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 Tuesday'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 #1663) - 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 #1663) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is 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.
Wordle hints (game #1663) - 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 #1663) - clue #4 - ending letter
What letter does today's Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today's Wordle is N.
N is a pretty common ending letter in Wordle: it's the seventh most likely in that position and features in 130 solutions.
Wordle hints (game #1663) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1663.
- Today's Wordle answer is a nut.
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 #1663)
- NYT average score: 3.5
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 95
- My luck score: 54
- My start word performance: SANER (24 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (140)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Today's Wordle answer (game #1663) is… PECAN.
And… relax. After several difficult games in a row, we've got a nice interlude – or potentially the start of an easier run, depending on how things pan out.
PECAN has none of the complications that have afflicted the likes of OOMPH, FILLY, POSSE, PROOF and FABLE – no repeated letters, no uncommon letters, not even that many similarly spelled words.
There are a couple of the latter, sure – the -E-AN format delivers BEGAN, VEGAN and SEDAN, for instance – but it's not a letter-trap type situation.
What's more, it's also a great food word, of which Wordle has had plenty. The PECAN is arguably the greatest of all nuts, although I am partial to a macadamia, and to a chocolate-covered brazil nut, and to a walnut (great on pizza, trust me) and of course, pistachio, which rivals mangoes for being so tasty that they're worth the tremendous effort involved in eating them.
None of those are five-letter words, though, and in fact I'm not sure any others of what are traditionally thought of as nuts could be Wordle answers. BETEL would fit, but it's not really a nut. Maybe ACORN? That was the answer to game #1153, and it might be the only other possibility.
Anyway, back to the game. Despite its average of only 3.5, both WordleBot and I scored a four. That suggests it might be playing harder than its average, but it could also just be luck (or lack of it).
In my case, I'd narrowed it down to only three words by the end of my second guess, LEANT, and could have had a stab at it then. That might have given me a three, but as it happened it merely ruled out two of the answers (VEGAN and BEGAN) and left the less likely PECAN instead. A very similar thing happened with the 'Bot, which played BEGAN on the third guess.
So, ultimately, it's a straightforward Wordle and one that is unlikely to stick too long in the memory. And some days, that's just fine.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1662)
In a different time zone where it's still Tuesday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1662, 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 O.
Vowels are generally less common than you'd expect at the start of a word, and O is only the 17th most likely letter to begin a Wordle 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 H.
H is a regular visitor to the final spot in a Wordle word. It occurs 137 times at the end of a Wordle answer, making it the sixth most common letter there.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1662.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is a little extra.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1662)
- NYT average score: 4.3
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 99
- My luck score: 30
- My start word performance: SANER (304 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (315)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1662) was… OOMPH.
Is the NYT ramping up the number of non-original answers? I have no idea – but OOMPH is the second such word in four days, so the early evidence might suggest it is. Then again, there were none of them in December, but two in three days late in November, so maybe it's random.
Either way, it meant we had another toughie to tackle yesterday. OOMPH has an average score of 4.3, so not quite as high as that for Monday's FILLY (4.6 at the time of writing), but still way above the norm for the game.
That's hardly surprising, because it also has a novel opening combination. That OO pairing – so common and so frustrating elsewhere – is not found at the start of any of the 2,309 original Wordle solutions, and as far as I know there's no other five-letter word that begins in that way (beyond the likes of OOZED or OOZES, which fall foul of Wordle's rules).
The MPH ending, meanwhile, is found in three of the original answers – HUMPH was game #3, NYMPH was #281 and the third is yet to appear. It's hardly common, though.
There's not a lot of familiarity to it all round, then – so it's no wonder it's proving a tough nut to crack. I'm therefore pretty happy to have scored a four once again.
The hard work was done, once again, by my third guess. SANER had drawn a blank, and CLOUT cut that to 20 – but I got very lucky with PODGY, which cut that score of words down to a single answer.
It took me ages to find it, though – I looked and looked and couldn't think of any word that fit until I stopped worrying about the start of the word and instead focused on the end. That suggested the MPH format, and with an O already in place I was all set to play WOMPH but saw sense and held off until I spotted OOMPH. Phew!
One weird note about WordleBot yesterday – when I played PODGY, it reported that "PODGY is one of the most efficient guesses in this situation. (I'm limited to more familiar words in suggestions to readers.)" That would be fine if not for the fact that the 'Bot's best suggested word to play for that guess was… PODGY, so it was limited at all. Strange. Maybe it's got a touch of the computer flu…
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 #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
- 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
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.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.