Today’s Wordle answer is a lot less taxing than yesterday’s, for me at least, but it’s hardly downright easy either. WordleBot says people are solving it in 3.6 guesses, which puts it at just under the average for the game, and there’s no sign of ‘Wordle 336 X’ trending on Twitter yet.
But you still might find some hints to be helpful. Wordle is a deceptively simple game and failure is only ever six guesses away.
I’ve played every Wordle so far and lost only once, so I’ve got plenty of Wordle tips and tricks to share. I’ve also analyzed every Wordle answer to look for patterns and got some further advice for you there. And if you’re new to the game you should also take a look at my What is Wordle? guide.
Each day, I’ll be updating this article with tips to help you find today’s Wordle answer. And if the hints aren’t enough, I’ll even give you the solution, in case you’re really stuck or just haven’t had time to complete today’s puzzle. I’ve also included my analysis of yesterday’s puzzle, #335, in case you’re reading this in a different time zone.
So be warned: spoilers lie ahead for game #336. Only read on if you want to know today’s Wordle answer!
Today’s Wordle answer #336 — hints to help you solve it
My first tip is that you should use one of the best Wordle start words for every game you play. But if you want some more specific clues to today’s Wordle answer then here you go:
- It uses one vowel*
- There are no repeated letters
- It starts with a very common starting letter
* By vowel I’m meaning A, E, I, O, U. There are other letters that are sometimes considered to be vowels, depending on how they are used.
Those hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today’s Wordle answer. If not, then you can read on for a bigger clue; or, if you just want to know the answer, then skip down further for that.
Alright then, here’s my final hint: Today’s Wordle answer is a fragment.
OK, it’s time to scroll down for the answer…
Today’s Wordle answer #336, Saturday, May 21
So, what is today’s Wordle answer for game #336?
Drumroll please — it’s SCRAP.
Today’s answer neatly reflects just how variable Wordle can be. I really struggled with yesterday’s puzzle (see below) and nearly lost my streak, but solved this one in three guesses and about 10 minutes.
Admittedly, the NYT’s WordleBot tool says it’s an easier one too; people are apparently solving it in an average of 3.6 guesses compared to 4.5 yesterday. Nor is there any sign of ‘Wordle 336 X’ trending on Twitter (though ‘Wordle 335 X’ still is).
It’s a common word, with several definitions including a fragment of something (for instance food), the action of throwing something away and a fight. And it ranks at 5,659th in Word and Phrase Info‘s list of the most frequently used English words.
So far, so simple. Nor are there any uncommon letters here. P is the least widely used of the five, but as I show in my analysis of every Wordle answer, it still features in nearly 16% of all games, ranking 15th overall in terms of frequency and a slightly higher 12th when used at the end of a word.
The other four letters are all in the top 10 and the S is by a huge distance the most common letter to find at the start of a Wordle answer — which is one reason why my choice of the best Wordle start words is STARE.
STARE proved a good opener today, giving me a green S and yellow A and R.
According to WordleBot, I had narrowed it down to seven possible answers already — that’s 40 fewer than I had at the same stage yesterday! These weren’t too tricky to identify, either, as the R could only go in one of two positions and the A in one of three.
Essentially, I had a choice of words with the format S-RA-, S–AR or SA–R. Technically there were other options that might have worked, such as an A at the end, but I quickly saw there were no answers that fit that pattern.
The words I came up with were SPRAY, SCRAP, SAVOR, SUGAR, SOLAR and SONAR. WordleBot told me afterwards that the one I missed was SCRAM, which could have caused me some problems later but fortunately didn’t.
Four of the six answers I found finished in R and five had A as the second-to-last letter — so it made sense that I stuck to that pattern. I played SOLAR and crossed my fingers.
WordleBot wasn’t particularly happy with my choice, telling me I should have played APRON to narrow it down to just one answer. But at the same time, it also revealed that APRON isn’t an actual Wordle answer, whereas SOLAR is. (By which I mean that though it’s accepted as a guess, it doesn’t feature among Wordle’s 2,309 answers). Go figure.
Though SOLAR was wrong, it confirmed the A in fourth position and narrowed down the options to three possibles: SCRAP, SPRAY or SCRAM.
I didn’t know that at the time, of course, as I’d missed SCRAM. Instead, I thought I had a straight 50/50 here. But it wouldn’t have changed my thinking anyway — as SCRAM has the same pattern as SCRAP, but ends with a slightly less common letter, I would have played SCRAP next anyway.
I had a 50/50 yesterday and got it right, and I got lucky again today when my guess proved to be correct. A 2/6 would have been nice after yesterday’s 6/6, but though it wasn’t to be I’m happy with a 3/6 here.
Let me know how you did in the comments or via email — and if you have already got in touch then apologies for the delay in replying, you will get a response soon!
Yesterday’s Wordle answer #335, Friday, May 20
Reading this in another time zone where it’s still Friday? The Wordle answer for game #335 was GAMER.
So, where to start here? Probably with the fact that this one was really, really, really tough. Didn’t have any problems with it? Well done — because I certainly did.
The NYT’s WordleBot tool says people solved it in an average of 4.5 guesses, and ‘Wordle 335 X’ was trending on Twitter very early in the day. And once again, it’s the ‘too many possible answers’ aspect that makes it tricky.
As a word, it’s both common and uncommon. It only ranks at 21,393rd in Word and Phrase Info‘s list of the most frequently used English words — which makes it seem pretty obscure — but I think that’s more to do with the sources used to compile that database. GAMER is certainly a common word in Tom’s Guide’s world, and indeed, everyone who plays Wordle is a gamer!
On the plus side, there are no really uncommon letters here. As I show in my analysis of every Wordle answer, the M and the G, at 16th and 17th overall, are not exactly frequently found in Wordle answers, but there’s a big difference between letters of their ilk and the really uncommon ones like X and J. G is still used in 13% of all games, for instance.
It’s not that unusual at the start of a word, either — it’s the 8th most frequently found there, and indeed started yesterday’s answer too (see below).
If anything, it’s the fact that the letters are all pretty common that causes the problem here.
Anyway, as always I started with one of the best Wordle start words, STARE, and today that gave me a yellow A, R, and E.
According to WordleBot, I had narrowed it down to 47 possible answers, and I could certainly see lots of them right away. The question was which way to go with them. Ending ER was one obvious option, and I could see that I could then play the likes of LAYER, CAPER and, indeed, GAMER.
But I also found lots of possible answers that had R second: CREAK, BREAD, FREAK, FREAK, DREAD, DREAM, CREAM etc. Or there were some that started with an R: RELAY, REGAL, REPAY. Or I could have played CLEAR.
In short, I had (too many) options. In the end I decided to go with CREAK, partly because I was really hoping it wouldn’t be an -A-ER game and partly because C and K both featured in lots of the possible answers I’d found.
This proved a fairly poor choice. WordleBot didn’t hate it, awarding me 71% for skill and telling me that I’d cut the options to 22, but in hindsight I should have played something that started narrowing down those -A-ER words.
I still had to establish that was the format, so I played LAYER next and was entirely unsurprised when I turned the A, E and R green. I now knew the scale of the problem and set about identifying every possible answer.
At this stage, Wordle said I had nine possible answers. I found 11, so a couple must be Wordle guesses but not answers. Either way, with only three guesses remaining, I was in trouble.
The obvious thing to do was to play a throwaway word that I knew wouldn’t be right but that would narrow down the options significantly. I tried that with FUDGE, which theoretically ruled in or out WAFER, WAGER, GAZER, GAMER and FADER.
This helped a bit — but once the G turned yellow I knew I was in trouble. That’s because I still had five answers to pick from and only two guesses left.
With GAMER, GAZER, WAGER, PAGER and EAGER all possibles (though WordleBot told me afterwards that PAGER wasn’t an actual answer, just a guess), I played GAWPS to try to further narrow things down. I was desperately hoping the W would turn yellow and I’d know the answer was WAGER, but no such luck.
That left me a 50/50 for the final guess: GAMER or GAZER. I didn’t know for sure that both were definite Wordle answers and even if I had, it wouldn’t have helped me choose between them. M is a much more common letter in the game than Z, so I ultimately went with that, but I could easily have got it wrong.
Fortunately for me, I guessed correctly and found this Wordle answer on the final guess. I didn’t play it particularly well — I should really have started narrowing things down soon — but I’m sure I won’t be the only one who struggled here. Anyone playing on hard mode may well have found it very tough.
Let me know how you did in the comments or via email.
Previous Wordle answers
If you’re looking for a list of older Wordle answers, we can also help. Here’s a list going back 20 games.
- Wordle #335: GAMER
- Wordle #334: GLASS
- Wordle #333: SCOUR
- Wordle #332: BEING
- Wordle #331: DELVE
- Wordle #330: YIELD
- Wordle #329: METAL
- Wordle #328: TIPSY
- Wordle #327: SLUNG
- Wordle #326: FARCE
- Wordle #325: GECKO
- Wordle #324: SHINE
- Wordle #323: CANNY
- Wordle #322: MIDST
- Wordle #321: BADGE
- Wordle #320: HOMER
- Wordle #319: TRAIN
- Wordle #318: HAIRY
- Wordle #317: STORY
- Wordle #316: FORGO
Wordle tips — how to win at Wordle
The best tip I can give is to use one of the best Wordle start words. I can’t stress this enough — it makes a massive difference.
Without one, you’ll be scrabbling around in the dark trying (and possibly failing) to find the right five letters (or possibly fewer) out of the 26 possibles. But clever people (not me) have done the math and identified the best start words based on both frequency in English and frequency among Wordle answers. So use them!
Secondly, think about combinations, especially at the start and end. Some options are far more common than others — for instance, SH, ST, CR and CH all feature frequently.
Vowels obviously need consideration too: not all Wordle answers will contain more than one, but plenty do, and some even have three. A good Wordle start word should have used a couple, but if they don’t feature you might well want to try another one or two on your next go.
Plus, remember the Y — this sometimes acts as a surrogate vowel, and is easy to forget. It also appears at the end of plenty of words.
Finally, try out possibilities. So long as you don’t press ‘Enter’ you can try possible answers to see how they look on screen. Put in likely letters plus any you know are definitely in the word, then mentally change one to the other available options. This technique has worked for me multiple times, and it’s particularly helpful when the word in question is not an obvious one (like FJORD or ISLET).
What else should I know about Wordle?
Wordle launched in October 2021, but only grew in popularity towards the end of the year, then went viral in January as the world woke up to its charms. In fact, it proved so successful that The New York Times bought Wordle for a seven-figure sum in early February and the game is now part of NYT Games.
It’s played via the NYT Games website here, and is entirely free. Both the NYT and the game’s creator, Josh Wardle, have stated that it will remain free. Some people think that Wordle has got harder since the NYT takeover, but it really hasn’t.
Wordle is a simple game in which your challenge is to guess a five-letter word in six attempts. Each time you guess, you’re told which of your chosen letters are in the target word, and whether they are in the right place.
If a letter is in the correct place, it turns green. If it’s in the word but in the wrong place, it turns yellow. And if it’s not in the word at all, it turns gray.
There’s just one puzzle a day, and everyone completes the same one. It resets at midnight each day. You’ll find more information about the game in our What is Wordle? article.
Wordle Alternatives
If you’re eager for another game to pass the time while you wait, we’ve put together a list of the best Wordle alternatives. We also have a page on today’s Quordle answers, because it’s our favorite. That said, we also love the new Redactle, which is like Wordle crossed with Wikipedia — so maybe give that a go next.
Other Wordle alternatives to try are the ultra-stressful (but very good) Squabble and the soccer-themed, Who Are Ya?. We also like the geography-based Wordle clone Worldle, the Star Wars-themed SWordle and the math-based Mathler.
We’d also recommend checking out the excellent Heardle, which is like Wordle for pop music. There are certainly plenty of options once you’ve finished Wordle for the day!
