Today's Wordle Hints and Answer: Help for June 11, #1088
Here are some hints, and the answer, for Wordle No. 1088, for June 11.
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, and generational studies Credentials
Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.Today's Wordle answer could be a tough one. If you're struggling to guess it, read on. We've ranked all the letters in the alphabet by popularity if you want to use this list to decide on your best start words.
Every day, we'll post hints and then the answer for the current day's Wordle, just in case you need it.
And do you play the NYT Connections game? We've got today's Connections answer too.
We've also got some tips for Strands, a new game from the Times that's still in beta.
Today's Wordle hintsWarning: If you keep reading, you'll see the Wordle answer for Tuesday, June 11, puzzle No. 1088. That could be a devastating spoiler for some players. But if you just need the answer -- maybe you're on your last guess and just don't want to see an 900-game streak go poof -- keep reading.
Wordle hint No. 1: RepeatsToday's Wordle answer has no repeated letters.
Wordle hint No. 2: VowelsThere is one vowel in today's Wordle answer.
Wordle hint No. 3: Start letterToday's Wordle answer starts with the letter S.
Wordle hint No. 4: Rare letterThe second letter in today's Wordle answer is fairly rare in the English language. (See our ranked list of letters.)
Wordle hint No. 5: MeaningToday's Wordle answer is the past tense (and past participle, for you English majors out there) of a word that means to move back and forth. It's often used in baseball when a strike is called on a player.
Here comes the spoiler: Today's Wordle answer is SWUNG.
Yesterday's Wordle answerYesterday's Wordle answer, June 10, No. 1087, was MANGA.
Past Wordle answersJune 6, No. 1083: ETHER
June 7, No. 1084: MELON
June 8, No. 1085: HENCE
June 9, No. 1086: CROWD
Everyday Wordle tipsI've written a lot about Wordle -- from covering its 1,000th word to my list of the best starter words to a helpful two-step strategy to news about controversial word changes. I've even rounded up what I learned playing the hit online word puzzle for a full year. So if you're rethinking your need for the actual answer, you might try tips from one of those stories.
Still need a starter word? One person told me they just look around and choose a five-letter object that they've spotted to use as their starter word -- such as COUCH or CHAIR. I tend to stick to starter words that have the most popular letters used in English words. I like TRAIN as a starter, though I have a friend who uses TRAIL. I've read that people use the financial term ROATE, but I like to use words I actually know.
What is Wordle?If you read this far, you know how to play. You have six chances to guess a five-letter word, and the game gives you feedback as to whether the letters you've guessed are in the puzzle or not, and if they're in the same spot where you guessed they are. The New York Times bought the game from creator Josh Wardle for seven figures in 2022. Wardle famously created the game for his partner, and let her narrow down the 12,000 five-letter words in the English language to just 2,500, creating the database of answers. It was convenient, too, that he has a name that plays off "word."
A Times spokesperson told me it lists the very first Wordle as appearing on June 19, 2021, and the paper celebrated the game's 1,000th word on March 15. Spoiler: That 1,000th word was ERUPT. As in, "Dad will erupt if the Wordle is so tough he loses his streak."
There are other fun games in the Times Games stable. My latest addiction is Connections, which I think is trickier than Wordle. This is the game where you look at a grid of 16 words and try to put them into four groups of related words. Sometimes the relationships between the words are pretty out there -- like the time when it was four words that all began with rock bands, such as "Rushmore" and "journeyman." (Connections got a little sassy on April Fools' Day with an all-emoji puzzle. Some gamers did NOT find that funny.)
Read more: Today's NYT Connections answer and hints
Spelling Bee is a popular Times game too. And there's a new game that's still in beta, Strands, which I'm trying to master.
