Wordle Answer Today #1,642 – December 17, 2025 | Full Solution & Hints

Wordle #1,642: A Puzzle That Might Just Mow You Down

Welcome back, Wordlers! Wordle #1,642 has sprouted, and it’s presenting a surprisingly common word with a few hidden thorns. While it’s not a vocabulary-buster, today’s answer has a sneaky characteristic that has tripped up many a player in the past. According to the New York Times’ trusty WordleBot, the average player is solving this puzzle in exactly 4.0 moves, whether they’re playing on easy or hard mode. That’s a solid indicator of a fair but thoughtful challenge.

Ready for the answer? If you’re just here for the solution because your streak is on the line, feel free to scroll down. But if you’re looking for a nudge in the right direction, we’ve got a whole garden of hints and strategies growing below. Let’s dig in.

Need a Hint? We’ve Got Three Levels

Stuck in the weeds? Choose your hint level below, from gentle nudge to full-on spoiler.

Level 1: Gentle Nudges

If you want to stay spoiler-free, these clues should point you in the right direction without giving the game away.

• Today’s answer is a noun (though it can be used as a verb).
• It contains one vowel.
• The general theme is nature and the outdoors.

Level 2: Intermediate Clues

Ready for a bit more guidance? These hints are more specific.

• The word begins with the letter G.
• The single vowel is an A.
• You are very likely to find this word in a yard, a park, or a field.

Level 3: Advanced Spoiler Hints

This is your last stop before the answer. These clues almost spell it out.

• The letter structure is: G R A _ _.
• Synonyms include: turf, lawn, sod.
• It’s something you might need to cut regularly.

Breaking Down Today’s Difficulty

Why is a simple word causing a 4.0-guess average? Let’s analyze the puzzle’s DNA.

A Step-by-Step Solving Guide

Here’s how a strategic solve might have played out, mirroring the Bot’s logic.

I started with my trusty opener, ORATE. This gave me a green ‘A’ and a yellow ‘R’. A decent start, narrowing the field to about 35 possible answers.

For my second guess, I wanted to test the ‘G’ and ‘S’ sounds while placing the ‘R’. GRAIL was a fantastic choice, turning ‘G’ and ‘R’ green and confirming the ‘A’ position. Suddenly, only a handful of words remained.

The elimination process began. I knew it was GRA_ _. My brain raced through options: GRAND, GRASP, GRAVY, GRASS, GRAPH. I tried GRAPH next, which was wrong but ruled out two possibilities.

The “Aha!” moment arrived. Considering commonality and the nature theme, GRASS felt right. I entered it on my fourth try, and the grid turned green. Phew!

Recommended Attempts: 3-4. If you got it in 3, well done! 4 is the average for a reason, and 5 is perfectly respectable given the trap words.

Specific Strategies for Today’s Puzzle

If you got tangled up today, here’s what might have happened and how to avoid it next time.

• If you got stuck on the 4th & 5th letters: The double ‘S’ at the end is the real trick. Many players forget to consider double letters after recent puzzles like SEGUE and DODGY. Always ask yourself, “Could there be a repeat?”
• How to avoid the GRA_ _ trap: When you have a locked-in opening trigram like “GRA,” your next guess should test multiple common ending consonants (N, D, S, P, V, B) if possible. A word like SPINE or SOUND after GRAIL would have been very revealing.
• Today’s unique pattern: The “GR” start with a single vowel in the middle creates a consonant-heavy word that feels more common than it is in Wordle’s answer list.

By The Numbers: Fun Stats on GRASS

Let’s look at the data behind the blades.

• Frequency in English: A very common word, ranked within the top 2,000 most frequent lemmas in contemporary English.
• Wordle Commonality: Compared to recent answers, it’s far more everyday than SEGUE but has more trap words than something like DOLLY.
• Estimated Player Success Rate: Given the 4.0 average, we estimate a 92-95% solve rate, with most failures coming from running out of guesses among the trap words.

For the Truly Curious

So, you’ve solved it. But what about the word itself?

The word “grass” comes from the Old English “græs,” related to the Old High German “gras,” simply meaning “herb, plant.” Its use as slang for an informant (to “grass” on someone) originates from 1930s British rhyming slang: “grasshopper” meaning “copper” (police officer), which was later shortened.

A culturally significant phrase is “The grass is always greener on the other side,” a proverb about envy and perception that dates back to Roman poet Ovid. In Spanish, it’s “césped” or “hierba”; in French, “herbe.”

Looking Back: Yesterday’s Answer (Wordle #1,641)

Yesterday’s puzzle was a tricky one! The answer was SEGUE. That was a classic “Wordle word”—uncommon in daily speech, with a sneaky double ‘E’ and a ‘G’ pronounced like a ‘W’. It tripped up a lot of players, making today’s GRASS feel almost comforting by comparison. The shift from a challenging transition (SEGUE) to a common ground cover (GRASS) is a nice bit of lexical whiplash from the puzzle editors.

Sharpen Your Skills: General Wordle Strategy Tips

Whether you sailed through or struggled today, these tips will help you tomorrow.

1. Beware the Double Letter: After a puzzle features a double letter, the chance of another one appearing soon is not reduced. Always keep the possibility on your mental checklist, especially with common doubles like S, E, T, L, O.
2. Attack Common Endings: When you have a strong opening, use your next guess to test frequent endings like -ING, -ED, -ER, -LY, and consonant doubles (-SS, -LL, -TT).
3. Best Starter Words (Based on Today): Today proved the power of starters containing ‘S’ and ‘R’. Words like SLATE, CRANE, or TRACE would have set you up very well, identifying key consonants early.
4. The Vowel Hunt is Key: With only one vowel today, finding it fast (with a starter like ADIEU or ORATE) drastically shrinks the possible word list.

Happy solving, and we’ll see you tomorrow for Wordle #1,643!