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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 Sunday'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.
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 #1864) - 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 #1864) - 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 #1864) - 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 #1864) - 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 #1864) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1864.
- Today's Wordle answer is someone who likes showing themselves off.
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 #1864)
- NYT average score: 3.7
- My score: 3
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 88
- My luck score: 82
- My start word performance: SANER (7 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (33)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Today's Wordle answer (game #1864) is… POSER.
ER words are typically among the toughest of all Wordles. The average for the whole game (or the 2600-odd games since WordleBot started) is 3.967 — but the average for ER words is a mighty 4.4
I have the average score for 93 ER games dating back to game #288, FEWER, in April 2022. Of those, 77 have been at the 4.0 level or above, and in fact 35 — more than a third — have been at 4.5 of higher. Those are the really tough ones: PARER and CORER and ROWER and so on.
POSER is at the other end of the scale: it's being solved in a mere 3.7 guesses, on average. That means it's one of a mere 16 that have been at 3.9 or below that, and indeed one of only six to have been at or below 3.7; for the record, the easiest so far has been LASER, at 3.3.
Why, then, is POSER in the easy group? Look no further than the S in the middle. Anyone starting with STARE, SLATE, RAISE or ARISE — which is many people — will have had a yellow S right away, as well as yellow E and R too for all of those other than SLATE, which lacks the R. That will have made the task much simpler immediately, because the real challenge in ER games is finding those other two consonants that go in positions one and three.
My task was easier still, because I start with SANER — and so had green letters at the end of the word. That left me with only seven possible solutions, all of which I found: LOSER, WISER, RISER, USHER, ESTER, MISER and POSER.
I couldn't think of a way to narrow them down and guarantee a three, so instead I took a different approach. I was fairly certain that RISER, WISER and MISER had all been fairly recent answers, so were unlikely to be repeated. And I was right — all have appeared in the past seven months.
I wasn't sure about the others, but figured that playing THUMP was worth a shot, because it would rule out three of those and leave one. And it did just that, with the P turning yellow and confirming POSER as the solution.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1863)
In a different time zone where it's still Sunday? Don't worry — I can give you some clues for Wordle #1863, 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 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.
- 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 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 #1863.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is a fruit.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1863)
- NYT average score: 3.9
- My score: 4
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 97
- My luck score: 50
- My start word performance: SANER (70 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (31)
- Tomorrow's start word: SANER
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1863) was… GRAPE.
This is one of those slightly frustrating games where there's nothing particularly difficult about it but it's still hard to narrow down the options. I guess that's because there are simply so many of them.
I had 70 left after the first guess, and most were in the -RA-E format — for instance CRATE, TRACE, DRAKE, FRAME, GRAVE, BRAKE. I also had a fair few in the -REA- category (CREAK, DREAM, GREAT and so on), plus the odd outlier such as ADORE.
TRACK was my attempt to narrow them down; T, C and K all featured heavily among the words on my shortlist, and I wanted to use the R and A to confirm their positions on the board (I was less worried about E).
The result? Well, there was good and bad news. The good was that I had the right format. The bad was that I had the wrong letters. The upshot was that I still had seven possible solutions, admittedly only 10% of the 70 that were left after my first guess, but still a couple too many for comfort.
I found them all, which was half of the job done — though all were pretty obvious by this stage: FRAME, DRAPE, GRAPE, GRADE, GRAVE, BRAVE and GRAZE.
Ideally I would have played another narrowing-down word to guarantee a four, but I couldn't think of one. The problem was that there were too many distinct letters at play among those unfilled first and fourth positions: F, M, D, P, G, V, Z and B.
The 'Bot couldn't do it either, suggesting VAPID — which might have left one of two 50/50s if it were wrong. Obviously there was no chance at all that VAPID would be correct, though, so I think my choice of GRADE was better. At worst it might also have left a 50/50 choice, but at best it might have been correct. Did I get one over the 'Bot here? I think I did.
As is usually the way with these things, it did indeed leave a 50/50, between GRAPE and GRAZE, but I picked the right one on the next guess and escaped with a four.
Wordle answers: The past 50
I've been playing Wordle every day for more than four 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 #1863, Sunday 26 July: GRAPE
- Wordle #1862, Saturday 25 July: ALOHA
- Wordle #1861, Friday 24 July: PUTTY
- Wordle #1860, Thursday 23 July: ORBIT
- Wordle #1859, Wednesday 22 July: LORRY
- Wordle #1858, Tuesday 21 July: SHILL
- Wordle #1857, Monday 20 July: DIVER
- Wordle #1856, Sunday 19 July: CHURN
- Wordle #1855, Saturday 18 July: BOOTH
- Wordle #1854, Friday 17 July: LEGAL
- Wordle #1853, Thursday 16 July: BUTTE
- Wordle #1852, Wednesday 15 July: PSHAW
- Wordle #1851, Tuesday 14 July: STEAK
- Wordle #1850, Monday 13 July: STOUT
- Wordle #1849, Sunday 12 July: CLACK
- Wordle #1848, Saturday 11 July: AVIAN
- Wordle #1847, Friday 10 July: CANAL
- Wordle #1846, Thursday 9 July: AMEND
- Wordle #1845, Wednesday 8 July: DEMON
- Wordle #1844, Tuesday 7 July: SLING
- Wordle #1843, Monday 6 July: TODDY
- Wordle #1842, Sunday 5 July: SWAMI
- Wordle #1841, Saturday 4 July: PIZZA
- Wordle #1840, Friday 3 July: BATON
- Wordle #1839, Thursday 2 July: MAVEN
- Wordle #1838, Wednesday 1 July: DEMUR
- Wordle #1837, Tuesday 30 June: PUPPY
- Wordle #1836, Monday 29 June: CRUDE
- Wordle #1835, Sunday 28 June: EMCEE
- Wordle #1834, Saturday 27 June: SCOOP
- Wordle #1833, Friday 26 June: ACUTE
- Wordle #1832, Thursday 25 June: UNITY
- Wordle #1831, Wednesday 24 June: QUEER
- Wordle #1830, Tuesday 23 June: CURRY
- Wordle #1829, Monday 22 June: OVATE
- Wordle #1828, Sunday 21 June: ALIBI
- Wordle #1827, Saturday 20 June: DRAKE
- Wordle #1826, Friday 19 June: EMOJI
- Wordle #1825, Thursday 18 June: ENTRY
- Wordle #1824, Wednesday 17 June: TOKEN
- Wordle #1823, Tuesday 16 June: AMAZE
- Wordle #1822, Monday 15 June: BROIL
- Wordle #1821, Sunday 14 June: SEPIA
- Wordle #1820, Saturday 13 June: QUELL
- Wordle #1819, Friday 12 June: BREAK
- Wordle #1818, Thursday 11 June: TESTY
- Wordle #1817, Wednesday 10 June: ALIGN
- Wordle #1816, Tuesday 9 June: WHARF
- Wordle #1815, Monday 8 June: MAFIA
- Wordle #1814, Sunday 7 June: THUMB
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.
10c. Plus, the NYT has now started repeating answers that have already appeared in Wordle. We have no idea how often it will do this, so you'll need to be on your guard.
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.
