NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1731, Monday, March 16
Find out what today's Wordle answer is plus get some hints to help you solve it
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A new NYT Wordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here.
Skip the hints and jump straight to today's column.
It's time for your guide to today's Wordle answer, featuring my commentary on the latest puzzle, plus a selection of hints designed to help you keep your streak going.
Don't think you need any clues for Wordle today? No problem, just skip to my daily column. But remember: failure in this game is only ever six guesses away.
Want more word-based fun? TechRadar's Quordle today page contains hints and answers for that game, and you can also take a look at our NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for our verdict on two of the New York Times' other brainteasers.
Article continues belowSPOILER WARNING: Today's Wordle answer and hints are below, so don't read on if you don't want to see them.

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been obsessed with Wordle for more than four years. He's authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar and its sister site Tom's Guide, including a detailed analysis of the most common letters in Wordle in every position and a guide to the best Wordle start words. He's also played every Wordle ever and only lost once and yes, he takes it all too seriously.
Wordle hints (game #1731) - clue #1 - Vowels
How many vowels does today's Wordle have?
• Wordle today has vowels in two places*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Wordle hints (game #1731) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is D.
D is the ninth most common starting letter in the game, so maybe slightly less likely than you might expect.
Wordle hints (game #1731) - clue #3 - repeated letters
Does today's Wordle have any repeated letters?
• There are repeated letters in today's Wordle.
Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it's still more likely that a Wordle doesn't have one.
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Wordle hints (game #1731) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is A.
A is a relatively common ending letter. It ranks 10th in this regard and today's game is one of 63 in which you'll find an A there.
Wordle hints (game #1731) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1731.
- Today's Wordle answer is a genre of art intended for stage, TV or film
If you just want to know today's Wordle answer now, simply scroll down – but I'd always recommend trying to solve it on your own first. We've got lots of Wordle tips and tricks to help you, including a guide to the best Wordle start words.
If you don't want to know today's answer then DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER BECAUSE IT IS PRINTED BELOW. So don't say you weren't warned!
Today's Wordle answer (game #1731)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 89
- My luck score: 50
- My start word performance: SANER (83 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (60)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Today's Wordle answer (game #1731) is… DRAMA.
Last month we had two games in a row that contained a repeated letter A: AWAKE (#1708) had an average score of 4.4 and GUAVA (#1709) was at 4.2. It should therefore be no surprise that DRAMA's average is currently at 4.2, implying that it's another tricky one.
Unlike those other two answers, it does at least feature slightly more common consonants around the As — R is very common, D is pretty common and M is not exactly uncommon, whereas the W, K and V in the previous words are all harder to find. I wouldn't be surprised if the average dropped a little over the course of the day, then.
I'm happy enough with my four, particularly as that's the same score achieved by the 'Bot. SANER was reasonably unlucky and still left 83 words, but TRAIL was worse still and could only cut that to 11.
It did turn both yellow letters green, at least, making it relatively easy to find the majority of those 11 options. I had CRACK, WRACK, FRACK, GRAPH, CRAZY, GRAVY and CRAMP on my list, but missed BRAVO, BRAVA, FRAUD and — typically — DRAMA.
CHOMP was picked to narrow down the words I did find, although it wasn't guaranteed to give me the solution in four. I needed a little luck here, then, because it could even still have left me a three-way choice. Fortunately, the M was the only letter to change color, meaning that DRAMA was the only possible answer.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1730)
In a different time zone where it's still Sunday? Don't worry — I can give you some clues for Wordle #1730, too.
- Wordle yesterday had vowels in two places*
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
- The first letter in yesterday's Wordle answer was G.
G is the eighth most common starting letter, featuring in 115 Wordle answers. It's often paired with an R to make GR--- or an L to make GL---, but I'm not revealing whether that's the case today.
- There were no repeated letters in yesterday's Wordle.
Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it's still more likely that a Wordle doesn't have one.
- The last letter in yesterday's Wordle was E.
E is the most common letter to end a Wordle answer by far. That's one of the reasons why many of the best start words, including SLATE, CRANE, CRATE and STARE, all end with one.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1730.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is a mark or rating.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1730)
- NYT average score: 3.9
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 98
- My luck score: 55
- My start word performance: SANER (69 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (31)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1730) was… GRADE.
If you boiled Wordle down to its constituent parts, its most common forms and structures, then you might well end up with GRADE. It has that classic consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel form, but more than that it has the -RA-E format.
This is the most common of all second-letter-plus-third-letter-plus-fifth-letter structures, with 20 examples among the original 2,309 solutions; though 20 may not sound like a high number, it's worth noting that there are 1,142 distinct variations of those combinations, and more than half of them only occur once.
The other notable thing about GRADE is that it's another repeated answer, having first appeared on Sunday, 4 July 2021 as the solution to game #15. No, I wasn't playing it back then, and I very much doubt that you were either — so the chances are it's a new one to us all.
It's not a difficult one, though, with its average score of 3.9 being, well, average. It took me four guesses (the 'Bot too), but given my skill score of 98/99 I'm reassured that I couldn't have done an awful lot more to better that.
SANER had cut the shortlist to 69, but CRAFT was unlucky and still left me with eight options: DRAPE, DRAKE, GRAZE, GRAPE, GRAVE, GRADE, BRAVE and BRAKE.
I found them all, and after a little deliberation decided that I needed to play PUDGY next; this wouldn't guarantee me the answer in four, but it would come close.
As it was, I finally had a little luck when the D and G turned yellow, meaning that GRADE was the only possible solution.
Wordle answers: The past 50
I've been playing Wordle every day for more than three years now and have tracked all of the previous answers so I can help you improve your game. Here are the last 50 solutions starting with yesterday's answer, or check out my past Wordle answers page for the full list.
- Wordle #1730, Sunday 15 March: GRADE
- Wordle #1729, Saturday 14 March: ANKLE
- Wordle #1728, Friday 13 March: EATEN
- Wordle #1727, Thursday 12 March: SMELL
- Wordle #1726, Wednesday 11 March: TEDDY
- Wordle #1725, Tuesday 10 March: SHOAL
- Wordle #1724, Monday 9 March: HASTY
- Wordle #1723, Sunday 8 March: LOBBY
- Wordle #1722, Saturday 7 March: VOGUE
- Wordle #1721, Friday 6 March: GUNKY
- Wordle #1720, Thursday 5 March: SHEEP
- Wordle #1719, Wednesday 4 March: THEFT
- Wordle #1718, Tuesday 3 March: LINEN
- Wordle #1717, Monday 2 March: SLIME
- Wordle #1716, Sunday 1 March: FLUKE
- Wordle #1715, Saturday 28 February: HYDRA
- Wordle #1714, Friday 27 February: DIZZY
- Wordle #1713, Thursday 26 February: LANCE
- Wordle #1712, Wednesday 25 February: SHRED
- Wordle #1711, Tuesday 24 February: BUYER
- Wordle #1710, Monday 23 February: ATTIC
- Wordle #1709, Sunday 22 February: GUAVA
- Wordle #1708, Saturday 21 February: AWAKE
- Wordle #1707, Friday 20 February: STANK
- Wordle #1706, Thursday 19 February: HOIST
- Wordle #1705, Wednesday 18 February: MOGUL
- Wordle #1704, Tuesday 17 February: SQUAD
- Wordle #1703, Monday 16 February: ROOST
- Wordle #1702, Sunday 15 February: SKULL
- Wordle #1701, Saturday 14 February: BLOOM
- Wordle #1700, Friday 13 February: MOOCH
- Wordle #1699, Thursday 12 February: SURGE
- Wordle #1698, Wednesday 11 February: VEGAN
- Wordle #1697, Tuesday 10 February: SCENE
- Wordle #1696, Monday 9 February: CELLO
- Wordle #1695, Sunday 8 February: EMBED
- Wordle #1694, Saturday 7 February: BLEAT
- Wordle #1693, Friday 6 February: GAVEL
- Wordle #1692, Thursday 5 February: SWOOP
- Wordle #1691, Wednesday 4 February: CHIDE
- Wordle #1690, Tuesday 3 February: WEIGH
- Wordle #1689, Monday 2 February: CIGAR
- Wordle #1688, Sunday 1 February: SPINY
- Wordle #1687, Saturday 31 January: ALLOT
- Wordle #1686, Friday 30 January: JUMBO
- Wordle #1685, Thursday 29 January: FLAKY
- Wordle #1684, Wednesday 28 January: CRUEL
- Wordle #1683, Tuesday 27 January: DUSKY
- Wordle #1682, Monday 26 January: FREAK
- Wordle #1681, Sunday 25 January: STRUT
What is Wordle?
If you're on this page then you almost certainly know what Wordle is already, and indeed have probably been playing it for a while. And even if you've not been playing it, you must surely have heard of it by now, because it's the viral word game phenomenon that took the world by storm in 2022 and is still going strong in 2026.
We've got a full guide to the game in our What is Wordle page, but if you just want a refresher then here are the basics.
What is Wordle?
Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day. You get six guesses, with each one revealing a little more information. If one of the letters in your guess is in the answer and in the right place, it turns green. If it's in the answer but in the wrong place, it turns yellow. And if it's not in the answer at all it turns gray. Simple, eh?
It's played online via the Wordle website or the New York Times' Games app (iOS / Android), and is entirely free.
Crucially, the answer is the same for everyone each day, meaning that you're competing against the rest of the world, rather than just against yourself or the game. The puzzle then resets each day at midnight in your local time, giving you a new challenge, and the chance to extend your streak.
What are the Wordle rules?
The rules of Wordle are pretty straightforward, but with a couple of curveballs thrown in for good measure.
1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.
2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow.
3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray.
4a. Answers are never plural.
4b. …unless they are. There have been a couple of plural words that don't end in an S or ES, including FUNGI (game #439), ATRIA (#1478) and TEETH (#1551). But S and ES plurals are definitely outlawed.
5. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.
6. Each guess must be a valid word in Wordle's dictionary. You can't guess ABCDE, for instance.
7. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses unless you play on Hard mode.
8. You have six guesses to solve the Wordle.
9. You must complete the daily Wordle before midnight in your timezone.
10a. All answers are drawn from Wordle's list of 2,309 solutions…
10b. …unless they are not. That's because the NYT has added in some of its own words which weren't in that list of 2,309 solutions. More will undoubtedly come over the next few years.
10c. Plus, the NYT has now started repeating answers that have already appeared in Wordle. We have no idea how often it will do this, so you'll need to be on your guard.
11. Wordle will accept a wider pool of words as guesses – some 10,000 of them. For instance, you can guess a plural such as WORDS. It definitely won't be right (see point 4a above), but Wordle will accept it as a guess.

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief, the latest in a long line of senior editorial roles he’s held in a career that started the week that Google launched (nice of them to mark the occasion). Prior to joining TR, he was UK Editor in Chief on Tom’s Guide, where he oversaw all gaming, streaming, audio, TV, entertainment, how-to and cameras coverage. He's also a former editor of the tech website Stuff and spent five years at the music magazine NME, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people’s fun. He’s based in London, and has tested and written about phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, games, TVs, cameras and pretty much every other type of gadget you can think of. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). He also enjoys live music, gaming, cycling, and beating Wordle (he authors the daily Wordle today page).
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