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 Monday'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 #1858) - 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 #1858) - 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 #1858) - 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 #1858) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is L.
L is a really common letter to find at the end of a Wordle. There are 155 games that finish with an L, and it ranks as the fifth most likely letter there.
Wordle hints (game #1858) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1858.
- Today's Wordle answer is paid to describe things favorably.
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 #1858)
- NYT average score: 4.7
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 93
- My luck score: 36
- My start word performance: SANER (87 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (19)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Today's Wordle answer (game #1858) is… SHILL.
Presumably those dastardly puzzle setters at the NYT have decided that the game has been too easy lately, on account of us having had a measly two games below the 4.0 level out of the past 10 days. So, they've really upped the difficulty again.
SHILL has an average score of 4.7, following the 4.2 for yesterday's DIVER. And there's no question about this being the NYT's work — because it's not an answer that appeared on the original Wordle solutions list. It has specifically been included through choice, purely to upset you, me and everyone else who plays Wordle.
And make no mistake, it is a difficult one, mainly because there are a whopping seven alternative words that differ by only one letter. These are probably obvious to you all, but I'll list them anyway: STILL or SPILL or SKILL or SWILL if you change the H, or SHELL or SHALL if you replace the I in the middle, or indeed CHILL if you don't have the S at the start.
Of course some will have found it tougher than others, because if you began with SLATE today you'll have had only 19 options. The 'Bot, which did just that, finished in three. But most will have had much longer shortlists to navigate, so even if they had the S at the start (as I did), they'll have faced an unenviable choice of several words.
In my case, SANER left 87 and CLOUT then cut them to a manageable seven. However, those seven included SPILL, SWILL, SKILL and SHILL, as well as SILKY, SILLY and SHYLY, all of which I thought of and all of which were reasonably sensible answers.
I needed a narrowing-down word, then, but couldn't think of anything that was guaranteed to give me the answer in four at worst. The best I could do was HULKY; I had no idea this would be accepted and don't really know what it means, because it's not a reference to the Marvel character, but it had the letters I wanted and Wordle let me guess it, so who cares.
The 'Bot told me later that WHISK would indeed have guaranteed a four, whereas HULKY might have left a 50/50 between SPILL and SWILL. Fortunately it didn't, instead pointing the way to SHILL for a gratefully accepted four.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1857)
In a different time zone where it's still Monday? Don't worry — I can give you some clues for Wordle #1857, 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 R.
R is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – it's actually the 4th most common there, behind E, Y and T.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1857.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer goes underwater.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1857)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 3
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 98
- My luck score: 63
- My start word performance: SANER (111 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (329)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1857) was… DIVER.
It's been nearly a month since we last had an ER word in Wordle, and I doubt too many people have been mourning their absence. A few might be unhappier still after this example, because it's a fairly tricky one with an average score of 4.2.
The V in the middle is the main complicating factor — well, outside of the main main complicating factor, which is of course the fact that it ends in ER.
There are 141 of these among Wordle's 2,309 original solutions, so finding the right one is a thankless task that involves trying to rule out almost every single letter in the alphabet; with some formats, some letters are more likely than others, but with ER words almost anything can go in the first or third position.
V is surprisingly common in these answers — far more so, relatively, than it is in the game in general. In fact, it's the second most likely letter to appear there, behind only T:
Letter | Appearances |
|---|---|
T | 16 |
V | 14 |
D | 11 |
P | 10 |
W | 10 |
N | 8 |
Y | 7 |
B | 6 |
E | 6 |
F | 6 |
G | 6 |
I | 5 |
K | 5 |
L | 5 |
R | 5 |
S | 5 |
M | 4 |
C | 3 |
H | 3 |
U | 2 |
X | 2 |
O | 1 |
Z | 1 |
As you can see, D is also very likely — so my choice of DIVOT as my second word was calculated to identify the letters that went in the second and third positions, and if I got the first one too that was a bonus.
Well, the bonus was soon coming to me, because DIVOT gave me the DIV part of the answer to go with the ER that SANER had already given me. A second successive three was now an inevitability.
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 #1857, Monday 20 July: DIVER
- Wordle #1856, Sunday 19 July: CHURN
- Wordle #1855, Saturday 18 July: BOOTH
- Wordle #1854, Friday 17 July: LEGAL
- Wordle #1853, Thursday 16 July: BUTTE
- Wordle #1852, Wednesday 15 July: PSHAW
- Wordle #1851, Tuesday 14 July: STEAK
- Wordle #1850, Monday 13 July: STOUT
- Wordle #1849, Sunday 12 July: CLACK
- Wordle #1848, Saturday 11 July: AVIAN
- Wordle #1847, Friday 10 July: CANAL
- Wordle #1846, Thursday 9 July: AMEND
- 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
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.
