Wordle today: Hint and answer #942 for Wednesday, January 17

Give your daily Wordle an instant lift with today’s clue, ready to point your guesses in the right direction without handing over today’s answer on a plate. Although if you would like the January 17 (942) answer on a plate we can help with that too—just click or scroll your way to a win. After yesterday’s bitter fight for the answer I was relieved to find today’s Wordle was much better behaved.

The first letter of my first guess was a helpful green, and from there it only took a few careful pokes around the alphabet to find Wednesday’s winning word. I enjoyed that. Mediaeval royalty, modern judges, and tennis players all spend their time around, in, or on very different versions of today’s answer.

There are two different vowels to find today. No, there is no double letter in today’s puzzle. Playing Wordle well is like achieving a small victory every day—who doesn’t like a well-earned winning streak in a game you enjoy? If you’re new to the daily word game, or just want a refresher, I’m going to share a few quick tips to help set you on the path to success: There’s no time pressure beyond making sure it’s done by the end of the day.

If you’re struggling to find the answer or a tactical word for your next guess, there’s no harm in coming back to it later on. Let’s get your game back on track. The answer to the January 17 (942) Wordle is COURT .

Knowing previous Wordle solutions can be helpful in eliminating current possibilities. It’s unlikely a word will be repeated and you can find inspiration for guesses or starting words that may be eluding you. Here are some recent Wordle answers: Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and it’s your job to work out which five-letter word is hiding by eliminating or confirming the letters it contains.

Starting with a strong word like LEASH—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters—is a good place to start. Once you hit Enter, the boxes will show you which letters you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns ⬛️, it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all.

🟨 means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 🟩 means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot. Your second go should compliment the starting word, using another “good” guess to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer.

After that, it’s just a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there’s an E). Don’t forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).

If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips , and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used, you can scroll to the relevant section above. Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle , as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public.

The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle , refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures . Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.

.