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 Saturday'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 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 #1709) - clue #1 - Vowels
How many vowels does today's Wordle have?
• Wordle today has 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).
Wordle hints (game #1709) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is 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.
Wordle hints (game #1709) - 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 #1709) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is A.
A is a relatively common ending letter. It ranks 10th in this regard and today's game is one of 63 in which you'll find an A there.
Wordle hints (game #1709) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1709.
- Today's Wordle answer is a fruit.
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 #1709)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 92
- My luck score: 36
- My start word performance: SANER (127 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (60)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Today's Wordle answer (game #1709) is… GUAVA.
The inclusion of GUAVA means we've now had almost all of the possible FRUIT-based Wordles: PEACH (game #181), OLIVE (#308), LEMON (#567), APPLE (#598), PRUNE (#1044), MELON (#1084) and MANGO (#1362), plus PECAN (#1663) — which is technically a fruit — and FRUIT itself (#1654). The only ones I can think of that we haven't had are GRAPE and BERRY, although I'm sure you can think of some I've missed.
GUAVA is the hardest of them (not literally — but in Wordle terms), at least based on its average score, which is currently 4.2. That's a little below the 4.4 for yesterday's AWAKE, but it sure makes for a tough weekend pairing.
Like AWAKE it contains a repeated A, and this time it swaps the uncommon W and K for an uncommon V and a middling G. That said, G is common at the start of a word, where it's actually the eighth most likely letter behind S, C, B, T, P, A and F.
I had to settle for yet another four; remarkably/disappointingly, that's my eighth in the past 11 games, although on the plus side at least I didn't score a five as I did yesterday.
I made a bit of a misjudgement with my second guess, picking FOCAL because I wanted to include C and L while also moving the A into the middle. WordleBot said I would have been better playing CLOUT, and indeed I would have been; that would have cut the shortlist to four, but instead I still had 14.
Fortunately my third guess, AUDIT, was a lot more successful — it removed 13 of those words and left GUAVA as the only option.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1708)
In a different time zone where it's still Saturday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1708, 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 A.
A is a reasonably common starting letter in Wordle: 140 games begin with this letter. It ranks 6th among starting letters, behind S, C, B, T and P.
- 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 #1708.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is not asleep.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1708)
- NYT average score: 4.4
- My score: 5
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 95
- My luck score: 32
- My start word performance: SANER (105 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (31)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1708) was… AWAKE.
We're back in repeat territory, although as with the first such word, CIGAR, it's unlikely that many people will remember it from the first time round.
That's because AWAKE originally appeared as the answer to game #4 in June 2021 — some six months before Wordle went viral and we all fell in love with it.
It's a good choice of answer from that point of view, and I hope that the NYT continues to mine the first 200 or so answers for repeats, safe in the knowledge that most people won't have played them before, rather than picking words that we all recall. Nobody wants BORAX or PARER to appear again after all.
AWAKE is not an easy answer by any means, and its average score of 4.4 reflects that. The repeated As are not all that common — there are 69 of them among the original 2,309 solutions — and the presence of both W and K further complicate matters.
That offers me some comfort for the fact that I scored a five, my first since late January. I'm not best pleased about that, but at least my skill score of 95 and luck score of 32 point towards it being less about me and more about the word.
That said, it was a patchy game for me. SANER left 105 options, CLEAT cut them to 20. ADOBE was a "great choice", but left four – whereas the 'Bot's suggestion of AGAVE (which was on my shortlist) would have cut it to two.
The four words left now were all ones I found: AWAKE, AMAZE, AGAPE and AGAVE. I could have shot for the answer, but might well have faced a 50/50 on the fifth guess if I did that, so instead accepted that I was going to have to settle for a 5/6 and played WIMPY to narrow them down. The W turned yellow, pointing me towards AWAKE, so a five it was.
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 #1708, Saturday 21 February: AWAKE
- Wordle #1707, Friday 20 February: STANK
- Wordle #1706, Thursday 19 February: HOIST
- Wordle #1705, Wednesday 18 February: MOGUL
- Wordle #1704, Tuesday 17 February: SQUAD
- Wordle #1703, Monday 16 February: ROOST
- Wordle #1702, Sunday 15 February: SKULL
- Wordle #1701, Saturday 14 February: BLOOM
- Wordle #1700, Friday 13 February: MOOCH
- Wordle #1699, Thursday 12 February: SURGE
- Wordle #1698, Wednesday 11 February: VEGAN
- Wordle #1697, Tuesday 10 February: SCENE
- Wordle #1696, Monday 9 February: CELLO
- Wordle #1695, Sunday 8 February: EMBED
- Wordle #1694, Saturday 7 February: BLEAT
- Wordle #1693, Friday 6 February: GAVEL
- Wordle #1692, Thursday 5 February: SWOOP
- Wordle #1691, Wednesday 4 February: CHIDE
- Wordle #1690, Tuesday 3 February: WEIGH
- Wordle #1689, Monday 2 February: CIGAR
- Wordle #1688, Sunday 1 February: SPINY
- Wordle #1687, Saturday 31 January: ALLOT
- Wordle #1686, Friday 30 January: JUMBO
- Wordle #1685, Thursday 29 January: FLAKY
- Wordle #1684, Wednesday 28 January: CRUEL
- Wordle #1683, Tuesday 27 January: DUSKY
- Wordle #1682, Monday 26 January: FREAK
- Wordle #1681, Sunday 25 January: STRUT
- Wordle #1680, Saturday 24 January: CLIFF
- Wordle #1679, Friday 23 January: BARON
- Wordle #1678, Thursday 22 January: CLINK
- Wordle #1677, Wednesday 21 January: CUBIC
- Wordle #1676, Tuesday 20 January: SULLY
- Wordle #1675, Monday 19 January: WAXEN
- Wordle #1674, Sunday 18 January: SUMAC
- Wordle #1673, Saturday 17 January: FIERY
- Wordle #1672, Friday 16 January: RACER
- Wordle #1671, Thursday 15 January: CHASM
- Wordle #1670, Wednesday 14 January: AVOID
- Wordle #1669, Tuesday 13 January: GUMBO
- Wordle #1668, Monday 12 January: TRIAL
- Wordle #1667, Sunday 11 January: QUARK
- Wordle #1666, Saturday 10 January: MANIC
- Wordle #1665, Friday 9 January: EIGHT
- Wordle #1664, Thursday 8 January: BLAST
- Wordle #1663, Wednesday 7 January: PECAN
- Wordle #1662, Tuesday 6 January: OOMPH
- Wordle #1661, Monday 5 January: FILLY
- Wordle #1660, Sunday 4 January: POSSE
- Wordle #1659, Saturday 3 January: SITAR
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.
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