Happy New Year’s Eve Wordle players! Before 2025 dawns, Newsweek is here to help you with today’s puzzle.
Wordle is a popular word game where five letters make up a new word every day. Originally perfected during the COVID lockdown by software engineer Josh Wardle, who simply wanted a game “for me and my partner to enjoy,” he released Wordle to the general public in October 2021.
It quickly developed a dedicated following across the English-speaking world and was eventually bought by The New York Times in 2022.
How to Play
People have six attempts to work out the word of the day. Within these six guesses, you use a designated color system to find out which letters are present in that day’s chosen word.
If a Wordle user guesses a letter that’s in the right place, that tile will turn green. If the letter appears in the word, but not in the place the user has guessed, it will turn yellow. If the letter does not appear in the word at all, then the tile will turn gray.
There are some tactics to boost your chances of solving the puzzle in as few tries as possible. You should opt for some of the most-used letters in your first guess, Erhan Aslan, an expert in applied linguistics at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, previously told Newsweek.
It’s important to pick a strategic starting letter, such as commonly used vowels like “e,” or “a,” Aslan said, adding that consonants like “r” and “t” are also a good bet.
“Choosing a word that starts with ‘q,’ ‘z,’ ‘j.’ or ‘x.’ for instance, may not be the best choice. As you get more feedback after a few guesses, users need to draw on some knowledge of phonics to narrow down or eliminate some words that they might be thinking,” he said.
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Newsweek has put together five hints to help you figure out Tuesday’s puzzle.
Hint #1: Today’s answer is a noun.
Hint #2: It contains two vowels.
Hint #3: There are no repeated letters.
Hint #4: “L” is the first letter of Tuesday’s word.
Hint #5: Think of a primate native to Madagascar.
Wordle #1,287, Answer for Friday, December 27
Today’s answer is “Lemur.”
The noun is defined as “any of various arboreal diurnal or nocturnal, chiefly arboreal primates (superfamily Lemuroidea) of Madagascar and the Comoros Islands that usually have a longish muzzle, large eyes, very soft woolly fur, and a long furry tail and that feed on fruit and plant parts (such as leaves, flowers, and seeds) and sometimes insects and small animals.”
Wordle updates every day at midnight, at which point the next puzzle becomes available. Newsweek will be back tomorrow with another round of hints and tips for each new game.
Players who would like something to keep themselves busy while they wait can have a go at other word-based puzzles such as Typochondria and Spellspire.