A new NYT Wordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here.
Skip the hints and jump straight to today's column.
It's time for your guide to today's Wordle answer, featuring my commentary on the latest puzzle, plus a selection of hints designed to help you keep your streak going.
Don't think you need any clues for Wordle today? No problem, just skip to my daily column. But remember: failure in this game is only ever six guesses away.
Want more word-based fun? TechRadar's Quordle today page contains hints and answers for that game, and you can also take a look at our NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for our verdict on two of the New York Times' other brainteasers.
SPOILER WARNING: Today's Wordle answer and hints are below, so don't read on if you don't want to see them.
Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been obsessed with Wordle for more than four years. He's authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar and its sister site Tom's Guide, including a detailed analysis of the most common letters in Wordle in every position and a guide to the best Wordle start words. He's also played every Wordle ever and only lost once and yes, he takes it all too seriously.
Wordle hints (game #1854) - clue #1 - Vowels
How many vowels does today's Wordle have?
• Wordle today has vowels in two places*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Wordle hints (game #1854) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is L.
L is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter in Wordle. Despite being the sixth most common letter overall, it's only ranked 12th at the beginning of a word.
Wordle hints (game #1854) - clue #3 - repeated letters
Does today's Wordle have any repeated letters?
• There are repeated letters in today's Wordle.
Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it's still more likely that a Wordle doesn't have one.
Wordle hints (game #1854) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is L.
L is a really common letter to find at the end of a Wordle. There are 155 games that finish with an L, and it ranks as the fifth most likely letter there.
Wordle hints (game #1854) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1854.
- Today's Wordle answer is officially permitted.
If you just want to know today's Wordle answer now, simply scroll down – but I'd always recommend trying to solve it on your own first. We've got lots of Wordle tips and tricks to help you, including a guide to the best Wordle start words.
If you don't want to know today's answer then DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER BECAUSE IT IS PRINTED BELOW. So don't say you weren't warned!
Today's Wordle answer (game #1854)
- NYT average score: 4.0
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 99
- My luck score: 35
- My start word performance: SANER (105 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (45)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Today's Wordle answer (game #1854) is… LEGAL.
This is the sixth game out of the past eight to contain a repeated letter, a 75% hit rate that is well above the 32% for Wordle overall. Is the NYT actively trying to make the game more difficult lately or is it just chance?
Well, in the case for the prosecution, m'lud, is the fact that one of the two games that didn't contain a repeat was PSHAW, which was the hardest (and stupidest) answer in the past few weeks. So yes, I suspect that it is doing that, but can't of course prove anything.
LEGAL is not in PSHAW territory, and its average score of 4.0 is only a little above the norm for the game. The fact that the repeated letter is an L will undoubtedly have helped, as is the fact that those Ls are at either end of the word, where they are generally easier to spot.
My game was a bit of a nothingburger. I started poorly, with SANER leaving 105 options and giving me two yellows, and though CLADE added another yellow into the mix, it failed to turn any green and still left the shortlist at eight.
I knew that a format of -E-AL was the most likely, because I'd jotted down PETAL, FETAL, METAL and LEGAL, but I missed three of the other four. The one I did get was EQUAL, but I missed FELLA, LEMMA and BELAY, all of which I would usually have said were very unlikely to be solutions, but in the wake of PSHAW it's all up for grabs, really; don't be surprised if it's XYLYL tomorrow.
METAL was not guaranteed to give me a four, but at worst it might leave me a 50/50 between FETAL and PETAL, and that felt like a risk worth taking. It paid off, because although it didn't give me the three I so dearly deserve after all of the punishment I've taken this week, it did confirm LEGAL as the solution for a four.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1853)
In a different time zone where it's still Thursday? Don't worry — I can give you some clues for Wordle #1853, too.
- Wordle yesterday had vowels in two places*
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
- The first letter in yesterday's Wordle answer was B.
B is a very, very common starting letter in Wordle. In fact, it's the third most common overall, behind only S and C.
- There were repeated letters in yesterday's Wordle.
Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it's still more likely that a Wordle doesn't have one.
- The last letter in yesterday's Wordle was E.
E is the most common letter to end a Wordle answer by far. That's one of the reasons why many of the best start words, including SLATE, CRANE, CRATE and STARE, all end with one.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1853.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is an isolated hill or mountain.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1853)
- NYT average score: 4.1
- My score: 5
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 93
- My luck score: 31
- My start word performance: SANER (183 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (14)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1853) was… BUTTE.
And so here we are in the calm after the storm. Only we're not really, because although BUTTE is considerably easier than Wednesday's nonsense word PSHAW, it's still not exactly obvious.
I'll be honest, I didn't know what BUTTE meant until I looked it up so I could write this column. I knew it existed, because it's been an answer in Quordle at least once, but I thought it was the thing you kept water in, in the garden — but that is apparently without the E. Instead, it is apparently an isolated hill or mountain with steep sides.
It has an average score of 4.1, probably reflecting the fact that it has that repeated T, and to an extent that relative obscurity. It's unlikely to be a streak killer like PSHAW, but it's not easy either.
My game was rather disappointing once again; I'm not having a good time of it this week. The frustrating thing here was that I had only four options after the second guess: CHUTE, QUOTE, EMOTE and BUTTE. Unfortunately, I'd only thought of three of those — with the odd one out being BUTTE.
So, I guessed EMOTE and that was wrong, and thought that left only one option, CHUTE, which I played next. I was stunned (relatively speaking) when that wasn't the solution, and it took me a while to finally identify BUTTE as the answer.
Wordle answers: The past 50
I've been playing Wordle every day for more than four years now and have tracked all of the previous answers so I can help you improve your game. Here are the last 50 solutions starting with yesterday's answer, or check out my past Wordle answers page for the full list.
- Wordle #1853, Thursday 16 July: BUTTE
- Wordle #1852, Wednesday 15 July: PSHAW
- Wordle #1851, Tuesday 14 July: STEAK
- Wordle #1850, Monday 13 July: STOUT
- Wordle #1849, Sunday 12 July: CLACK
- Wordle #1848, Saturday 11 July: AVIAN
- Wordle #1847, Friday 10 July: CANAL
- Wordle #1846, Thursday 9 July: AMEND
- Wordle #1845, Wednesday 8 July: DEMON
- Wordle #1844, Tuesday 7 July: SLING
- Wordle #1843, Monday 6 July: TODDY
- Wordle #1842, Sunday 5 July: SWAMI
- Wordle #1841, Saturday 4 July: PIZZA
- Wordle #1840, Friday 3 July: BATON
- Wordle #1839, Thursday 2 July: MAVEN
- Wordle #1838, Wednesday 1 July: DEMUR
- Wordle #1837, Tuesday 30 June: PUPPY
- Wordle #1836, Monday 29 June: CRUDE
- Wordle #1835, Sunday 28 June: EMCEE
- Wordle #1834, Saturday 27 June: SCOOP
- Wordle #1833, Friday 26 June: ACUTE
- Wordle #1832, Thursday 25 June: UNITY
- Wordle #1831, Wednesday 24 June: QUEER
- Wordle #1830, Tuesday 23 June: CURRY
- Wordle #1829, Monday 22 June: OVATE
- Wordle #1828, Sunday 21 June: ALIBI
- Wordle #1827, Saturday 20 June: DRAKE
- Wordle #1826, Friday 19 June: EMOJI
- Wordle #1825, Thursday 18 June: ENTRY
- Wordle #1824, Wednesday 17 June: TOKEN
- Wordle #1823, Tuesday 16 June: AMAZE
- Wordle #1822, Monday 15 June: BROIL
- Wordle #1821, Sunday 14 June: SEPIA
- Wordle #1820, Saturday 13 June: QUELL
- Wordle #1819, Friday 12 June: BREAK
- Wordle #1818, Thursday 11 June: TESTY
- Wordle #1817, Wednesday 10 June: ALIGN
- Wordle #1816, Tuesday 9 June: WHARF
- Wordle #1815, Monday 8 June: MAFIA
- Wordle #1814, Sunday 7 June: THUMB
- Wordle #1813, Saturday 6 June: MORPH
- Wordle #1812, Friday 5 June: NOBLY
- Wordle #1811, Thursday 4 June: ALLOY
- Wordle #1810, Wednesday 3 June: NOTCH
- Wordle #1809, Tuesday 2 June: BASIS
- Wordle #1808, Monday 1 June: CHILI
- Wordle #1807, Sunday 31 May: ETUDE
- Wordle #1806, Saturday 30 May: SMILE
- Wordle #1805, Friday 29 May: CLANG
- Wordle #1804, Thursday 28 May: DIVOT
What is Wordle?
If you're on this page then you almost certainly know what Wordle is already, and indeed have probably been playing it for a while. And even if you've not been playing it, you must surely have heard of it by now, because it's the viral word game phenomenon that took the world by storm in 2022 and is still going strong in 2026.
We've got a full guide to the game in our What is Wordle page, but if you just want a refresher then here are the basics.
What is Wordle?
Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day. You get six guesses, with each one revealing a little more information. If one of the letters in your guess is in the answer and in the right place, it turns green. If it's in the answer but in the wrong place, it turns yellow. And if it's not in the answer at all it turns gray. Simple, eh?
It's played online via the Wordle website or the New York Times' Games app (iOS / Android), and is entirely free.
Crucially, the answer is the same for everyone each day, meaning that you're competing against the rest of the world, rather than just against yourself or the game. The puzzle then resets each day at midnight in your local time, giving you a new challenge, and the chance to extend your streak.
What are the Wordle rules?
The rules of Wordle are pretty straightforward, but with a couple of curveballs thrown in for good measure.
1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.
2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow.
3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray.
4a. Answers are never plural.
4b. …unless they are. There have been a couple of plural words that don't end in an S or ES, including FUNGI (game #439), ATRIA (#1478) and TEETH (#1551). But S and ES plurals are definitely outlawed.
5. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.
6. Each guess must be a valid word in Wordle's dictionary. You can't guess ABCDE, for instance.
7. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses unless you play on Hard mode.
8. You have six guesses to solve the Wordle.
9. You must complete the daily Wordle before midnight in your timezone.
10a. All answers are drawn from Wordle's list of 2,309 solutions…
10b. …unless they are not. That's because the NYT has added in some of its own words which weren't in that list of 2,309 solutions. More will undoubtedly come over the next few years.
10c. Plus, the NYT has now started repeating answers that have already appeared in Wordle. We have no idea how often it will do this, so you'll need to be on your guard.
11. Wordle will accept a wider pool of words as guesses – some 10,000 of them. For instance, you can guess a plural such as WORDS. It definitely won't be right (see point 4a above), but Wordle will accept it as a guess.
