Looking for a different day?
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 Wednesday’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 #1426) – clue #1 – Vowels
How many vowels does today’s Wordle have?
• Wordle today has 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).
Wordle hints (game #1426) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is E.
We don’t get many Wordle answers that start with an E – though it’s the most common letter in the game, it’s only the 14th most likely to begin a solution.
Wordle hints (game #1426) – 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 #1426) – 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 #1426) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1425.
- Today’s Wordle answer is enthusiastic.
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 #1426)
- NYT average score: 5.5
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- My skill score: 86
- My luck score: 44
- My start word performance: DUSTY (777 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (87)
- Tomorrow’s start word: CHUMP
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1426) is… EAGER.
Phew, well this was a tough one! At the time of writing, EAGER has an average score of 5.5. That’s incredibly high – in fact, it’s the second most difficult this year (behind ROWER, 5.6) and the equal fifth hardest ever. Or at least among the answers I have an average score for, which is about 1,100 of them.
It’s not so hard to see why it’s providing such a challenge: not only is it an ER word, but it’s an ER word with a repeated letter.
More than that, the E at the start is unexpected. The -AGER format has four solutions, with PAGER, WAGER and LAGER the other three. But it’s easy to overlook EAGER in that company; the brain is naturally drawn towards placing a consonant in front of that A in the second position.
And that’s assuming you even had the G in the middle. Lots of people played the likes of PAPER, BAKER, GAMER, WATER, MAKER and WAFER at various points today. Many also played RAGER and CAGER, but they both seem very unlikely to be solutions.
Somehow, I scored a four – but to do so I needed a bit of luck on my third guess, and a lot on my fourth.
I began poorly, with DUSTY leaving 777 options and supplying no letters. I followed up with an ER word, as is now customary in these situations and as I did yesterday. There, it was not helpful. Here, it was, with LONER giving me the ending format.
That cut my shortlist to 44, of which I found a few dozen. Not that I was choosing between them as such – I just wanted to know which letters to play next. In the end I went with MAGIC, reasoning that one of A and I would probably be needed, and that M, G and C all featured in lots of my possibles.
This was a “great choice”, according to WordleBot, and gave me the A and G. I now had four words to choose from, the ‘Bot said later: PAGER, WAGER, EAGER and, um, RAGER. As I said above, I can’t believe that’s a real possibility, but maybe I’m missing something.
I had the other three on my list, and was torn between whether to play a narrowing-down word (maybe WIPED or something like that) and accept a 5/6, or to shoot for the answer and possibly end up with a six.
I was confident that it wouldn’t be worse than a six, so uncharacteristically decided to go for it – and got lucky. I played EAGER, and to my relief scored a four that felt like a real success today.
How did you do today? Send me an email or let me know in the comments.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1425)
In a different time zone where it’s still Wednesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1425, 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 B.
B is a very, very common starting letter in Wordle. In fact, it’s the third most common overall, behind only S and 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 O.
O is a middling ending letter. It ranks 12th in this regard, and finishes 58 Wordle answers in total.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1425.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a musical instrument.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1425)
- NYT average score: 4.3
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- My skill score: 96
- My luck score: 49
- My start word performance: DIMLY (842 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (81)
- Tomorrow’s start word: DUSTY
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1425) was… BONGO.
There’s a lovely onomatopoeic feel to BONGO, isn’t there? Go on, say it: BON-GO! BON-GO! Okay, just me then.
We can all agree that it’s a tough Wordle answer, though. WordleBot says it has an average score of 4.3, and it contains my most hated of all Wordle formats, the repeated O.
Or rather, it almost does, because the ones I really don’t like are the OO words; here, the Os are separated and the options are fewer.
There were still plenty of them after my opening guess, DIMLY, which drew a blank and left 842 possible solutions. That’s by some distance the most words I’ve had to contend with on the second guess for some time.
I did what I always do now in situations where I don’t have any letters uncovered and neither E or R played yet, and chose an ER word, in this case SANER. That was incredibly lucky, giving me a green N in the middle and leaving only eight solutions.
I only found four of them, though, and BONGO wasn’t among them. Instead, they all ended either NCH: CONCH, BUNCH, HUNCH and PUNCH. Like BONGO, the others I missed all had that O at the end: GONZO, JUNTO and FUNGO. But really, are the latter two realistic answers? I doubt it.
BONGO was, obviously, but for now I was blind to it. I played BUMPH as a way to narrow down the quartet on my shortlist, and when the B turned green but the H was ruled out, it removed all of my choices. I looked again and this time found BONGO, giving me a satisfactory four.
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 #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
- Wordle #1384, Thursday 3 April: SHEAR
- Wordle #1383, Wednesday 2 April: CURSE
- Wordle #1382, Tuesday 1 April: JEWEL
- Wordle #1381, Monday 31 March: BOOTY
- Wordle #1380, Sunday 30 March: QUOTA
- Wordle #1379, Saturday 29 March: SORRY
- Wordle #1378, Friday 28 March: VERSE
- Wordle #1377, Thursday 27 March: SHEET
- Wordle #1376, Wednesday 26 March: ELBOW
- Wordle #1375, Tuesday 25 March: SHELF
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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