By FiveLetterWords · Guide updated . The puzzle date is shown separately.

This page always keeps Wordle #1731 for March 16, 2026. Check that number against your game before opening a hint. The answer remains below a separate reveal.

Wordle changes at midnight in your local time zone. For the current local puzzle, use today’s hints. This dated page keeps the same puzzle when the day changes.

Our independent hints use the verified puzzle answer. Play the official game at The New York Times.

Hints for Wordle #1731

What kind of word

Wiktionary lists it as a noun.

Fill the gap

“The author released her latest _____, which became a best-seller.”

Source: Wiktionary contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentence selected from Wiktionary, with the answer removed.

Where the vowels sit

The vowels are the third and fifth letters.

How it starts

Begins with D.

How it ends

Ends in A.

Reveal the answer and explanation

The answer to Wordle #1,731 was

DRAMA: A composition, normally in prose, telling a story and intended to be represented by actors impersonating the characters and speaking the dialogue.

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: a repeated letter.

The word rating describes familiarity and letter features. The solver score below measures how a fixed strategy handles the puzzle; an unusual word can still be easy for that strategy.

Compare past puzzle difficulty →

How difficult was it for the solver?

Solver pressure: 40/100 (middle of the pack). This is a percentile among past puzzles under the same strategy: 0 is easiest and 100 is hardest for the solver.

22 Possible answers after CRANE
49 Possible answers after SLATE
44 Possible answers after ADIEU
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 #1,731, measured

This section compares DRAMA'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

40/100

This score is a percentile, not an opinion. Under the site's fixed solver settings, DRAMA measured harder for the solver than about 40% of all 1,964 recorded answers to date. Its rating is middle of the pack. It repeats A; the example solver route takes four turns.

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

CRANE left the fewest candidates: its first-guess feedback left 22 of the 2,389 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, SALET left 105 candidates, about 5 times as many.

First-guess feedback each opener would have received against DRAMA, and how many answer-pool words would still match it
OpenerFirst-guess feedbackAnswers still possible
CRANE CRANE 22
TRACE TRACE 25
STARE STARE 30
ARISE ARISE 35
ADIEU ADIEU 44
SLATE SLATE 49
AUDIO AUDIO 54
TARSE TARSE 71
RAISE RAISE 79
SALET SALET 105

“Answers still possible” counts the words in the site's 2,389-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 13
4 10
5 Suppressed
6 Suppressed
X Suppressed

The bars pool all 42 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 DRAMA.

The solver reaches the answer in 4 guesses.

Common questions

What was the Wordle answer for March 16, 2026?
The Wordle answer for March 16, 2026 (puzzle #1731) was DRAMA.
What does DRAMA mean?
DRAMA: A composition, normally in prose, telling a story and intended to be represented by actors impersonating the characters and speaking the dialogue.
Why was Wordle #1731 tricky?
DRAMA is rated moderate for estimated word difficulty. Why it may be difficult: a repeated letter.

Keep solving and playing