NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1846, Thursday, July 9
Find out what today's Wordle answer is plus get some hints to help you solve it
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.
Don't think you need any clues for Wordle today? No problem, just skip to my daily column. But remember: failure in this game is only ever six guesses away.
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 #1846) - 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 #1846) - 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 #1846) - 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.
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Wordle hints (game #1846) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is D.
D is a fairly common letter to end a Wordle answer: it's the eighth most likely to be in that position in a solution.
Wordle hints (game #1846) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1846.
- Today's Wordle answer is to make a change to something.
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 #1846)
- NYT average score: 3.4
- My score: 3
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 88
- My luck score: 67
- My start word performance: SANER (24 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (140)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Today's Wordle answer (game #1846) is… AMEND.
There are many similarities between today's game and yesterday's, or at least there were for me.
For starters, AMEND is formed from four of the same letters as DEMON, with only the A and O differing between the two. WordleBot and I scored threes — for the third day in a row — and the average is again low, this time 3.4 compared to the 3.8 for yesterday's puzzle.
Beyond those surface similarities, though, my game also played out in a very familiar fashion. Specifically, SANER left a couple of dozen options (yesterday it was higher, at 50), only for my second guess to them cut down to a quartet.
Today, those four were AMEND, AGENT, HYENA and ENEMA, and as with yesterday's Wordle I failed to spot all of them, on this occasion missing ENEMA (which, frankly, I'm quite happy about). But — again, as with yesterday — that didn't matter, because faced with a one-in-four choice I picked correctly to get the three.
As to why AMEND has such a low average, well that would be the performance of the most popular of all start words, namely ADIEU — which left only four words in total. I'm not an advocate of beginning with either that or its cousin AUDIO, but inevitably there are days when they work.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1845)
In a different time zone where it's still Wednesday? Don't worry — I can give you some clues for Wordle #1845, 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 D.
D is the ninth most common starting letter in the game, so maybe slightly less likely than you might expect.
- 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 N.
N is a pretty common ending letter in Wordle: it's the seventh most likely in that position and features in 130 solutions.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1845.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is an evil being or spirit.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1845)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 3
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 79
- My luck score: 64
- My start word performance: SANER (50 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (329)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1845) was… DEMON.
We all have our DEMONs. In Wordle terms, mine are OO words, which I continue to hate, closely followed by ER words — which is one of the reasons why I start with SANER.
Fortunately, DEMON itself doesn't have any repeated letters, O or otherwise, or an ER ending, or indeed any real nasties to fear — which is why people are solving it in an average of 3.8 guesses.
Better still, from my point, is the fact that I scored another three. Now, I should put this in context: at the start of the year, I set myself the challenge of scoring more threes than fours, but at the time of writing, the tally is 70:93. So no, I am not doing so well. But in my past 10 games I've gone 7:3, so if I can just keep up that ratio for the next six weeks, I'll be back on track. Easy, eh?
The difference in the past week or so is that I seem to have stepped up my guessing game. And let's face it, you always need a bit of luck in that regard — you're never going to be able to do it all via strategy and skill.
My opening SANER had left 50 options, and my follow-up of CLONE had cut that to four, so this time the luck came on the third attempt.
The words left were ENJOY, ENVOY, ENDOW and DEMON, and my first bit of good fortune came from the fact that I didn't even think of the first two of those, just the last two. My second was the fact that I chose DEMON rather than ENDOW, and my third was that it proved to be correct. Is there such a thing as a good DEMON? Maybe so.
Wordle answers: The past 50
I've been playing Wordle every day for more than four 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 #1845, Wednesday 8 July: DEMON
- Wordle #1844, Tuesday 7 July: SLING
- Wordle #1843, Monday 6 July: TODDY
- Wordle #1842, Sunday 5 July: SWAMI
- Wordle #1841, Saturday 4 July: PIZZA
- Wordle #1840, Friday 3 July: BATON
- Wordle #1839, Thursday 2 July: MAVEN
- Wordle #1838, Wednesday 1 July: DEMUR
- Wordle #1837, Tuesday 30 June: PUPPY
- Wordle #1836, Monday 29 June: CRUDE
- Wordle #1835, Sunday 28 June: EMCEE
- Wordle #1834, Saturday 27 June: SCOOP
- Wordle #1833, Friday 26 June: ACUTE
- Wordle #1832, Thursday 25 June: UNITY
- Wordle #1831, Wednesday 24 June: QUEER
- Wordle #1830, Tuesday 23 June: CURRY
- Wordle #1829, Monday 22 June: OVATE
- Wordle #1828, Sunday 21 June: ALIBI
- Wordle #1827, Saturday 20 June: DRAKE
- Wordle #1826, Friday 19 June: EMOJI
- Wordle #1825, Thursday 18 June: ENTRY
- Wordle #1824, Wednesday 17 June: TOKEN
- Wordle #1823, Tuesday 16 June: AMAZE
- Wordle #1822, Monday 15 June: BROIL
- Wordle #1821, Sunday 14 June: SEPIA
- Wordle #1820, Saturday 13 June: QUELL
- Wordle #1819, Friday 12 June: BREAK
- Wordle #1818, Thursday 11 June: TESTY
- Wordle #1817, Wednesday 10 June: ALIGN
- Wordle #1816, Tuesday 9 June: WHARF
- Wordle #1815, Monday 8 June: MAFIA
- Wordle #1814, Sunday 7 June: THUMB
- Wordle #1813, Saturday 6 June: MORPH
- Wordle #1812, Friday 5 June: NOBLY
- Wordle #1811, Thursday 4 June: ALLOY
- Wordle #1810, Wednesday 3 June: NOTCH
- Wordle #1809, Tuesday 2 June: BASIS
- Wordle #1808, Monday 1 June: CHILI
- Wordle #1807, Sunday 31 May: ETUDE
- Wordle #1806, Saturday 30 May: SMILE
- Wordle #1805, Friday 29 May: CLANG
- Wordle #1804, Thursday 28 May: DIVOT
- Wordle #1803, Wednesday 27 May: STUFF
- Wordle #1802, Tuesday 26 May: COUCH
- Wordle #1801, Monday 25 May: VISIT
- Wordle #1800, Sunday 24 May: NIECE
- Wordle #1799, Saturday 23 May: CHUCK
- Wordle #1798, Friday 22 May: VOCAL
- Wordle #1797, Thursday 21 May: AGREE
- Wordle #1796, Wednesday 20 May: WRECK
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.

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief, the latest in a long line of senior editorial roles he’s held in a career that started the week that Google launched (nice of them to mark the occasion). Prior to joining TR, he was UK Editor in Chief on Tom’s Guide, where he oversaw all gaming, streaming, audio, TV, entertainment, how-to and cameras coverage. He's also a former editor of the tech website Stuff and spent five years at the music magazine NME, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people’s fun. He’s based in London, and has tested and written about phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, games, TVs, cameras and pretty much every other type of gadget you can think of. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). He also enjoys live music, gaming, cycling, and beating Wordle (he authors the daily Wordle today page).
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