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.
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 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 #1553) - 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 #1553) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is L.
L is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter in Wordle. Despite being the sixth most common letter overall, it's only ranked 12th at the beginning of a word.
Wordle hints (game #1553) - 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 #1553) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is 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.
Wordle hints (game #1553) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1553.
- Today's Wordle answer is not now.
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 #1553)
- NYT average score: 3.4
- My score: 2
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 91
- My luck score: 74
- My start word performance: GRUFF (542 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (7)
- Tomorrow's start word: DODGY
Today's Wordle answer (game #1553) is… LATER.
LATER is a great Wordle word. Not only does it contain five of the top 10 letters by frequency – numbers one, two, three, five and six, in fact, with O the only one of the top five not included – but the majority of them are also in either their most common or second-most common position, too. Oh, and it also covers off the ER-trap possibility.
That's the reason why I regularly use it as a second guess in this game – in fact I've played it second up five or six times in the past month.
I say this as a justification for the fact that I scored an extremely unlikely and suspicious-looking two today.
My opening GRUFF was less-than helpful, leaving 542 options and giving me only a yellow R to go on – but a yellow R without an E having been played always suggests that an ER word might be a possibility, and so I duly turned to LATER.
And it was right. Hurrah!
Plenty of other people will have joined me with a two today, or a three at worst, because SLATE left only seven possible answers. In fact, some will have scored a one – because LATER is itself a start word for some.
That's probably playing a big part in the ultra-low average of 3.4 here; it's been an easy month in general, but LATER is among the easiest even in that company. I'd be surprised if anyone lost their streak today, at least.
Will I still keep playing LATER as a start word? Maybe, maybe not. It will depend on how the letters fall, of course, but maybe I'll turn more often to SANER, another good second word and one that has not yet been a solution.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1552)
In a different time zone where it's still Thursday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1552, 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 K.
K is not a common starting letter in Wordle by any measure. In fact it ranks 22nd out of 26; a mere 20 answers begin with a K.
- 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 E.
E is the most common letter to end a Wordle answer by far. That's one of the reasons why many of the best start words, including SLATE, CRANE, CRATE and STARE, all end with one.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1552.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer cuts.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1552)
- NYT average score: 4.0
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 97
- My luck score: 37
- My start word performance: DILLY (320 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (120)
- Tomorrow's start word: GRUFF
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1552) was… KNIFE.
For some reason my random word generator keeps giving me starters with repeated letters, and it's really, really annoying. Today I had DILLY – the sixth such example in my past 12 games. Given that repeated letters only occur in just under a third of Wordles, it's wasteful that I keep starting with one. And as (bad) luck would have it, there's another one coming tomorrow, too. Great.
KNIFE does not have a repeated letter (whereas yesterday's TEETH did), but it does contain one of those curious English letter combinations in the form of KN at the start.
On seeing it as the answer I realized that I have no idea why the K is silent. Or rather, I know why it's silent – I just don't know why it's there at all; what's wrong with it just being NIFE?
So, being the curious type, I looked it up. And it turns out that in Old English, the K was pronounced after all – it's just lost its voice over time and become the silent letter we know today. The word seemingly came from Germanic languages, where the KN sound would be spoken as two distinct sounds, so it's simply an example of a process known as apheresis. And there endeth today's lesson.
The fact that it's silent probably makes it harder to locate within a Wordle answer, because if your brain is anything like mine it will dismiss the idea of an N being preceded at the start of a word by anything other than a vowel. I have to force it to consider the K, and indeed the G. Bad brain.
Then again, that didn't impact me today, because by the time I reached the stage of considering KNIFE, it was the only answer left.
My repeated-letter-containing opener DILLY had left 320 options and had only given me a yellow I, but TRICE was a good second guess and cut that by 300. Next, I jotted down a dozen possible answers including lots of S-starting words: SPINE, SHINE, SWINE, SWIPE, SPIKE, SNIPE and SEIZE, but also some outliers such as POISE, NOISE, WHINE and MAIZE.
The plethora of Ns among those options convinced me to include that next, and P looked like a good one too. S was a must, so I went with PAWNS – which turned out to be exactly what the 'Bot would also have played.
PAWNS could have left me with a 50/50 between GUISE and SEIZE, but luck was with me and it instead pointed me towards KNIFE as the answer, silent K and all.
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 #1552, Thursday 18 September: KNIFE
- Wordle #1551, Wednesday 17 September: TEETH
- Wordle #1550, Tuesday 16 September: LEFTY
- Wordle #1549, Monday 15 September: ALONG
- Wordle #1548, Sunday 14 September: NOISY
- Wordle #1547, Saturday 13 September: NADIR
- Wordle #1546, Friday 12 September: THROB
- Wordle #1545, Thursday 11 September: CHAIR
- Wordle #1544, Wednesday 10 September: POUTY
- Wordle #1543, Tuesday 9 September: TRICK
- Wordle #1542, Monday 8 September: CHIRP
- Wordle #1541, Sunday 7 September: TENOR
- Wordle #1540, Saturday 6 September: BULGE
- Wordle #1539, Friday 5 September: DRIFT
- Wordle #1538, Thursday 4 September: BLEND
- Wordle #1537, Wednesday 3 September: FETCH
- Wordle #1536, Tuesday 2 September: MIGHT
- Wordle #1535, Monday 1 September: LEAST
- Wordle #1534, Sunday 31 August: PETAL
- Wordle #1533, Saturday 30 August: ELATE
- Wordle #1532, Friday 29 August: GRAFT
- Wordle #1531, Thursday 28 August: SPLIT
- Wordle #1530, Wednesday 27 August: TOWER
- Wordle #1529, Tuesday 26 August: ANNEX
- Wordle #1528, Monday 25 August: MIRTH
- Wordle #1527, Sunday 24 August: SPORE
- Wordle #1526, Saturday 23 August: UNION
- Wordle #1525, Friday 22 August: RATTY
- Wordle #1524, Thursday 21 August: EXTOL
- Wordle #1523, Wednesday 20 August: LLAMA
- Wordle #1522, Tuesday 19 August: ROWDY
- Wordle #1521, Monday 18 August: ISSUE
- Wordle #1520, Sunday 17 August: LOUSY
- Wordle #1519, Saturday 16 August: MATTE
- Wordle #1518, Friday 15 August: LEVEL
- Wordle #1517, Thursday 14 August: KNELL
- Wordle #1516, Wednesday 13 August: KEFIR
- Wordle #1515, Tuesday 12 August: NOMAD
- Wordle #1514, Monday 11 August: SOUTH
- Wordle #1513, Sunday 10 August: MINTY
- Wordle #1512, Saturday 9 August: NASAL
- Wordle #1511, Friday 8 August: IMBUE
- Wordle #1510, Thursday 7 August: CORAL
- Wordle #1509, Wednesday 6 August: GROAN
- Wordle #1508, Tuesday 5 August: STORK
- Wordle #1507, Monday 4 August: RIGID
- Wordle #1506, Sunday 3 August: LUMPY
- Wordle #1505, Saturday 2 August: DAUNT
- Wordle #1504, Friday 1 August: BANJO
- Wordle #1503, Thursday 31 July: FRILL
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.
4. Answers are never plural.
4b… Unless they are. There have been a couple of plural words that don't end in an S, including FUNGI (game #439) and ATRIA (#1478)
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.
10. All answers are drawn from Wordle's list of 2,309 solutions. However…
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 4 above), but Wordle will accept it as a guess.
12. 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.
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