The answer to Wordle #1,299 was

DRAFT: A current of air, usually coming into a room or vehicle.

Source: Wiktionary contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected and lightly formatted from Wiktionary; long entries may be shortened.

Word difficulty: Moderate

Why it may be difficult: only one vowel.

Compare past puzzle difficulty →

How difficult was it for the solver?

In a replay of past puzzles, Wordle #1,299 scores 21/100 for solver difficulty (easier for the solver).

22 Possible answers after CRANE
20 Possible answers after SLATE
44 Possible answers after ADIEU
3 Words in the _RAFT family
4 Guesses in the solver replay

This compares past puzzles under the same solver settings; it does not measure how players performed. Compare more puzzles →

Wordle #1,299, measured

This section compares DRAFT's solver-difficulty percentile, first-guess results for ten familiar openers, and opt-in player reports. Each number identifies its dataset.

Solver difficulty, as a percentile

21/100

This score is a percentile, not an opinion. Under the site's fixed solver settings, DRAFT measured harder for the solver than about 21% of all 1,907 recorded answers to date. Its rating is easier for the solver. The example solver route takes four turns; it has a 3-word _RAFT family.

Solver pressure ranks the answer within the pool; it does not measure player performance. The opener table compares first-guess results, and the contributed ratings report player results.

CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU benchmark

TRACE left the fewest candidates: its first-guess feedback left 4 of the 2,374 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, RAISE left 79 candidates, about 20 times as many. The vowel-heavy probes ADIEU and AUDIO revealed comparatively little here. Vowel coverage helps only when the answer's vowels are still in doubt.

First-guess feedback each opener would have received against DRAFT, and how many answer-pool words would still match it
OpenerFirst-guess feedbackAnswers still possible
TRACE TRACE 4
STARE STARE 12
TARSE TARSE 12
SALET SALET 20
SLATE SLATE 20
CRANE CRANE 22
ARISE ARISE 35
ADIEU ADIEU 44
AUDIO AUDIO 54
RAISE RAISE 79

“Answers still possible” counts the words in the site's 2,374-word working answer pool whose feedback would match that opener exactly. This is pattern arithmetic, not a simulation. A smaller number means the opener left fewer possible answers after the first guess. It does not describe later turns.

Contributed player ratings

Not enough contributed games to publish player figures for this puzzle. Per-puzzle numbers appear only after at least 10 opt-in games arrive. See how the Observatory collects and publishes player data →

What did you get?

Tap your result to compare it with contributed games. Your choice stays in this browser and is not sent anywhere.

1 Suppressed
2 Suppressed
3 Suppressed
4 Suppressed
5 Suppressed
6 Suppressed
X Suppressed

The bars pool all 26 contributed games across every completed puzzle. The Observatory does not publish per-puzzle guess distributions below its sample threshold, so this is the broadest available comparison. “Suppressed” marks a low-count cell.

Solver replay

One route our solver takes from its usual opening word to DRAFT.

The solver reaches the answer in 4 guesses.

Common questions

What was the Wordle answer for January 8, 2025?
The Wordle answer for January 8, 2025 (puzzle #1299) was DRAFT.
What does DRAFT mean?
DRAFT: A current of air, usually coming into a room or vehicle.
Why was Wordle #1299 tricky?
DRAFT is rated moderate for estimated word difficulty. Why it may be difficult: only one vowel.

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