NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1651, Friday, December 26

A phone displaying the Wordle logo sitting on a table surrounded by paperclips, pens and notebooks
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Looking for a different day?

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 Thursday'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.

Your Wordle expert
Marc McLaren
Your Wordle expert
Marc McLaren

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 #1651) - 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 #1651) - 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 #1651) - 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 #1651) - 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 #1651) - clue #5 - last chance

Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1651.

  • Today's Wordle answer is a measurement of movement.

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 #1651)

NYT Wordle answer for game 1651 on a green background

(Image credit: New York Times)

  • NYT average score: 3.7
  • My score: 3
  • WordleBot's score: 3
  • My skill score: 99
  • My luck score: 78
  • My start word performance: SANER (23 remaining answers)
  • WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (38)
  • Tomorrow's start word: SANER

Today's Wordle answer (game #1651) is… SPEED.

Another easy-ish day for Wordle, with the inclusion of two Es being the only complication. It's all relative, though – E is so common that we're more likely to get two of them in an answer than we are to get one of V, X, Z, Q or J.

In fact, an arguably bigger challenge here was to work out which letter followed the S at the start. As I've discussed in other recent columns, more than half of all letters can go after an S at the beginning of a Wordle answer, so narrowing them down isn't necessarily easy.

What you needed, if your start word began with an S as mine did, was a good second guess that contained lots of those S-following letters. The 'Bot told me later that there were five 'perfect' words at this stage – ones that it would have awarded a skill score of 99/99 – namely WHELP, DWELT, SPELT, SPLIT and SPILT.

Any of those five would have left only a single option today, but it was WHELP that I went for, confirming the double-E pattern in the middle and leaving SPEED as the only possible solution.


Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1650)

In a different time zone where it's still Thursday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1650, 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 P.

P is a very common first letter among Wordle answers. It's the fifth most common in the alphabet and begins 141 solutions in total.

  • 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 M.

M is a middling ending letter: it ranks 13th in this regard, and only completes 42 Wordle answers overall.

Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1650.

  • Yesterday's Wordle answer reflects or refracts light.

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1650)

NYT Wordle answer for game 1650 on a green background

(Image credit: New York Times)

  • NYT average score: 3.6
  • My score: 4
  • WordleBot's score: 3
  • My skill score: 92
  • My luck score: 52
  • My start word performance: SANER (33 remaining answers)
  • WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (61)
  • Tomorrow's start word: SANER

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1650) was… PRISM.

Merry Christmas to those of you who are celebrating. I wrote this soon after midnight in the UK, fully expecting to see Santa emerging from my chimney. It would have been quite the feat if he did, because my chimney is blocked up.

There's nothing remotely Christmassy about PRISM, and on the face of it at least, it could present quite the challenge if you're trying to solve it while juggling gift unwrapping, cooking duties and dispute resolution between family members playing Monopoly.

Its average score of 3.6 suggests otherwise, though. Maybe it's as low as that because there just aren't many other words that are spelled in a similar way – that SM combination at the end is only found in three out of Wordle's 2,309 original solutions.

We've already had one of the other two – SPASM, which was game #1567 a couple of months ago. I have a fairly strong hunch about what the other one could be, but I'm keeping shtum for now.

As with Wednesday's SPOOL, I needed four guesses to solve it – and also as with SPOOL, there wasn't a lot that I could have done to have beaten that beyond enjoyed a little more luck.

SANER, still my opening guess for now, had left only 33 options, and I suspected that the yellow S that it gave me would go in the fourth slot, while the R would go second for an -R-S- format. That gave me multiple options including the likes of FROST, TRUST, CRUST, GRIST, BRUSH and CRUSH – so I wanted to include both T and H in my second guess.

I decided to risk leaving out the S in order to play an extra letter, so went with BROTH. WordleBot told me that GROUT would have been a more efficient guess, but as it happened my choice left only three possibles while the 'Bot's would have left four. Not so smart now eh, 'Bot?

Those three possible solutions were CRISP, PRISM and FRISK, and I'll be honest – as soon as I spotted the first of those I played it, without making any effort to find any others. It wasn't correct, unfortunately, but it did remove FRISK as an option too, so I was able to play PRISM for my four.


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 #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
  • Wordle #1602, Friday 7 November: PERIL
  • Wordle #1601, Thursday 6 November: GUISE

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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Marc McLaren
Global Editor in Chief

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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