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.
Want more word-based fun? You can also take a look at our NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for our hints and 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 #1721) - 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 #1721) - 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 #1721) - 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 #1721) - 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 #1721) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1721.
- Today's Wordle answer is filthy or sticky.
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 #1721)
- NYT average score: 5.2
- My score: 6
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 61
- My luck score: 354
- My start word performance: PARSE (354 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (315)
- Tomorrow's start word: LEANT
Today's Wordle answer (game #1721) is… GUNKY.
So, how did you enjoy this one?
Right now, GUNKY is the most difficult Wordle in eight months. It has an average score of 5.2 and you'd have to go back to GOFER in July (5.6) for a harder puzzle. In that time we've had nightmare words such as KNELL, LLAMA, FRITZ, GOOEY, WOUND, BATCH and JUMBO, but none have been above 5.0. Only WAXEN reached that level, but GUNKY is currently proving a fair bit harder.
I scored a six, which I was incredibly disappointed with after I finished playing, but having seen the average I'm now merely relieved to have escaped with my streak intact. Yes, I played very poorly — I only scored a 61 for skill — but given that a significant number of people will have failed today, a six feels like a victory of sorts.
It's not an original word for the game, but is instead another example of the NYT adding a very difficult answer into the mix. It's a perfectly acceptable word, of course, and probably one that I've used myself. But it's not necessarily obvious, plus it has the added complication of several near-neighbors: HUNKY, FUNKY, JUNKY and PUNKY being the main ones, although FUNNY, BUNNY, GUMMY and a few others also led to wrong guesses here.
I opened with PARSE, which is a very popular starter and one which WordleBot rates highly. But today… not so good; it drew a blank and left 354 options. In contrast, my second guess, COUNT, was very fortunate and cut that by 347 words to leave only seven. I was almost home and dry!
Except, I wasn't. Those seven words were UNDID, UNIFY, FUNGI, FUNKY, HUNKY, JUNKY and GUNKY. And the only ones I found were UNDID, UNIFY and, er, UNBID. The latter is a word that I'm sure I've seen the 'Bot suggest before, but maybe I'm getting it confused with something? Either way, Wordle accepted it as a guess, and it correctly ruled out the three words that I'd found — but obviously did nothing much to the words I hadn't come up with.
It got worse on the next guess. With four words left, I spotted FUNKY and HUNKY and decided that it must be one of them; it didn't occur to me that GUNKY (or JUNKY) might be the solution. I should have played a narrowing-down word to guarantee me a five; the 'Bot suggested FIGHT. But instead, I went with FUNKY first, then HUNKY second and was left staring in disbelief at a puzzle that still wasn't solved.
At which point, I went through the remaining letters and realized it was GUNKY. JUNKY never actually occurred to me — I don't think it's a word that I knew existed — so when I played it next I thought it was a given that I'd score a six, but technically I might have lost my streak today. And after 1523 games, that would have been quite distressing.
Fortunately, I lived to fight another day, but this was really no fun at all.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1720)
In a different time zone where it's still Thursday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1720, 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 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.
- 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 P.
P is a middling end letter in Wordle. It features in 56 answers, which places it 12th in the alphabet. Don't expect it to happen that often compared to the likes of E, Y and T.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1720.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is an animal.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1720)
- NYT average score: 3.9
- My score: 5
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 95
- My luck score: 36
- My start word performance: CARET (179 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (38)
- Tomorrow's start word: PARSE
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1720) was… SHEEP.
Wordle famously doesn't allow plurals, except when it does (for instance GEESE, game #1564 and FUNGI, game #439) — but SHEEP is one of those curious words that is both plural and singular. These are known as invariant nouns, and are mostly applied to animals — BISON (which has not yet been a Wordle answer but which might well be in the future) and MOOSE (which has — game #620) are other 5-letter examples.
As a word, I like it, not least because I like SHEEP, possibly because I grew up in the countryside and would wake to the sound of them in the field behind my house. But I did not enjoy solving this game, not one bit.
I scored a five, my first for just over a week but my third overall in the past two weeks, which is a terrible effort from me. And it's not like the average score is high either — it currently sits at 3.9.
It's not like I played terribly, either; WordleBot awarded me 95 for skill. But I got unlucky with my start word, CARET, and though my follow-up SOUND then cut that to five I made a classic error that prevented me scoring a four.
That error was overconfidence. I found all five words — SHEEP, SWEEP, SLEEK, SLEEP and SPIEL. And I also knew that it was possible for me to play a narrowing-down word. WHELK and WHELP, for instance, would have done the job. But instead, I decided to go for the answer.
The carrot dangled before me was that if I played SPIEL I might score a three, and it also might well guarantee me a four if the answer was SLEEK or SLEEP. There was a chance I'd still face a 50/50 between SHEEP and SWEEP — but that was nothing to worry about, right?
Wrong. Inevitably, I was left with that 50/50 and inevitably I picked the wrong one. Typical.
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 #1720, Thursday 5 March: SHEEP
- Wordle #1719, Wednesday 4 March: THEFT
- Wordle #1718, Tuesday 3 March: LINEN
- Wordle #1717, Monday 2 March: SLIME
- Wordle #1716, Sunday 1 March: FLUKE
- Wordle #1715, Saturday 28 February: HYDRA
- Wordle #1714, Friday 27 February: DIZZY
- Wordle #1713, Thursday 26 February: LANCE
- Wordle #1712, Wednesday 25 February: SHRED
- Wordle #1711, Tuesday 24 February: BUYER
- Wordle #1710, Monday 23 February: ATTIC
- Wordle #1709, Sunday 22 February: GUAVA
- 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
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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