Oh boy. This one is going to hurt. Today’s Wordle answer is a real tough one that I am fairly sure will have people pulling out their hair in search of the solution.
It’s too early for ‘Wordle 292 X’ to be trending in the U.S. — some people are still trying to solve yesterday’s puzzle there — but it’s already trending in the U.K. and I’d be amazed if it wasn’t doing so everywhere in a few hours.
I’ve already seen players losing their streaks and complaining about the word and I sympathize, because it’s a really, really difficult one. With that in mind, you might find a few tips to be helpful; after all, a Wordle 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. 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.
So be warned: spoilers lie ahead for game #292. Only read on if you want to know today’s Wordle answer!
Today’s Wordle answer #292 — 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 two vowels*
- There are no repeated letters
- It ends with a very common ending 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 would like you to dabble in a new area.
OK, it’s time to scroll down for the answer…
Today’s Wordle answer #292, Thursday, April 7
So, what is today’s Wordle answer for game #292?
I won’t keep you waiting any longer — it’s FORAY.
As I said above, ‘Wordle 292 X’ is trending on Twitter already. Then again, it seems like it’s trending on Twitter every day. Has the game got harder? Have people forgotten how to play? Or are they just less patient? It’s probably all of those things, but there’s no doubting this is a tricky one.
The first complaint is that people don’t know what it means, but the fact is that it’s not that obscure a word.
According to Word and Phrase Info (opens in new tab), it’s the 10,467th most frequently used word in English, which makes it way more common than yesterday’s answer, COMMA, let alone a word like SWILL or CAULK. (No, we have never forgotten you, CAULK, and we never will!)
That does seem quite surprising, given that anything in or around the top 10,000 is a pretty well used word, but I can only guess that a lot of the references are in dusty old textbooks, because it’s not exactly an everyday word.
What does it mean? Well, here’s how Merriam-Webster (opens in new tab) dictionary defines it:
- a sudden or irregular invasion or attack for war or spoils
- an initial and often tentative attempt to do something in a new or different field or area of activity
Not being a military man, I’m far more likely to use it in its second sense — for instance, “I made a foray into the kitchen and attempted to cook dinner for the first time in months.”
So that’s what it means, but even outside of its relative obscurity, it’s a difficult word due to its construction. F is not a common Wordle start letter and though Y is a very common ending, it doesn’t often come after an A. In fact, AY only features at the end of 13 Wordle answers in total.
My game didn’t go too badly, with all that in mind. As always, I played my favorite Wordle start word, STARE, and today this gave me a yellow A and a yellow R. The next couple of goes were spent working out where they went; first I played RANCH, which didn’t help very much, then followed up with MORAL.
That did help, in that it gave me three green letters in the middle of today’s Wordle answer. But it still took me at least 15 minutes of staring at the screen and mentally working through possibilities in my head before I got it.
A post-game look at the excellent Wordle Solver (opens in new tab) confirms that nothing else could have fitted at that stage — unless BORAX or KORAI are Wordle answers. So I found today’s Wordle answer in 4/6 guesses, but lots of other people seem to have failed it entirely. Let me know how you did in the comments or via email (opens in new tab).
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 #291: COMMA
- Wordle #290: NATAL
- Wordle #289: SHAWL
- Wordle #288: FEWER
- Wordle #287: TROPE
- Wordle #286: SNOUT
- Wordle #285: LOWLY
- Wordle #284: STOVE
- Wordle #283: SHALL
- Wordle #282: FOUND
- Wordle #281: NYMPH
- Wordle #280: EPOXY
- Wordle #279: DEPOT
- Wordle #278: CHEST
- Wordle #277: PURGE
- Wordle #276: SLOSH
- Wordle #275: THEIR
- Wordle #274: RENEW
- Wordle #273: ALLOW
- Wordle #272: SAUTE
- Wordle #271: MOVIE
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 (opens in new tab), 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.
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 pages on today’s Quordle answers and today’s Octordle answers.
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.
And, there’s the unofficial Wordle Unlimited, which lets you play as many games per day as you like, and adjust the number of letters in the word, from four to a crazy 11. We’d also recommend checking out the excellent Heardle, which is like Wordle for pop music.