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 #1674) - 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 #1674) - 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 #1674) - 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 #1674) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is C.
C is a fairly uncommon letter to end a Wordle answer – it's only the 16th most likely to be found there.
Wordle hints (game #1674) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1674.
- Today's Wordle answer is a plant and a spice.
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 #1674)
- NYT average score: 4.0
- My score: 5
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 73
- My luck score: 42
- My start word performance: SANER (42 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (22)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Today's Wordle answer (game #1674) is… SUMAC.
Am I the only person who had barely heard of the word SUMAC before today? Judging by the relatively normal average score of 4.0 I might well be.
Well, I was so utterly baffled by it that I made an uncharacteristic mistake that earned me a zero skill score for my fourth guess. Not my finest hour.
SUMAC is, apparently, any one of "roughly 35 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus (and related genera) of the cashew and mango tree family, Anacardiaceae." And yes, I'm quoting directly from Wikipedia here, because I'm so far out of my depth that the possibility of me drowning is a real possibility. Anyway, SUMAC is commonly used as a spice in various cuisines, particularly Iranian, and also a dye.
The fact that I had barely heard of it before definitely contributed to my five, and indeed to my horrendous mistake on the fourth guess of going for a word that could not possibly have been the answer because I'd already used the yellow A in that same space. What. An. Idiot.
Worse still, I only had one possible solution left at that point; SANER had left me 42, CLOTH cut that to four (SCUBA, SMACK, SCAMP and SUMAC), and SCAMP cut it to just one.
Of course, I hadn't thought of SUMAC, so when I saw the yellow C after playing SCAMP, I thought to myself 'Aha! It must be SMACK then!' without paying attention to the fact that yellow C or not, the A was also yellow, and therefore it couldn't be SMACK. What. An. Idiot.
So, SUMAC. I said earlier (twice, for emphasis) that I'd barely heard of it, rather than never heard of it – because I had actually seen it before, as an answer in Wordle spin-off Quordle. I no longer play Quordle regularly, but I still edit the daily Quordle hints page written by a contributor and remembered it because it was a word I didn't know, so I looked it up at the time.
Obviously I didn't remember it from then as such, but it must have stuck in my brain to an extent, because I was eventually able to identify it on the fifth guess today.
By that stage, I had incredibly limited options for what I could possibly play – it had to be either S-CAM or S-MAC. So I ran through the options for each remaining letter in the game and when I saw SUMAC something triggered in my mind and I escaped with my streak intact, albeit not my dignity.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1673)
In a different time zone where it's still Saturday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1673, 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 F.
F is a very common starting letter in Wordle. It ranks seventh behind only S, C, B, T, P and A and overall there are 135 solutions that begin with this letter.
- 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 Y.
Y is the second most common ending letter in the game, behind only E. In total, 364 Wordle answers end with a Y.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1673.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is hot tempered (or just hot).
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1673)
- NYT average score: 3.9
- My score: 3
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 68
- My luck score: 55
- My start word performance: SANER (125 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (329)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1673) was… FIERY.
This is the lowest skill score I've received in weeks (months?) and given that I scored a three, I feel a little hard done by. Then again, there were plenty of recent games where I received a high skill score but only managed a four or five, so I'd rather be dissed by the 'Bot but beat the average than vice-versa.
FIERY is an averagely difficult Wordle – it's being solved in 3.9 guesses at the time of writing, which is right around the overall average for the game. It doesn't contain any truly uncommon letters, but two – F and Y – that are only really common in one position. Those positions are at the start and end respectively, though, so what the game takes with one hand, it gives with the other.
Why did my play only warrant a skill score of 68? Well, SANER had left me with 125 options and my follow-up of TRICE cut that to five. So far, so good – and the 'Bot awarded me 97/99 for that second guess, too.
However, I only thought of FIERY and PERIL, completely missing REMIX (bad miss, that), REBID (meh) and REDID (also meh). I picked FIERY thinking it was one half of a 50/50 and got lucky to score my three. In WordleBot's eyes, though, I might have left myself with a choice of four words, hence its low rating for me. But us humans know that FIERY was always more likely than REDID, right?
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 #1673, Satuday 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
- Wordle #1658, Friday 2 January: PROOF
- Wordle #1657, Thursday 1 January: FABLE
- Wordle #1656, Wednesday 31 December: SIREN
- Wordle #1655, Tuesday 30 December: DECOR
- Wordle #1654, Monday 29 December: FRUIT
- Wordle #1653, Sunday 28 December: ABBOT
- Wordle #1652, Saturday 27 December: BATCH
- Wordle #1651, Friday 26 December: SPEED
- Wordle #1650, Thursday 25 December: PRISM
- Wordle #1649, Wednesday 24 December: SPOOL
- 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
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.
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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