You know that feeling when you're staring at a row of gray tiles and the panic starts to set in? We've all been there. You have one guess left, your streak is on the line, and the word just won't click. In 2024, that happened a lot. Like, a lot.
Wordle isn't just a game anymore; it’s a morning ritual that either makes you feel like a genius or leaves you yelling at your phone over a breakfast burrito. But some days are objectively worse than others. If you felt like the puzzles got meaner last year, you weren't imagining things.
The Word That Killed 5 Million Streaks
If we're looking for the absolute hardest Wordle word in 2024, one name stands above the rest: CORER.
On October 15, 2024, Wordle #1214 absolutely decimated the player base. It wasn't just a tough day; it was a bloodbath. According to WordleBot data—the official AI the New York Times uses to judge our collective failures—the average score for CORER was a staggering 5.9.
When the average is nearly 6, you know thousands of people saw that "X/6" notification. In fact, the solve rate plummeted to about 56%. Nearly half of everyone who played that day lost their streak.
Why was it so brutal?
It's a "trap" word. If you got the pattern _ O R E R, you weren't safe. You were in a hole. You had to choose between:
- BORER
- SORER
- CORER
- POKER (if you didn't have the R yet)
- ROVER
Most people don't use the word "corer" in daily life unless they are deeply into apple processing. It’s a technical tool. It’s obscure. And double letters are always a nightmare.
The Runner-Up: Why JOLLY Wasn't Very Fun
While CORER took the crown for the lowest solve rate, JOLLY (April 21, 2024) was a close second for pure frustration. It had an average score of 5.6.
Double letters are the silent killers of Wordle streaks. When you see a "Y" at the end and an "O" in the middle, your brain naturally goes to "MONEY" or "CANDY." When the game demands you use the same letter twice—especially a less common one like L—it feels like a personal attack.
In New York specifically, JOLLY caused a massive spike in Google searches for "Wordle hint." It seems people would rather keep their streak alive with a little help than face the shame of a loss. Honestly? Same.
The Most Difficult Wordle Words of 2024 Ranked by Difficulty
Looking at the data from WordleBot and Google Trends, these five words caused the most trauma last year.
- CORER (Oct 15): The ultimate streak-ender. Technical, double-lettered, and part of a deadly rhyming set.
- JOLLY (April 21): The double-L trap that caught people off guard during a spring weekend.
- ROVER (April 23): Just two days after JOLLY, the game threw another "ER" trap at us.
- BOXER (Dec 13): A late-year surprise. The "X" is rare, and the "O_ER" pattern has too many variables (POKER, LONER, LOSER).
- MOMMY (Oct 9): Triple letters. Need I say more? Using the same letter three times is basically a glitch in the human brain.
Why "ER" Words Are Actually Evil
If you look at the list of the hardest words ever, a huge percentage end in ER.
Think about it. There are hundreds of five-letter words ending in ER. If you lock in those last two letters by guess three, you still have three guesses left but ten possible words. It becomes a game of luck.
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Linguists like to talk about "phonotactics," but Wordle players just call it "the ER trap." It’s the reason why words like PARER (from 2022) and CORER (2024) remain the most hated puzzles in the game's history.
Geography of Failure: Who Struggled Most?
It’s kinda fascinating to see where people struggled the most. According to search data, different states have different "Wordle nemeses."
- DECAL (May 5) was a massive problem in Illinois and Indiana.
- BEVEL (May 26) stumped the folks in Minnesota and Maine.
- OUTER (May 12) had Vermont residents flocking to Google for help.
Is it a vocabulary thing? Maybe. Or maybe some days just have bad vibes in certain time zones.
How to Beat the Hardest Puzzles
You can’t always win, but you can stop the bleeding. Expert players—the ones who haven't lost a streak in three years—usually follow a specific set of rules when they sense a trap.
Burn a Guess
If you're stuck in an "ER" trap with three guesses left, don't just keep guessing words that end in ER. If you have "LO_ER" and you aren't sure if it's LONER, LOVER, or LOSER, use a word that includes N, V, and S. Even if that word isn't a possible answer, it will eliminate those three letters at once. You lose a turn but you gain certainty.
Watch for the Triple Letter
MOMMY proved that NYT isn't afraid to go there. If you have a green M and a green Y and nothing else is working, start considering the "impossible" repeats.
Avoid "ADIEU" (Sometimes)
I know, it's the most popular starter. But it only finds vowels. The hardest wordle words in 2024 were difficult because of consonants like X, V, and repeated Ls. Using a starter with more common consonants like STARE, SLATE, or CRANE usually gives you a better foundation for the endgame.
Wordle is a game of probability. You’re trying to shrink the "possibility space" as fast as possible. When the game throws a word like CORER at you, the space is just too big to navigate by luck alone.
What's Next for Your Wordle Strategy
The easiest way to improve is to stop treating every guess like it has to be the final answer. Sometimes, the "best" guess is the one that tells you what the word isn't.
- Track your patterns: Do you always fail on double letters? Practice "burn" guesses where you intentionally use five new letters to clear the board.
- Diversify your starters: If you use the same word every day, you're vulnerable to specific patterns. Switch it up every week.
- Check the Bot: After a hard day, look at WordleBot. It’s annoying and smug, but it shows you exactly which turn you messed up on.
Stop worrying about getting it in three. In a year full of words like CORER and JOLLY, just getting it in six is a victory worth celebrating.
Next Steps: Review your recent Wordle statistics in the NYT Games app to see if you are falling into the "ER" trap. Try starting your next game with a consonant-heavy word like TRASH or CLIMB to see if it changes your solve path.