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 Friday'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 #1974) - clue #1 - Vowels
How many vowels does today's Wordle have?
• Wordle today has a vowel in one place*.
* 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 #1974) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is R.
R is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter. Despite ranking third overall in Wordle, it's merely the 11th most likely to begin an answer.
Wordle hints (game #1974) - clue #3 - repeated letters
Does today's Wordle have any repeated letters?
• There are no 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 #1974) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is Y.
Y is the second most common ending letter in the game, behind only E. In total, 364 Wordle answers end with a Y.
Wordle hints (game #1974) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1974.
- Today's Wordle answer is lustful or lecherous.
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 #1974)
- NYT average score: 3.9
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 89
- My luck score: 51
- My start word performance: SANER (3 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (202)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Today's Wordle answer (game #1974) is… RANDY.
I have two things to say about this game. One: I am really surprised to see RANDY make it past the NYT editors and into the answers list. It's not incredibly rude, but it is… well, a crude word in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and a first name in the US — where it is only rarely used in its adjective form.
And two: I really screwed up here, although that was in part because of point one.
You see SANER, my opening guess, was incredibly lucky today — it reduced the shortlist to only three possible solutions. And the thing was, I found all three: RANCH, RANGY and RANDY. But I just did not think the latter would be an answer, so rather than play RANGY or RANDY — which would have guaranteed me a 3 at worst — I went with RANCH first, simply because I figured that really this was a 50/50 and I'd score a 3 anyway.
When RANCH was wrong, I went with RANGY, convinced that it would be correct… only it was not. So there you go: a lesson in how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1973)
In a different time zone where it's still Thursday? Don't worry — I can give you some clues for Wordle #1973, too.
- Wordle yesterday had vowels in three 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 M.
M is a middling letter when it comes to starting a word. It sits 10th in the rankings, with 107 occurrences in the 2,309 answers.
- There were no 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 #1973.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is energy or pep.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1973)
- NYT average score: 4.6 (revised)
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 97
- My luck score: 33
- My start word performance: SANER (183 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (121)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1973) was… MOXIE.
Prepare for controversy. MOXIE is one of those words. The ones that cause no manner of difficulty, that end streaks, that get people arguing about whether it should even be an answer in the first place. It's a BORAX or a PSHAW or a PRATE. It's — you guessed it — an NYT addition to the word list and it's also very, very difficult.
How difficult? Well, it has an average score of 4.9, which makes it the equal toughest since PUPPY in June. It's more difficult than PSHAW, and SHILL and MOUND and JOIST and RIVER and MAJOR and indeed last week's PRATE. It is in fact the third hardest this year, behind only WAVER (5.3) and GUNKY (5.2).
(Except… it's not. Because I wrote that paragraph above at the start of the day, but by the end it had settled at 4.6 — still difficult, but nowhere near as difficult as it appeared to be. I suspect that's a clear result of US folk coming online and playing, and MOXIE being a much, much more common word there. Anyway, back to the column.)
It's also one of only 37 Wordle answers containing an X, except it's not because it's a non-original answer. All we can really say is that there are 37 original answers with an X in them, plus (so far) two non-originals, with the other being September's REMIX.
It is a valid word, albeit an archaic one that had its origins as the brand name of a sort of proto energy drink back in the late 1800s. In the 1930s it took on its current meaning of pep or energy and although informal, it makes it into the dictionary and so is fair game for Wordle. Fair, but undeniably hard.
The big problem for most people will be that X in the middle, because not only is it an uncommon letter but it also sits in the place where a V would be in the far more common MOVIE. 21% of all Wordlers played the latter on the fourth guess and 15% on the fifth, so that's a lot of people who will have been cursing the Wordle gods.
I was one of them, but for me it wasn't quite so bad, because I didn't pick MOVIE in a 50/50 with MOXIE — I chose it on the third guess, when I still had nine options. I didn't think of them all, missing BEBOP, DEFOG, BEFOG, BOGIE, MOXIE and MEZZO, but out of the three I did have — MOVIE, DODGE and OXIDE — it seemed the most likely. Maybe so, but not the answer unfortunately. Still, if I'd have gone for anything else I'd have also certainly not spotted MOXIE until the fifth guess, whereas I ended up with an entirely satisfactory 4 today instead.
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 #1973, Friday 13 November: MOXIE
- Wordle #1972, Thursday 12 November: KARAT
- Wordle #1971, Wednesday 11 November: BLESS
- Wordle #1970, Tuesday 10 November: TRUCE
- Wordle #1969, Monday 9 November: LOAMY
- Wordle #1968, Sunday 8 November: FIRST
- Wordle #1967, Saturday 7 November: PRATE
- Wordle #1966, Friday 6 November: DRECK
- Wordle #1965, Thursday 5 November: PARCH
- Wordle #1964, Wednesday 4 November: NUTTY
- Wordle #1963, Tuesday 3 November: POUCH
- Wordle #1962, Monday 2 November: SCOOT
- Wordle #1961, Sunday 1 November: VIPER
- Wordle #1960, Saturday 31 October: YAHOO
- Wordle #1959, Friday 30 October: SLIDE
- Wordle #1958, Thursday 29 October: MOTOR
- Wordle #1957, Wednesday 28 October: GRIST
- Wordle #1956, Tuesday 27 October: BINGO
- Wordle #1955, Monday 26 October: GEEKY
- Wordle #1954, Sunday 25 October: DRESS
- Wordle #1953, Saturday 24 October: HOLEY
- Wordle #1952, Friday 23 October: TRILL
- Wordle #1951, Thursday 22 October: RESET
- Wordle #1950, Wednesday 21 October: PENNY
- Wordle #1949, Tuesday 20 October: WREST
- Wordle #1948, Monday 19 October: STINK
- Wordle #1947, Sunday 18 October: ADORN
- Wordle #1946, Saturday 17 October: GAFFE
- Wordle #1945, Friday 16 October: SHADY
- Wordle #1944, Thursday 15 October: DUNCE
- Wordle #1943, Wednesday 14 October: PSYCH
- Wordle #1942, Tuesday 13 October: WIDER
- Wordle #1941, Monday 12 October: YODEL
- Wordle #1940, Sunday 11 October: UNCAP
- Wordle #1939, Saturday 10 October: BUMPY
- Wordle #1938, Friday 9 October: MAJOR
- Wordle #1937, Thursday 8 October: STREW
- Wordle #1936, Wednesday 7 October: PROVE
- Wordle #1935, Tuesday 6 October: DIMLY
- Wordle #1934, Monday 5 October: MOCHA
- Wordle #1933, Sunday 4 October: SHACK
- Wordle #1932, Saturday 3 October: PEEVE
- Wordle #1931, Friday 2 October: USURY
- Wordle #1930, Thursday 1 October: RITZY
- Wordle #1929, Wednesday 30 September: RIVER
- Wordle #1928, Tuesday 29 September: SCUBA
- Wordle #1927, Monday 28 September: TRUNK
- Wordle #1926, Sunday 27 September: SLOOP
- Wordle #1925, Saturday 26 September: ELEGY
- Wordle #1924, Friday 25 September: COPSE
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.
