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.
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 #1704) - 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 #1704) - 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 #1704) - 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 #1704) - 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 #1704) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1704.
- Today's Wordle answer is a small, organized group of people.
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 #1704)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 99
- My luck score: 50
- My start word performance: SANER (42 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (22)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Today's Wordle answer (game #1704) is… SQUAD.
More than two weeks after the first repeat in Wordle's history, we have our second. SQUAD is also the first one that I played 'live', given that it originally appeared as the answer to game #296 on 11 April, 2022.
This was about four months after I began playing Wordle, and it's fascinating – and a little embarrassing – to revisit my game from nearly four years ago.
I was writing the daily column for TechRadar's sister site Tom's Guide then, and if you're interested you can check out the page from that day on the Internet Archive.
For those of you who aren't quite so invested in my Wordle journey, here's the screenshot from that day:
As you can see, I made what I would now consider to be a wasteful second guess, playing SALON after my opening STARE had already given me the green S at the start. Look at today's board and you'll see a different approach; SANER also gave me a green S, but this time I omitted it in favor of including an extra letter in my second attempt.
On the plus side, my third guess, SCUBA, was "exactly what I would have played", according to the 'Bot, and ultimately pointed me towards my four. That was the same score that I achieved today – albeit with a higher skill score from the 'Bot, of 99 today versus 91 back in 2022.
I can't really complain about scoring a four on a day when I'm deemed to have played perfectly – it just wasn't to be. And SQUAD isn't an easy Wordle, either. Its average score is only 3.8, so below the mean for the game, but that will have been brought down by the fact that ADIEU left only eight options and AUDIO just five.
My SANER left 42, but CLAMP brought that down to a quartet of SQUAD, SQUAT, SQUAB and SHIVA. I didn't find the last of those, but had the other three and decided to risk ending up with a five in search of a possible three. SQUAT was my choice, and when it was wrong I still had a 50/50 to navigate. This time, though, I picked the right one and took yet another four.
As to why the NYT chose to repeat SQUAD, well I have no idea. It's an interesting word, on account of that uncommon Q, but there was nothing particularly notable about it beyond that. Maybe it's just random. Either way, it keeps us on our toes as to when – and what – the next one might be…
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1703)
In a different time zone where it's still Monday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1703, 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 R.
R is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter. Despite ranking third overall in Wordle, it's merely the 11th most likely to begin an answer.
- There were 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 T.
T is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only E and Y are more likely in that position.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1703.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is where birds rest.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1703)
- NYT average score: 3.6
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 96
- My luck score: 46
- My start word performance: SANER (33 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (32)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1703) was… ROOST.
Okay, so maybe I am going to get my wish for repeated letters every day after all. ROOST is the fourth game in a row to feature a double, and indeed the third of those four that contains two Os. What a rare treat for us all!
At first glance, it doesn't appear to be a very difficult one, despite that OO pattern in the middle. WordleBot says it has an average score of 3.6 – making it (supposedly) easier than SKULL, BLOOM and MOOCH. Indeed, it's even a tiny bit below SURGE, which didn't have a repeated letter to complicate it.
In reality, your mileage will undoubtedly vary. Several of the most popular start words made major headway towards solving ROOST, with STARE leaving only 16 options and RAISE just two. Plus, maybe after several similar games in recent days the rest of us have been well prepared to spot the OO pattern.
I'm not sure I can put myself in that category, and I had to settle for yet another four. That's five in a row now, making this my worst run since October, back before I began using SANER. What is going on?
Well, some of it was luck, or rather bad luck. Maybe most of it, actually; WordleBot gave me a 96 for skill, after all. SANER left only 33 possibles, which was decent enough, and though CRUST was only deemed to be a "solid" follow-up, it cut the shortlist to a trio of WORST, FIRST and ROOST.
I could have attempted a three, and indeed if I'd have consulted a past Wordle answers list maybe I would have done, given that FIRST (game #56) and WORST (#898) have both appeared already.
On the other hand, repeated answers are now a thing in Wordle, so it wouldn't have guaranteed anything anyway. Speaking of which, where are they all? It's been two weeks now since CIGAR broke new ground for the game by revisiting old ground, but we've not had another repeated answer since then. Maybe they're going to be rare occurrences…
Back to this game, and instead of shooting for a three I played it safe for a four. FIRST was guaranteed to rule in/out the other two answers even if it was wrong, and I couldn't recall it having appeared, so went with that and guessed incorrectly.
I fixed that on the next guess, but had to settle for another below-the-average result. Frustrating.
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 #1703, Monday 16 February: ROOST
- Wordle #1702, Sunday 15 February: SKULL
- Wordle #1701, Saturday 14 February: BLOOM
- Wordle #1700, Friday 13 February: MOOCH
- Wordle #1699, Thursday 12 February: SURGE
- Wordle #1698, Wednesday 11 February: VEGAN
- Wordle #1697, Tuesday 10 February: SCENE
- Wordle #1696, Monday 9 February: CELLO
- Wordle #1695, Sunday 8 February: EMBED
- Wordle #1694, Saturday 7 February: BLEAT
- Wordle #1693, Friday 6 February: GAVEL
- Wordle #1692, Thursday 5 February: SWOOP
- Wordle #1691, Wednesday 4 February: CHIDE
- Wordle #1690, Tuesday 3 February: WEIGH
- Wordle #1689, Monday 2 February: CIGAR
- Wordle #1688, Sunday 1 February: SPINY
- Wordle #1687, Saturday 31 January: ALLOT
- Wordle #1686, Friday 30 January: JUMBO
- Wordle #1685, Thursday 29 January: FLAKY
- Wordle #1684, Wednesday 28 January: CRUEL
- Wordle #1683, Tuesday 27 January: DUSKY
- Wordle #1682, Monday 26 January: FREAK
- Wordle #1681, Sunday 25 January: STRUT
- Wordle #1680, Saturday 24 January: CLIFF
- Wordle #1679, Friday 23 January: BARON
- Wordle #1678, Thursday 22 January: CLINK
- Wordle #1677, Wednesday 21 January: CUBIC
- Wordle #1676, Tuesday 20 January: SULLY
- Wordle #1675, Monday 19 January: WAXEN
- Wordle #1674, Sunday 18 January: SUMAC
- Wordle #1673, Saturday 17 January: FIERY
- Wordle #1672, Friday 16 January: RACER
- Wordle #1671, Thursday 15 January: CHASM
- Wordle #1670, Wednesday 14 January: AVOID
- Wordle #1669, Tuesday 13 January: GUMBO
- Wordle #1668, Monday 12 January: TRIAL
- Wordle #1667, Sunday 11 January: QUARK
- Wordle #1666, Saturday 10 January: MANIC
- Wordle #1665, Friday 9 January: EIGHT
- Wordle #1664, Thursday 8 January: BLAST
- Wordle #1663, Wednesday 7 January: PECAN
- Wordle #1662, Tuesday 6 January: OOMPH
- Wordle #1661, Monday 5 January: FILLY
- Wordle #1660, Sunday 4 January: POSSE
- Wordle #1659, Saturday 3 January: SITAR
- Wordle #1658, Friday 2 January: PROOF
- Wordle #1657, Thursday 1 January: FABLE
- Wordle #1656, Wednesday 31 December: SIREN
- Wordle #1655, Tuesday 30 December: DECOR
- Wordle #1654, Monday 29 December: FRUIT
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.
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