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 Sunday'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 #1661) - 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 #1661) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is F.
F is a very common starting letter in Wordle. It ranks seventh behind only S, C, B, T, P and A and overall there are 135 solutions that begin with this letter.
Wordle hints (game #1661) - 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 #1661) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is Y.
Y is the second most common ending letter in the game, behind only E. In total, 364 Wordle answers end with a Y.
Wordle hints (game #1661) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1661.
- Today's Wordle answer is the name for a young female of a particular type of animal.
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 #1661)
- NYT average score: 4.5
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 99
- My luck score: 36
- My start word performance: SANER (304 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (106)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Today's Wordle answer (game #1661) is… FILLY.
This new year has started off really well for Wordle, with a lovely mixture of tough words and interesting words to get our teeth into. FILLY is both of those things – it's one part of a classic Wordle letter trap, and has a high average of 4.5. Make no mistake, people will lose their streaks today, particularly on hard mode.
The -ILLY trap is far from Wordle's worst, but there are four genuinely likely solutions to it, in the form of SILLY, BILLY, HILLY and FILLY, plus a couple more that might be possibles: DILLY and WILLY. Wordle also accepts GILLY, MILLY, RILLY and TILLY – and indeed, some people played each of those today – but I can't see any of them ever being an answer.
FILLY joins HILLY (game #1267) and SILLY (#1309), but we're yet to see any of the others, so watch out for BILLY, at least, sometime in the next couple of years.
Almost as big of a problem today were words that didn't quite have that -ILLY format but that were close: FILMY, FIZZY, MILKY and SILKY all had their fans at various stages of the game.
I played FILMY myself, on the third guess, but not because I thought it would be the answer as such (although it would have been nice if it had been). No, at that stage it was one of 15 possible solutions, almost all of which had the -I--Y format – including HILLY, BILLY, FILLY and MILKY, but also DIMLY and IMPLY. There were also a few that didn't end with a Y, including LIVID, VIGIL and IDYLL.
FILMY was not guaranteed to narrow down the solutions, but nothing was at this stage. WordleBot said it would have gone with DIMLY, but awarded the same 99/99 skill score to several other guesses, including my choice.
Without a little luck here I might still have had a four-way choice, but as it was the F, I, L and Y all turned green, leaving FILLY as the only possible answer.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1660)
In a different time zone where it's still Sunday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1660, 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 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 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 #1660.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is a group of people.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1660)
- NYT average score: 3.9
- My score: 5
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 95
- My luck score: 32
- My start word performance: SANER (46 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (33)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1661) was… POSSE.
POSSE is another word we've inherited from Latin, which probably explains why its SSE format at the end is so uncommon. There is only one other original Wordle answer that has the same ending – and that's already appeared: MASSE, which was game #176 just before most people started playing. And likewise, that's another word that comes from Latin, indirectly at least – because it's originally French.
Anyway, that slightly unusual spelling might have tripped up a few people today; an SE at the end is very common, but generally you get another vowel before the S, as in CLOSE or PRISE or AMUSE or CHASE.
POSSE's average score of 3.9 reflects that to an extent, although I expected it to skew harder than that. Or rather, I hoped that it would, in order to partially justify my disappointing 5/6.
Admittedly, I suffered some poor fortune throughout today's game, with my second, third and fourth guesses scoring 24/99, 17/99 and 26/99 respectively for luck.
You could probably have guessed as much from looking at my remaining answers totals at each stage of my game: I had 46 words remaining after the first guess, then seven after the second, but still three after the third attempt, then one after the fourth; it simply took me too long today to narrow down the pool.
So, that's my first five of the year and my average so far in 2026 stands at a poor 4.0, against a global average of 3.95 for the first four days. Not good enough, and a drop in performance compared to 2025, where I averaged 3.75. Maybe I should return to random start words…
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 #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
- Wordle #1653, Sunday 28 December: ABBOT
- Wordle #1652, Saturday 27 December: BATCH
- Wordle #1651, Friday 26 December: SPEED
- 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
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.
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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