You're here because you're stuck. Maybe you have two guesses left, a screen full of yellow squares, and a rising sense of panic. It happens to the best of us. The Wordle answer April 21 isn't exactly a "common" word in the sense that you’d say it over coffee, but it’s definitely in your vocabulary. It’s one of those words that sits in the back of your brain, waiting for a crossword or a high-stakes game of Scrabble.
Honestly, the New York Times has been on a bit of a streak lately with these mid-week stumpers. Some days are easy. You get "CRANE" or "SLATE" and the greens just pop. Today? Not so much. Today requires a bit of tactical maneuvering.
The Solution for Wordle 1402
Let's get right to it because your streak is on the line. The Wordle answer April 21 is JOLLY.
It sounds simple once you see it, right? But the double "L" is a total silent killer. Most players spend their third and fourth guesses hunting for more vowels or trying to fit an "R" or an "S" into the mix. When you realize you're dealing with a repeated consonant, everything changes.
The word "jolly" comes to us from Old French jolif, which originally meant festive or even "frisky." It’s a word that feels synonymous with Santa Claus or a British pub, but in the context of a five-letter grid, it’s a mechanical nightmare. If you used a starting word like "AUDIO" or "ADIEU," you likely only walked away with the "O." That leaves four slots wide open. That's a lot of empty space to fill when you're staring at a ticking clock—or at least the metaphorical one in your head.
Why Today’s Word Trips People Up
Double letters are objectively the hardest part of this game. It’s how the algorithm wins.
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Think about how you play. You probably use a "subtraction" method. You try to eliminate as many letters as possible from the alphabet. But Wordle doesn't tell you if a letter appears twice. You see a green "L" and you move on to the next spot. You don't think, "Hey, maybe I should put another 'L' right next to it."
Statistically, words with double letters like JOLLY have a significantly lower "solve-in-three" rate than words with five unique letters. According to data tracked by various Wordle bots and community spreadsheets, "JOLLY" often pushes the average solve count closer to 4.5 or 5.0.
Then there's the "J."
Letters like J, X, Q, and Z are high-variance. If you guess them and you're right, you feel like a genius. If you don't guess them, you can spend four turns trying "POLLY," "HOLLY," "DOLLY," or "FOLLY." This is what enthusiasts call a "hard mode trap." If you have _OLLY locked in, there are too many possibilities for that first letter. You can literally run out of turns just guessing the onset.
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Strategies for Avoiding the Trap
If you found yourself struggling with the Wordle answer April 21, you might need to rethink your mid-game.
When you see a pattern like _OLLY, and you’re playing on Standard Mode, stop guessing words that fit that pattern. Instead, use a "burner" word. Pick a word that contains as many of those missing starting letters as possible. For today, a word like "JUMPED" or "HANDY" would have helped you identify the "J" or rule out the "H."
It feels counterintuitive. You’re intentionally guessing a word you know isn't the answer. But it’s the only way to gather enough information to save your streak.
- Vowel Hunting: Don't just look for "A" and "E." The "O" in the middle of a word often gets overlooked in favor of more common pairings.
- The Y-Factor: Ending a word in "Y" is a very common Wordle trope. If you're stuck, try shifting your "Y" to the fifth position.
- Consonant Clusters: Double "L" is one of the most frequent doubles in the English language, appearing in roughly 3% of all five-letter words in the Wordle dictionary.
Looking Back at April 21 History
Wordle hasn't always been the global phenomenon it is now. Back when Josh Wardle first created it for his partner, the list was much smaller. Since the New York Times bought it in early 2022, they've curated the list to remove some of the more obscure or potentially offensive terms.
Interestingly, April 21 has seen a variety of difficulty levels over the years. We’ve had words that range from basic nouns to tricky adjectives. The goal of the editor, currently Tracy Bennett, is to find that "Goldilocks" zone—not so easy that it's boring, but not so hard that people quit the game in frustration. JOLLY fits that perfectly. It’s a happy word that causes a lot of stress.
Improve Your Wordle Game for Tomorrow
If today was a struggle, don't sweat it. Every puzzle is a lesson in linguistics.
Start by diversifying your opening words. If you always use "STARE," try switching to "CLOUD" or "BRICK" for a few days. It forces your brain to see different patterns. Also, pay attention to the frequency of letters. The most common letters in Wordle answers are E, A, R, O, T, L, I, and S. If your guess doesn't have at least three of those, you're playing on ultra-hard mode without meaning to.
Another tip: look at the keyboard. It sounds silly, but we often get "letter blindness." We stare at the grid so hard we forget to look at the letters we haven't used yet. Sometimes the answer is staring you in the face from the bottom of the screen.
To stay ahead of the curve, keep a mental note of common suffixes. Words ending in "-LY," "-ER," or "-TY" make up a huge chunk of the solution pool. Once you identify that "Y" at the end, your search space shrinks dramatically. You aren't looking for a five-letter word anymore; you're looking for a four-letter word that fits a specific rhythm.
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Take a breath. You got the answer, you saved the streak, and tomorrow is a brand-new grid.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Puzzle
- Analyze your opening word: Use a tool like WordleBot to see how many words your favorite opener actually eliminates on average.
- Identify "Trap" Patterns: If you see a pattern like _IGHT or _OLLY, pivot immediately to a discovery word rather than guessing the first letter.
- Practice with Archives: If you want to get better at spotting double letters, play through older puzzles in the NYT archive to train your eyes.
- Vary your Consonants: Don't be afraid of the "J" or "K." They appear more often than you think, especially in the first position.