To help even the playing field a bit, we write these Wordle guides every day, and will continue to do so for as long as people keep playing Wordle. If you’re stuck on today’s solution, read on for our Wordle hints of the day and see if they spark any brainwaves. Failing that, scroll below the video to reveal today’s Wordle answer, and a definition for those who want it. Looking for today’s solution? Check out the Wordle answer for Tuesday 14 February!
Wordle hint: Clues for the Jan 31 Wordle word today
Before we reveal the Wordle answer for today, why not see if you can figure out the solution with the help of our handy hints below:
Our first Wordle hint today is:
Today’s Wordle word has a consecutive double letter.
Our second Wordle hint today is:
Reverse the first three letters, and you have a fantasy creature.
Our third Wordle hint today is:
Today’s Wordle word relates to being annoyed or angry. Still having some trouble finding today’s Wordle solution? To preserve your win streak, scroll down to reveal today’s Wordle answer, and a description of the word’s meaning.
What is today’s Wordle answer on Jan 31?
It’s time to reveal the answer to today’s Wordle. The word is… CROSS. A fairly straightforward word today, but that’s not to say it was an easy solve. Consider, for example, the fact that players who quickly figured out the “OSS” would still have to find the answer out of “CROSS”, “DROSS”, “GROSS”, “FLOSS”, “GLOSS”… Just because a word is simple and well-known, doesn’t necessarily make finding it easy in Wordle.
What does the Wordle answer today mean?
“CROSS” can be used in multiple ways and contexts. At its simplest, a “CROSS” is an object or mark formed by two intersecting lines (like a + or x). You can also use it as a verb: to “CROSS” your arms, for example. But as I alluded to in our third Wordle hint above, you can also use “CROSS” as a synonym for angry or annoyed: “I’ll be very CROSS if you spoil today’s Wordle answer to anyone else!”
How to share your Wordle results without spoilers
Wordle has a built-in method of sharing your results in a spoiler-free way, so that those you sent it to don’t see today’s Wordle word itself, only the colours in your grid to show how well you did. To share your Wordle results, simply complete (or lose) today’s Wordle, and then wait a moment for the statistics panel to appear on your screen. Then tap the “SHARE” button. On PC this will simply copy the text into your clipboard, so you can then paste the text anywhere you wish, whether it’s a private message or a status update on social media. On iPhone or Android, when you tap the “SHARE” button you’ll have the option either to copy to clipboard, or to share the results directly to another app on your phone (such as WhatsApp or Twitter). Using the built-in sharing feature of Wordle is a much nicer way of sharing your results than potentially spoiling the answer to those who haven’t yet had the chance to play today’s Wordle themselves. So we highly encourage you to use it!
How to play Wordle
Wordle is wonderfully simple. The aim is to guess the correct five-letter word within six guesses. After each guess, the letters of your chosen word will highlight green if they’re in the correct place, yellow if they’re in the wrong place, or grey if they don’t appear in the word at all. Using these clues you can start to narrow down the correct word. Head over to the Wordle site to try it for yourself!
How did Wordle begin?
Wordle began life as a little family game created by software engineer Josh Wardle. He created the game so that he and his partner could play a fun little word game together during the pandemic, and they quickly realised that there was something quite special in this simple little guessing game. So after a bit of refinement, Wardle released it to the public on his website, Power Language. The game was released in October 2021, and by the end of the year the game had two million daily players. It became a viral hit, thanks in large part to the ease with which players could share their results in a spoiler-free manner on Twitter and other social media sites. In January 2022, Wardle accepted an offer from the New York Times to acquire Wordle for a seven-figure sum. Well done, Mr Wardle. Well done indeed.
Are any Wordle words not allowed?
You can type in pretty much any five-letter word in the English language and Wordle will accept it as a guess. However, the answer is picked each day from a much smaller list of more common five-letter words. There are still thousands of possible answers, of course, but it means the answer will never be a word as obscure as, say, “THIOL”, or “CAIRD”, or “MALIC” (yes, those are all real words). There are very occasional words which the New York Times will choose not to publish as the day’s Wordle answer, perhaps for reasons relating to recent news or politics. For example, shortly after news broke that Roe v Wade might be overturned in the United States, the NYT decided to change the March 30th word from “FETUS” to “SHINE”, as the feeling was that the word “fetus” was too politically charged a word in the context of recent events. The New York Times has also been careful never to allow what they consider to be rude words as the answer to a Wordle puzzle. But of course there’s nothing stopping you from using even the dirtiest of words as guesses, as long as they’re accepted words in the dictionary, and as long as you realise that they’ll never end up being the answer.
Is Wordle getting too easy for you?
If Wordle is starting to get too easy, there are a few ways you can make the game more challenging for yourself. The first choice is to turn on Hard Mode. You can do this on the Wordle site by clicking the cog icon in the top-right of the screen. Hard Mode means that any highlighted letters must be used in all future guesses. This stops you from using the common tactic of choosing two words like “OUNCE” and “PAINS” to test all five vowels early on. You can take it up another notch by playing by what we call “Ultra-Hard” rules. This means that every guess you enter must potentially be the answer. If you were just playing on Hard Mode, and you typed “MOIST”, and the “O” appeared yellow, then nothing would stop you from making “POLAR” as your next word, even though it couldn’t possibly be the answer because you already know the “O” is in the wrong place. If you play by “Ultra-Hard” rules, that’s not allowed. You must adhere to every clue, and make sure every single word you enter is potentially the answer. If after all that Wordle is still too easy for you, then you could always try one of the many other Wordle-inspired games online that have cropped up over the past year. One of our favourites is Worldle, in which you must guess a country of the world based on its shape. There’s also Waffle, which is about swapping letters in a completed grid to complete all the words; Moviedle, which shows you an entire movie in a tiny space of time and challenges you to guess the movie within six guesses; and Quordle, which tasks you with solving four Wordles at once with the same guesses. If you need some help with future Wordles, be sure to check out our list of the best Wordle starting words for the greatest chance of success. You can also check out our archive of past Wordle answers to see which words have been chosen previously.
