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 Monday’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 #1480) – 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 #1480) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is D.
D is the ninth most common starting letter in the game, so maybe slightly less likely than you might expect.
Wordle hints (game #1480) – 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 #1480) – 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 #1480) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1480.
- Today’s Wordle answer is a feeling of impending unease.
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 #1480)
- NYT average score: 4.1
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- My skill score: 95
- My luck score: 45
- My start word performance: CACTI (356 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (11)
- Tomorrow’s start word: CRONY
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1480) is… DREAD.
DREAD is not an emotion I experience very often, fortunately, but I do dread one day failing Wordle and losing my streak.
I’m at 1,282 now, so if I did lose it I would be very unlikely to ever beat it again; there are about 850 of the original answers left, plus maybe 50-100 more added by the NYT (maybe fewer than that), so reaching 1,000 again would be an impossibility. Would there be any point in carrying on? How would I find the enthusiasm to get up each day, let alone to solve Wordle and write a daily column on it? It doesn’t bear thinking about.
But back in the real world, I don’t dread very much, which I am very grateful for. And nor do I dread a repeated letter in Wordle, because this is the third game in a row to include one – and none of them have been horribly difficult to solve.
D is not a particularly common one to be repeated – there are only 22 games that have more than one D among the 2,309 original solutions. But it is, however, a relatively common inclusion at both the start and end (ninth and eighth respectively), which may have helped you place it today.
It appears that plenty of people are struggling to solve it, because it has a high-ish average of 4.1. And that’s despite WordleBot’s favored CRANE leaving only 11 options. My CACTI was a lot less helpful, and I had 356 words to choose from.
One of those was SNARE, which I played next and which succeeded in uncovering two more yellows to add to the still-yellow A.
I knew an ER word was unlikely now, because the A couldn’t go in the second position; ADDER and AMBER were the only ones I could think of, though the ‘Bot later pointed out AUGER and ALDER too.
Instead, I focused mainly on -REA- words such as DREAM, BREAK, FREAK, WREAK, BREAD and indeed DREAD.
DREAM might have left me a big pool of seven words if the letters had fallen differently, but as it was I got lucky and it left only one possible answer. That was DREAD, which I played with anything but that and scored a decent four.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1479)
In a different time zone where it’s still Monday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1479, too.
- Wordle yesterday had 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).
- 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 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 #1479.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a pole that elevates.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1479)
- NYT average score: 4.0
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- My skill score: 80
- My luck score: 56
- My start word performance: NOSEY (175 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (356)
- Tomorrow’s start word: CACTI
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1479) was… STILT.
Whether by accident or design, the NYT is throwing plenty of tricky words at us right now. Sunday’s ATRIA followed Saturday’s BALER, and though Friday’s CURVE was not so bad, Thursday’s POPPY was a nightmare.
STILT is another potentially tricky one, though it will depend on what your start word was. If you began with STARE, you’ll have been happy enough; although not quite as successful as it was for ATRIA (where it left only a single answer), it reduced the pool to 22. But the real winner among the oft-played words today was SLATE, which left only five.
The repeated Ts are the major complicating factor here. As my analysis of every Wordle answer shows, getting more than one T in a solution is not uncommon compared to most letters – it occurs 61 times overall, meaning that only E, O, L and A are more likely to appear more than once. However, put that in the context of 2,309 answers and there’s a less than 3% chance of this format turning up.
Still, all five (or four) letters are common, and the ST at the start is by far the most common opening combination, with 65 appearances. Wordle giveth and it taketh away, then – which adds up to an average score of 4.0, so it’s not too difficult.
I hit that average with my own game, as did WordleBot, but I didn’t play it particularly well. NOSEY was an unhelpful starter, but SAINT got things back on track, giving me three greens in the format S-I-T.
I now had six words available, but only found four: SHIFT, STILT, SKIRT and SWIFT. Somehow, I missed SHIRT – which was ridiculous, given that I got SKIRT – plus SPILT, which was maybe easier to overlook given that I would write ‘spilled’ instead.
Anyway, that impacted my third choice, because I thought WHELK would guarantee me the answer – whereas in reality it might have left me either of two 50/50s.
And indeed, it did leave one – between STILT and SPLIT. But I still hadn’t thought of the latter, so played the former and got away with it. Phew!
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 #1479, Monday 7 July: STILT
- Wordle #1478, Sunday 6 July: ATRIA
- Wordle #1477, Saturday 5 July: BALER
- Wordle #1476, Friday 4 July: CURVE
- Wordle #1475, Thursday 3 July: POPPY
- Wordle #1474, Wednesday 2 July: INCUR
- Wordle #1473, Tuesday 1 July: MOLDY
- Wordle #1472, Monday 30 June: BLINK
- Wordle #1471, Sunday 29 June: WITTY
- Wordle #1470, Saturday 28 June: STUMP
- Wordle #1469, Friday 27 June: PLAIN
- Wordle #1468, Thursday 26 June: OFFER
- Wordle #1467, Wednesday 25 June: COMFY
- Wordle #1466, Tuesday 24 June: ELITE
- Wordle #1465, Monday 23 June: ODDLY
- Wordle #1464, Sunday 22 June: THRUM
- Wordle #1463, Saturday 21 June: GLADE
- Wordle #1462, Friday 20 June: TAUPE
- Wordle #1461, Thursday 19 June: CURIO
- Wordle #1460, Wednesday 18 June: MUNCH
- Wordle #1459, Tuesday 17 June: PRANK
- Wordle #1458, Monday 16 June: PETTY
- Wordle #1457, Sunday 15 June: QUAIL
- Wordle #1456, Saturday 14 June: GHOST
- Wordle #1455, Friday 13 June: BILGE
- Wordle #1454, Thursday 12 June: VIXEN
- Wordle #1453, Wednesday 11 June: PLAID
- Wordle #1452, Tuesday 10 June: TAFFY
- Wordle #1451, Monday 9 June: BOARD
- Wordle #1450, Sunday 8 June: LEASE
- Wordle #1449, Saturday 7 June: REUSE
- Wordle #1448, Friday 6 June: EDIFY
- Wordle #1447, Thursday 5 June: DATUM
- Wordle #1446, Wednesday 4 June: CEASE
- Wordle #1445, Tuesday 3 June: ADMIN
- Wordle #1444, Monday 2 June: PREEN
- Wordle #1443, Sunday 1 June: ROUGH
- Wordle #1442, Saturday 31 May: HABIT
- Wordle #1441, Friday 30 May: IDIOM
- Wordle #1440, Thursday 29 May: QUASH
- Wordle #1439, Wednesday 28 May: POLAR
- Wordle #1438, Tuesday 27 May: SPORT
- Wordle #1437, Monday 26 May: DRONE
- Wordle #1436, Sunday 25 May: GRIFT
- 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
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 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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