Hooked on Wordle? Then you’re not alone. Millions of people are playing this simple but addictive word game every day, then sharing their results with friends via social media.
But not everyone can play every day. You might be too busy for even a 10-minute game, or maybe you’re offline somewhere for 24 hours or more. Or possibly you just forgot.
Either way, once you’ve missed a day, you can’t revisit it except via the Wordle Archive, which lets you play older puzzles in the order they originally appeared.
So what do you do if you missed a game and just want to see today’s Wordle answer out of curiosity? Don’t worry — we can help. We’re committed Wordle addicts here at Tom’s Guide, so we’ll be updating this article every day with the correct answer.
But be warned: spoilers lie ahead for game #249, so only read on if you want to know today’s Wordle answer! And please don’t peek beforehand so you can beat your friends without really trying; that’s just cheating.
Have you had trouble working out today’s answer? You’re not alone. Here’s why Wordle is close to losing me.
Today’s Wordle answer #249, Wednesday, February 23
So, what is today’s Wordle answer for game #249?
Drumroll please… It’s TROVE.
After a couple of fairly straightforward answers in the form of THORN and OTHER, this one a little trickier. It’s not exactly an obscure word, but it’s also not one that will necessarily spring straight to mind.
According to Word and Phrase Info, it’s down in 17,227th place — so less common than THORN and a lot less common than OTHER. But I’d wager it’s a lot more widely known that CAULK or TACIT, for those of you still smarting from those curveballs. In fact, Tom’s Guide’s own Katie Mortram was so incensed by those two that she decided Wordle is close to losing her.
Anyway, back to TROVE. It only has one meaning, and fans of fairy tales, Tolkien and pirates will probably be very familiar with it.
Here’s what Merriam-Webster has to say about it:
- DISCOVERY, FIND
- a valuable collection: TREASURE
My only other observation on today’s Wordle answer is that there’s something of a theme developing in terms of the letters used, because for the third day in a row the word includes T, R and O. So if you’re using one of the best Wordle start words that includes those three letters, you should have had plenty of success recently.
All the same, if anyone at the NYT is reading this then maybe mix it up a little tomorrow and give us a word with some different letters, eh?
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 #248: THORN
- Wordle #247: OTHER
- Wordle #246: TACIT
- Wordle #245: SWILL
- Wordle #244: DODGE
- Wordle #243: SHAKE
- Wordle #242: CAULK
- Wordle #241: AROMA
- Wordle #240: CYNIC
- Wordle #239: ROBIN
- Wordle #238: ULTRA
- Wordle #237: ULCER
- Wordle #236: PAUSE
- Wordle #235: HUMOR
- Wordle #234: FRAME
- Wordle #233: ELDER
- Wordle #232: SKILL
- Wordle #231: ALOFT
- Wordle #230: PLEAT
- Wordle #229: SHARD
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 7 p.m. ET each day, but 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 such as the ultra-stressful (but very good) Squabble, the four-Wordles-at-once Quordle and the excellent Absurdle. We also like the geography-based Wordle clone Worldle, the Star Wars-themed SWordle and the math-based Mathler.