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 Tuesday’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 #1488) – 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 #1488) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is N.
N is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter. Only 37 games begin with it and it ranks just 18th in this regard.
Wordle hints (game #1488) – 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 #1488) – 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 #1488) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1488.
- Today’s Wordle answer is either bold or easily scared.
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 #1488)
- NYT average score: 4.5
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- My skill score: 93
- My luck score: 61
- My start word performance: HUSKY (272 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (33)
- Tomorrow’s start word: GUAVA
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1488) is… NERVY.
NERVY is an interesting word, in that it can mean two things that are direct opposites: either brash, bold and impudent, or nervous, anxious and apprehensive.
There’s a slight difference here between British and American English; in both countries the word can mean both things, but the more negative connotation is common in the UK, while the strong, positive one is prevalent in the US. Read into that what you will!
It’s also a difficult word to solve in Wordle, judging by its average score of 4.5, though I’m not entirely sure why it’s as high as that. There are not really any of the obvious complications we’ve seen in lots of other games recently, beyond that V is a relatively uncommon letter, and to an extent that people may have played NERDY or NEVER before they went for the real solution.
I scored yet another four – my fifth in succession, boringly enough. My first guess, HUSKY, gave me the green Y at the end, but nothing more. I then followed up with CLONE, seeking to do little more than play common letters, and uncovered both an N and an E.
I now had eight words to choose from, WordleBot told me later, but only found six: BENDY, ENEMY, NEEDY, NERDY, ENTRY and NERVY. The other two, apparently, were PINEY and WINEY.
Based on the words I had found, NERDY was a great choice, in that it would guarantee me no worse than a four even if it was itself wrong. That logic was slightly flawed in reality, given that I’d missed a couple of options, but as it happened it didn’t matter – it left NERVY as the only possible solution, so I score my four anyway.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1487)
In a different time zone where it’s still Tuesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1487, 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 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.
- There were no 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 #1487.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is to force upon someone.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1487)
- NYT average score: 4.9
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- My skill score: 99
- My luck score: 42
- My start word performance: CLANG (752 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: CRANE (356)
- Tomorrow’s start word: HUSKY
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1487) was… FOIST.
Letter traps are one of Wordle’s chief weapons against its daily players. Uncommon letters such as X and J may make games harder, as may repeated letters, but it’s letter traps that tend to end streaks, particularly among those who play on hard mode.
FOIST – or rather -OIST, which is the letter trap of which FOIST forms a part – is by no means the worst of these. There are, after all, only four possibilities: JOIST, HOIST, MOIST and FOIST.
In contrast, -IGHT, the worst of them, has nine; -OUND has eight; and -ATCH has seven. So four options is not a disaster by any means.
However, FOIST is probably only the third most likely of the four to be played. MOIST and HOIST both proved far more popular on the second and third guesses; for instance, on the latter, 20% went with MOIST, 15% with HOIST and only 10 with FOIST.
The actual answer rose to the top of the list on the fourth guess, but even then more than half of all Wordlers played one of the other -OIST words. On the fifth go that dropped to about 44% and on the sixth it was just over 10%.
Lots of people will have lots their streaks today, then, and many more will have finished with a five – which is why FOIST has a very high average score of 4.9 at the time of writing. I should point out, however, that I am currently on vacation in Crete, and therefore played two hours before the UK hit midnight, and seven before New York reaches ‘today’. That score may well change a little.
Considering the word’s difficulty, and the fact that my initial CLANG drew a blank and left 752 options, I’m pleased with my four.
The hard work was done by my second guess, STORE, which cut the words list to only six. These were the four -OIST words, plus JOUST and POSIT. I found them all, and played THUMP in order to point the way to the answer.
The worst-case scenario here was that I might end up with a 50/50 between FOIST and JOIST, and this being Wordle that was exactly what happened. I decided to go for the non-J option, and got lucky when all five letters turned green.
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 #1487, Tuesday 15 July: FOIST
- Wordle #1486, Monday 14 July: UNDID
- Wordle #1485, Sunday 13 July: GNOME
- Wordle #1484, Saturday 12 July: EXILE
- Wordle #1483, Friday 11 July: BRAND
- Wordle #1482, Thursday 10 July: JUMPY
- Wordle #1481, Wednesday 9 July: NOVEL
- Wordle #1480, Tuesday 8 July: DREAD
- 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
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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