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 Wednesday'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 #1636) - 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 #1636) - 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 #1636) - 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 #1636) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is S.
S is really not a common ending letter at all - mainly because Wordle generally doesn't allow plurals. It's the 15th most likely letter to appear at the end of an answer.
Wordle hints (game #1636) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1636.
- Today's Wordle answer is something everyone reading this will do today.
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 #1636)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 90
- My luck score: 45
- My start word performance: SANER (46 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (32)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Today's Wordle answer (game #1636) is… GUESS.
Seeing GUESS pop up today got me thinking about which other Wordle-related words have appeared so far in the game. I came up with 14, including today's solution, and was going to list them here for you…
…and then, instead, I decided to be a little fiendish.
So, what I've done is created a quiz – all you need to do is guess the Wordle-related past answers. Give it a go and see how many you can think of. I will warn you that a couple are a bit of a stretch, but I'd expect most of you to score at least 8 or 9. And no peeking at a past Wordle answers list!
On the plus side, you'll guaranteed to get one at least.
How did you do then? It's harder than you might think – as is GUESS as an answer, potentially. Not super hard, in that it has an average of 3.8, but that repeated S at the end doesn't help matters, and nor does the GU at the start.
Maybe I just have a mental block about the latter, but I often forget it's a possibility, focusing either on the other four vowels or on the more common GR and GL combinations at the start of the word.
Of course the other potential problem today is the existence of the word GUEST, and to an extent QUEST, BLESS, CHESS, DRESS and a few other ESS words.
It was GUEST that tripped me up, but my game was far from a disaster even if I did fall short of the average. My opening SANER had performed well enough without being a roaring success, and CLOSE turned my previously-yellow S green and cut the shortlist to seven.
I could lie and say I found them all, but in reality I only came up with five of them: HEIST, MESSY, QUEST, GUEST and GUESS. The two I missed were EXIST and DEIST; the former seems a lot more likely than the latter, but has already appeared anyway (game #486 in October 2022).
Unknown to me, GUEST, QUEST and HEIST have also appeared before – so really I only had a 50/50 here between MESSY and GUESS. Unfortunately, my ignorance of that fact led me to play GUEST first, so I had to settle for that slightly below-par four.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1635)
In a different time zone where it's still Wednesday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1635, 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 E.
We don't get many Wordle answers that start with an E – though it's the most common letter in the game, it's only the 14th most likely to begin a solution.
- 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 #1635.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is to remove.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1635)
- NYT average score: 3.7
- My score: 2
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 69
- My luck score: 90
- My start word performance: SANER (4 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (6)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1635) was… ERASE.
The biggest surprise for me about this game is that the average score is not lower than the 3.7 that WordleBot reported for it at the time of solving.
I scored a two myself thanks to a very fortunate start word that left only four options – ERASE, ARISE, AROSE and, er, RESAW (really?) – but that was far from the best result.
For instance, RAISE left only two solutions, but ARISE and STARE both left only a single possibility – so there will have been many 2/6s.
As far as my choice went, I knew that ARISE had been the answer very recently – game #1,603 just over a month ago – and didn't think of RESAW, if indeed it is a valid word. That left me a choice of only two answers, and I picked the right one.
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 #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
- Wordle #1598, Monday 3 November: AWOKE
- Wordle #1597, Sunday 2 November: RABID
- Wordle #1596, Saturday 1 November: MOTEL
- Wordle #1595, Friday 31 October: ABHOR
- Wordle #1594, Thursday 30 October: LATHE
- Wordle #1593, Wednesday 29 October: GLARE
- Wordle #1592, Tuesday 28 October: HOLLY
- Wordle #1591, Monday 27 October: FETID
- Wordle #1590, Sunday 26 October: PLUMP
- Wordle #1589, Saturday 25 October: GAUGE
- Wordle #1588, Friday 24 October: TUBER
- Wordle #1587, Thursday 23 October: DRILL
- Wordle #1586, Wednesday 22 October: STUNT
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.
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