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 Tuesday'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.
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 three 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 #1649) - 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 #1649) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is S.
S is the most common starting letter in the game, featuring in 365 of Wordle's 2,309 answers. In fact, it's almost twice as likely to begin an answer as the next most common starting letter, C.
Wordle hints (game #1649) - 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 #1649) - 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 #1649) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1649.
- Today's Wordle answer is to wind a cable or similar.
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 #1649)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 98
- My luck score: 47
- My start word performance: SANER (87 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (19)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Today's Wordle answer (game #1649) is… SPOOL.
It's Christmas Eve, but there's no sign of any festive themes from the NYT for today's Wordle. We had MYRRH a few days ago, of course, and I guess you could argue that WHITE (Christmas) and MISER (as in Scrooge) are both Christmas-related… but it's equally possible they just happened to appear when they did at random. After all, we had ROBIN in February 2022, CAROL in September 2023 and HOLLY in October of this year.
There's no festive connotation that I can think of for SPOOL, and it isn't exactly a gift of a word either due to that repeated O in the middle. I've previously written about how this is my most hated Wordle format of all, and with good reason: it actually skews harder than any other type of Wordle, including ER.
Today's game doesn't appear to be among the really difficult ones, given that it has an average score of 3.8. That's probably due to the presence of the S at the start and L at the end – they're both very common letters in start words. And of course, that in turn led to a good performance for SLATE as a start word; it cut the shortlist to a mere 19 options.
My SANER was closer to 100 than 10, but I didn't think too hard about my second guess, playing CLOUT next. This is now a common strategy for me, because it includes the next three most common consonants in C, L and T, plus two of the remaining three vowels. SANER and CLOUT together use up nine of the top 10 letters, with I the only omission.
CLOUT was a great choice, supplying a yellow O and green L and cutting my options to only two: SPOIL and SPOOL. What would you do in my situation? Well, possibly you'd check a past Wordle answers list, at which point you'd see that SPOIL was the answer to game #1565 in October. Or maybe you'd have just remembered that without needing to check; after all, it's only 86 days ago.
Unfortunately, I did neither of those two things. Instead, I played SPOIL first and had to settle for a four with SPOOL next time round. Then again, this was an OO game – so I'm just glad I didn't end up with a five or six.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1648)
In a different time zone where it's still Tuesday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1648, too.
- Wordle yesterday had 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).
- The first letter in yesterday's Wordle answer was G.
G is the eighth most common starting letter, featuring in 115 Wordle answers. It's often paired with an R to make GR--- or an L to make GL---, but I'm not revealing whether that's the case today.
- 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 T.
T is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only E and Y are more likely in that position.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1648.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is a tiny, bright flash of light.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1648)
- NYT average score: 3.6
- My score: 3
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 98
- My luck score: 64
- My start word performance: SANER (86 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (7)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1648) was… GLINT.
As is so often the case these days, knowledge of past Wordle answers might have made the difference between a three and four here. Or indeed a four and a five, but the overall average of 3.6 implies it was more likely to be the former than the latter.
FLINT was the obvious alternative here, but those of you with decent memories may have remembered that it appeared in January (game #1,307). It's a lot less likely that anyone will have recalled that FLING has also appeared, though; that was game #128 in October 2021.
GLINT is not a difficult Wordle, regardless of whether you used a solutions list or not. All four letters are common to some extent; the final four very common everywhere, the G only really likely at the start – but that is where it appears here, after all, so its presence shouldn't have been too much of a hurdle. Plus there's the fact that the GL combo is pretty likely too, with 16 appearances in total.
I scored a hassle-free three, with SANER leaving 86 options but COUNT proving a fortunate second guess and cutting those possibilities to a duo of GLINT and FLINT. I didn't look at a past answers list, but guessed correctly on this occasion to get back down below the average.
Wordle answers: The past 50
I've been playing Wordle every day for more than three 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 #1648, Tuesday 23 December: GLINT
- Wordle #1647, Monday 22 December: CONCH
- Wordle #1646, Sunday 21 December: QUILT
- Wordle #1645, Saturday 20 December: WHITE
- Wordle #1644, Friday 19 December: MYRRH
- Wordle #1643, Thursday 18 December: RUGBY
- Wordle #1642, Wednesday 17 December: GRASS
- Wordle #1641, Tuesday 16 December: SEGUE
- Wordle #1640, Monday 15 December: DODGY
- Wordle #1639, Sunday 14 December: SWING
- Wordle #1638, Saturday 13 December: MISER
- Wordle #1637, Friday 12 December: TRUCK
- Wordle #1636, Thursday 11 December: GUESS
- Wordle #1635, Wednesday 10 December: ERASE
- Wordle #1634, Tuesday 9 December: SNIDE
- Wordle #1633, Monday 8 December: GRAVY
- Wordle #1632, Sunday 7 December: FLUTE
- Wordle #1631, Saturday 6 December: WAIST
- Wordle #1630, Friday 5 December: WAIST
- Wordle #1629, Thursday 4 December: TULIP
- Wordle #1628, Wednesday 3 December: HASTE
- Wordle #1627, Tuesday 2 December: CACTI
- Wordle #1626, Monday 1 December: LEACH
- Wordle #1625, Sunday 30 November: MUGGY
- Wordle #1624, Saturday 29 November: GRUFF
- Wordle #1623, Friday 28 November: COLIC
- Wordle #1622, Thursday 27 November: REMIT
- Wordle #1621, Wednesday 26 November: HOVEL
- Wordle #1620, Tuesday 25 November: PLEAD
- Wordle #1619, Monday 24 November: DOUGH
- Wordle #1618, Sunday 23 November: BUNNY
- Wordle #1617, Saturday 22 November: THICK
- Wordle #1616, Friday 21 November: VOWEL
- Wordle #1615, Thursday 20 November: GRAVE
- Wordle #1614, Wednesday 19 November: MAKER
- Wordle #1613, Tuesday 18 November: OPINE
- Wordle #1612, Monday 17 November: CLAMP
- Wordle #1611, Sunday 16 November: WIELD
- Wordle #1610, Saturday 15 November: CLUNG
- Wordle #1609, Friday 14 November: LURID
- Wordle #1608, Thursday 13 November: TINGE
- Wordle #1607, Wednesday 12 November: DEUCE
- Wordle #1606, Tuesday 11 November: GIZMO
- Wordle #1605, Monday 10 November: TABBY
- Wordle #1604, Sunday 9 November: FUGUE
- Wordle #1603, Saturday 8 November: ARISE
- Wordle #1602, Friday 7 November: PERIL
- Wordle #1601, Thursday 6 November: GUISE
- Wordle #1600, Wednesday 5 November: SHORT
- Wordle #1599, Tuesday 4 November: VENUE
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 2025.
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.
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.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.