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 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 #1653) - 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 #1653) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is 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.
Wordle hints (game #1653) - 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 #1653) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is T.
T is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only E and Y are more likely in that position.
Wordle hints (game #1653) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1653.
- Today's Wordle answer is a religious leadership position.
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 #1653)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 95
- My luck score: 38
- My start word performance: SANER (127 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (64)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Today's Wordle answer (game #1653) is… ABBOT.
On most occasions, ABBOT would be the hardest Wordle of the weekend – it has an average score of 4.2. Coming after yesterday's super-tough BATCH, though, it may well be something of a relief.
Not too much, of course – 4.2 is still well above the overall average for the game, and it has an uncommon format that may well have caught out a few people today. The repeated B is the biggest complication; there really aren't too many games where B turns up twice, only 13 in total, and more than a third of those are --BBY words such as HOBBY (game #765) and TABBY (#1605). There are no others that have that -BBO- format, with the closest alternative being ABBEY – which was the answer to game #208 years ago.
T at the end is common, of course, but not with an O in front of it particularly; again, there are 13 words that have that format among Wordle's original solutions list, including ROBOT (#215), DEPOT (#279) and ASCOT (#971).
I suspect most people will have had to work fairly hard for their solve today, then, as I certainly did. I scored a four again, and my streak was never in doubt, but it wasn't one of those games that I flew through.
SANER had left 127 options, and today I followed up with TIDAL for no particular reason other than that the word was in my head because I was investigating subscribing to the music service of the same name. TIDAL was fairly successful in cutting the shortlist to five, of which I only found one: ABOUT.
I didn't look too hard, admittedly, because sometimes you spot a word and just think 'Aha! Yes, I'll play that!' One of the other options was pretty unlikely, too – is GOTTA really a possible answer, WordleBot? – but I probably should have thought of QUOTA, AFOOT and ABBOT.
No matter. ABOUT ruled out everything other than the eventual answer, so I got there in the end.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1652)
In a different time zone where it's still Saturday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1652, 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 B.
B is a very, very common starting letter in Wordle. In fact, it's the third most common overall, behind only S and C.
- 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 H.
H is a regular visitor to the final spot in a Wordle word. It occurs 137 times at the end of a Wordle answer, making it the sixth most common letter there.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1652.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is the quantity prepared or required for one operation.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1652)
- NYT average score: 4.7
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 5
- My skill score: 96
- My luck score: 52
- My start word performance: SANER (99 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (64)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1652) was… BATCH.
I was born in Coventry, a city in the middle of England, and pretty much the only place that I know of where a BATCH is the name for what most people call a bread roll. Although that said, the UK does have a bewildering variety of names for this simple foodstuff – with cob, barm, bun, bap, muffin and tea cake also used to mean the same thing. But it will always be a BATCH to me.
For most people, BATCH will instead mean a group of things for a particular production process – or resulting from one. For instance a BATCH of cookies. For most Wordlers, though, it will mean something else – namely… danger.
That's because BATCH is one eighth of a particularly nasty letter-trap game, together with its siblings WATCH, PATCH, LATCH, HATCH, MATCH, NATCH and CATCH.
RATCH and GATCH are also, apparently, possibles – Wordle would have accepted either, and some people did play them, but they're both on the obscure end of the spectrum. NATCH, as a slang word, may also have been unlikely – but the other seven are all-too viable.
It's probably the second worst of all letter traps, behind only -IGHT, which has nine possibles: WIGHT, RIGHT, TIGHT, LIGHT, FIGHT, SIGHT, MIGHT, NIGHT and BIGHT. It's therefore hardly a surprise that the average for today's game is a mighty 4.7.
Of course, a knowledge of past Wordle answers will have made the task easier, because we've already had five of the eight: HATCH (game #113), WATCH (#265), CATCH (#483), MATCH (#976) and PATCH (#1401). That leaves only NATCH (if it does appear) and LATCH (which surely will do) – so remember that in the future!
I didn't check a past answers list, and I didn't remember any of the others except WATCH, which always sticks in my mind as one of the first truly difficult solutions that caused lots of lost streaks early on in Wordle's post-expansion life. But I still managed a four, which I'm definitely taking as a win.
That was largely down to two factors. The first was that I followed my initial SANER with CLOTH, partly because I'd seen the possibility of it being an -ATCH word when I got my single green A on the first guess. CLOTH would all-but confirm that format if the H turned green and the T yellow, while the inclusion of C and L would rule out (or in) CATCH and LATCH.
It was only a "solid" guess according to WordleBot, but it worked exactly as I'd hoped it would, leaving only those five remaining -ATCH words.
If I'd had checked an answers list next I'd have scored a three, because BATCH was the only genuine solution left. But instead, I played PLUMB – which would rule in/out PATCH, MATCH and BATCH in one go. That would effectively have guaranteed me a four, as I knew that it wasn't WATCH either.
As it happened, the B turned yellow, so I scored my comfortable four on a tricky day.
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 #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
- 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
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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