and cast videos to Amazon or Google devices (you must talk to the smart speakers, not the floodlight camera). However, it doesn’t support any other platforms like IFTTT or even other Eufy devices. It is very much a standalone product, but it allows you to connect to your home’s wifi and control it with the Eufy mobile app. And since it’s wired, there’s no need to recharge it.

• Floodlight Cam E221 $89.99 (originally $219.99)

The Eufy Security Outdoor Cam E210

If you’re looking for a single outdoor wired camera that is easy to install, waterproof, and has night vision, an automatic spotlight, and has no monthly fee, consider the Outdoor Cam E210 for $44.99 (originally $79.99). This is one of the lowest prices I have seen for this camera. You just need to install a magnetic mount and pop the camera in—and make sure you’re within 20 feet from a power outlet so the cable reaches it. You can choose whether to use local storage with an SD card or use the cloud-based feature for a fee. The cloud can also be used to back up your local storage. You can read all the features and specs from Eufy’s website.

• Outdoor Cam E210 for $44.99 (originally $79.99)

Eufy cameras are great for anyone looking to save money on their security system and cut monthly fees. These aren’t the best security cameras, but for their price and lack of subscription fees, they can make a solid addition to most homes for less money. You can read more about Eufy’s subscription fees, features, and security practices from our review here.

You can get a lifetime subscription to Prism Drive cloud storage on sale for $99.99 right now (reg. $1,494) that comes with 20TB of cloud storage. You can store thousands of files of just about any type—audio, images, video, and so on—and access them from any computer, tablet, or phone. Once your files are uploaded to Prism Drive, they’re protected with AES 256-bit encryption, so your data is shielded from potential hackers and stored safely in the cloud if anything ever happened to your physical devices.

While Prism Drive supports large files, there is a maximum limit of 10GB per file, so keep that in mind if you’re working with massive, high-quality video files. Most files are far under that limit, though.

Other cloud storage services don’t often support this much data, and they charge fees each month. It’s not uncommon to pay $10 a month for 2TB of storage from services like iCloud Drive, Google Drive, or Dropbox, which ends up being more expensive in just the first year than it costs to buy Prism Drive for life. You can get 20TB of Prism Drive cloud storage on sale for $99.99 right now, (reg. $1,494), though prices can change at any time.