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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 Saturday’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.
Wordle hints (game #1436) – 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 #1436) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is G.
G is the eighth most common starting letter, featuring in 115 Wordle answers. It’s often paired with an R to make GR— or an L to make GL—, but I’m not revealing whether that’s the case today.
Wordle hints (game #1436) – 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 #1436) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is T.
T is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only E and Y are more likely in that position.
Wordle hints (game #1436) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1436.
- Today’s Wordle answer is to obtain money or property illicitly
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 #1436)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 5
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- My skill score: 96
- My luck score: 36
- My start word performance: WOOZY (1,620 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (66)
- Tomorrow’s start word: PULSE
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1436) is… GRIFT.
ARRRGGHHGHHGHHH! Another REALLY ANNOYING Wordle for me today, a second successive five and, once again, one I didn’t really deserve.
That said, GRIFT is a relatively difficult Wordle, as its average score of 4.2 indicates. That’s chiefly because of the similarly spelled word DRIFT, which so many people picked over the actual answer.
I was among them, so for the third day in a row I got a 50/50 wrong; I could have been 3, 4, 4 but, instead, have had to suffer a 4, 5, 5 sequence and that upsets me.
I had a terrible opening, too; WOOZY was not a word I would have chosen, but I use a random starter these days, and have to take what I’m given. Here, that was a word that gave me zero letters and left 1,620 possible solutions. I think that might be the worst start I’ve ever had.
I pulled it back to an extent with SANER, which only gave me a yellow R but which did cut the list down to 40, and then was fully on track when my third guess, FLIRT, left only two words.
And you already know what happened next. DRIFT or GRIFT, DRIFT or GRIFT, which to choose? Like 13% of Wordlers today I went with the former on the fourth guess and had to settle for a five instead.
How did you do today? Send me an email or let me know in the comments.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1435)
In a different time zone where it’s still Saturday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1435, too.
- Wordle yesterday had vowels in three 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 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.
- 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 #1435.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a material.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1435)
- NYT average score: 4.0
- My score: 5
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- My skill score: 92
- My luck score: 25
- My start word performance: CHASM (239 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (128)
- Tomorrow’s start word: WOOZY
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1435) was… SUEDE.
I wonder how many times I will write this sentence: ‘the trouble with S—E words is that there are just too many of them’? I’ve definitely done it before and will no doubt do so again – because it’s true!
As my analysis of every Wordle answer shows, S is by far the most common letter at the start of an answer, while E is overwhelmingly the likeliest at the end. Put those two fact together and you get a detail that is not covered in that analysis article, but which probably should be (note to self: write a new article) – namely that the S—E format is the most common in the game.
Of the 2,309 original solutions, a massive 74 have that S—E structure. That’s a distance ahead of the next most common, S-Y. Here’s the top 10 by frequency:
|
First and last letter |
Appearances |
|---|---|
|
SE |
74 |
|
SY |
42 |
|
ST |
41 |
|
AE |
38 |
|
SK |
38 |
|
DY |
33 |
|
CE |
33 |
|
PE |
32 |
|
PY |
31 |
|
BE |
30 |
Common letters are helpful, of course, because people tend to play them early on – not least in many of the best Wordle start words. SLATE has that format, of course, and left only 36 words, while STARE cut the shortlist to 32. But even then people will have faced a challenge to narrow down the answers quickly, and that’s probably why SUEDE has a relatively high average of 4.0 at the time of writing.
That said, the repeated E will be a factor too. E is regularly repeated, but it’s still far more likely to appear in singular form, so finding two of them usually trips people up to an extent.
I didn’t have the luxury of an S—E start word, so had a far greater pool of words to choose from for my second guess – 239 of them, because CHASM gave me only a yellow S.
I knew that I should move that to the start, but decided not to, in favor of playing LOSER instead. This was because I wanted to go for an ER word, and to include L and O in it – and that was the only way I could tick all of those boxes.
LOSER confirmed the E, albeit in yellow not green, but by now I was fairly certain it would be an S—E word. WordleBot told me later that I now had 25 options to choose from, and I came up with seven myself. I’m sure I could have found more, but didn’t feel like I needed to; I just needed to know which letters to include.
My list was SNIPE, SNIDE, SPIKE, SPITE, SPINE, SWINE and SWIPE, which was enough to point me towards SPINE as my next guess. This worked well enough, leaving only three words – none of which were on my shortlist.
I spent a little more time looking, and came up with SUEDE and SEGUE. The other was SEDGE, which seems unlikely to be a real answer.
So, in my head at least, I had a 50/50 and surely after guessing incorrectly on Friday, I’d get it right this time? But no, once again I picked the wrong one, going with SEGUE.
Still, it did leave SUEDE as the only possible answer finally, so I ended up with a frustrating five.
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 #1435, Saturday 24 May: SUEDE
- Wordle #1434, Friday 23 May: SHUCK
- Wordle #1433, Thursday 22 May: FOLIO
- Wordle #1432, Wednesday 21 May: ALARM
- Wordle #1431, Tuesday 20 May: BORNE
- Wordle #1430, Monday 19 May: PITCH
- Wordle #1429, Sunday 18 May: LIVID
- Wordle #1428, Saturday 17 May: GROWN
- Wordle #1427, Friday 16 May: FIFTH
- Wordle #1426, Thursday 15 May: EAGER
- Wordle #1425, Wednesday 14 May: BONGO
- Wordle #1424, Tuesday 13 May: AWARE
- Wordle #1423, Monday 12 May: BICEP
- Wordle #1422, Sunday 11 May: DOWEL
- Wordle #1421, Saturday 10 May: YEAST
- Wordle #1420, Friday 9 May: TRIPE
- Wordle #1419, Thursday 8 May: BALMY
- Wordle #1418, Wednesday 7 May: MACHO
- Wordle #1417, Tuesday 6 May: SUITE
- Wordle #1416, Monday 5 May: SHUSH
- Wordle #1415, Sunday 4 May: TROUT
- Wordle #1414, Saturday 3 May: PATSY
- Wordle #1413, Friday 2 May: WHOSE
- Wordle #1412, Thursday 1 May: ADEPT
- Wordle #1411, Wednesday 30 April: IDLER
- Wordle #1410, Tuesday 29 April: BLISS
- Wordle #1409, Monday 28 April: DUMMY
- Wordle #1408, Sunday 27 April: WEEDY
- Wordle #1407, Saturday 26 April: CLASH
- Wordle #1406, Friday 25 April: KNOWN
- Wordle #1405, Thursday 24 April: GENIE
- Wordle #1404, Wednesday 23 April: OZONE
- Wordle #1403, Tuesday 22 April: ARTSY
- Wordle #1402, Monday 21 April: SPATE
- Wordle #1401, Sunday 20 April: PATCH
- Wordle #1400, Saturday 19 April: INBOX
- Wordle #1399, Friday 18 April: DIRGE
- Wordle #1398, Thursday 17 April: STOOD
- Wordle #1397, Wednesday 16 April: MORAL
- Wordle #1396, Tuesday 15 April: ASHEN
- Wordle #1395, Monday 14 April: CREST
- Wordle #1394, Sunday 13 April: LAUGH
- Wordle #1393, Saturday 12 April: NURSE
- Wordle #1392, Friday 11 April: ARROW
- Wordle #1391, Thursday 10 April: TURBO
- Wordle #1390, Wednesday 9 April: WHEAT
- Wordle #1389, Tuesday 8 April: SPARE
- Wordle #1388, Monday 7 April: HAZEL
- Wordle #1387, Sunday 6 April: VILLA
- Wordle #1386, Saturday 5 April: FOAMY
- Wordle #1385, Friday 4 April: KRILL
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 last year 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.
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, that weren’t in that list of 2,309 solutions. More will undoubtedly come over the next few years.
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