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 Thursday'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.
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.
Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been obsessed with Wordle for more than three years. He's authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar and its sister site Tom's Guide, including a detailed analysis of the most common letters in Wordle in every position and a guide to the best Wordle start words. He's also played every Wordle ever and only lost once and yes, he takes it all too seriously.
Wordle hints (game #1609) - 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 #1609) - clue #2 - first letter
What letter does today's Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is L.
L is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter in Wordle. Despite being the sixth most common letter overall, it's only ranked 12th at the beginning of a word.
Wordle hints (game #1609) - 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 #1609) - 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 #1609) - clue #5 - last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1609.
- Today's Wordle answer is shocking, gruesome or melodramatic.
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 #1609)
- NYT average score: 3.6
- My score: 3
- WordleBot's score: 3
- My skill score: 92
- My luck score: 71
- My start word performance: HOLLY (303 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (106)
- Tomorrow's start word: NOBLY
Today's Wordle answer (game #1609) is… LURID.
I'm not sure I've ever had a luckier second guess than I did today, and it made this game a bit of an easy and formulaic affair for me. It looks like I'm not the only one to have had a straightforward time of it, though – at least judging by its average score of only 3.6.
That's not really surprising, because as with yesterday's TINGE it contains four very common letters and one that's middling rather than uncommon. Some of the letters – L and R in particular – are not really where you'd expect them, but it's not a tough Wordle as these things go.
My game started poorly, with HOLLY leaving 303 options. It did give me a yellow L, at least, and though my initial instinct was to play it in position #2, in the end I decided instead to cover off the possibility of it being an ER word by going with LASER.
LASER has of course already appeared – it was the solution to game #1,038 in April 2024, and I remembered it without needing to look at a past Wordle answers list. (I think that one has stayed with me because it had an ultra-low average score of 3.3 despite being an ER game.)
Despite that, I decided to play it anyway, because it's not like I actually thought I'd score a two today anyway. And I'm glad I did – because LASER gave me a green L, yellow R and narrowed down the shortlist to just one.
This was remarkable. WordleBot awarded me 97 for luck, which might well be the best score I've ever had in that metric. And it gave me a second 3/6 in a row, meaning I'd scored successive threes for the first time since early October.
Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1608)
In a different time zone where it's still Thursday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1608, 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 T.
T is one of the most common starting letters in the game, beginning 149 of Wordle's 2,309 answers. That gives it a ranking of fourth in the alphabet, behind only S, C and B.
- 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 #1608.
- Yesterday's Wordle answer is a slight amount of changed color.
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1608)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 3
- WordleBot's score: 4
- My skill score: 96
- My luck score: 72
- My start word performance: WHITE (7 remaining answers)
- WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (23)
- Tomorrow's start word: HOLLY
Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1608) was… TINGE.
TINGE is by a distance the least interesting Wordle this week, following DEUCE with its repeated Es, GIZMO with its Z, TABBY with its double B, FUGUE with its two Us and ARISE with its lots-of-people-scored-a-one-today aspect.
TINGE, by contrast, has nothing of note about it. Zilch. The letters are all relatively common. There are no repeats. It's not an unusual word. It's not unusually spelled. It doesn't have a very low or very high average score.
With that in mind, I won't linger long on it. I scored a three – which was positive for me at least – thanks almost entirely to my opening guess, WHITE.
Interestingly, this was my third game in a row to include W, H and I and – so that was something of note about it for me, if not for anyone else in the world. Though the W and H weren't of use here, the I was – and turned yellow. The T also went that color, and the E turned green. It all made for a very good start, and one that left me with only seven options.
I found them all, too: TILDE, TINGE, LITRE, MITRE, TITLE, UNTIE, OUTIE and CUTIE. Or at least I thought so. WordleBot didn't have MITRE or OUTIE on its list, but did have RETIE instead. OUTIE was admittedly a bit of a long shot but I don't know why MITRE didn't make the list.
It didn't matter. I went with NITRO as the best word to narrow them down, and it worked perfectly – giving me the yellow N that left TINGE as the only solution.
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 #1608, Thursday 13 November: TINGE
- Wordle #1607, Wednesday 12 November: DEUCE
- Wordle #1606, Tuesday 11 November: GIZMO
- Wordle #1605, Monday 10 November: TABBY
- Wordle #1604, Sunday 9 November: FUGUE
- Wordle #1603, Saturday 8 November: ARISE
- Wordle #1602, Friday 7 November: PERIL
- Wordle #1601, Thursday 6 November: GUISE
- Wordle #1600, Wednesday 5 November: SHORT
- Wordle #1599, Tuesday 4 November: VENUE
- Wordle #1598, Monday 3 November: AWOKE
- Wordle #1597, Sunday 2 November: RABID
- Wordle #1596, Saturday 1 November: MOTEL
- Wordle #1595, Friday 31 October: ABHOR
- Wordle #1594, Thursday 30 October: LATHE
- Wordle #1593, Wednesday 29 October: GLARE
- Wordle #1592, Tuesday 28 October: HOLLY
- Wordle #1591, Monday 27 October: FETID
- Wordle #1590, Sunday 26 October: PLUMP
- Wordle #1589, Saturday 25 October: GAUGE
- Wordle #1588, Friday 24 October: TUBER
- Wordle #1587, Thursday 23 October: DRILL
- Wordle #1586, Wednesday 22 October: STUNT
- Wordle #1585, Tuesday 21 October: DETOX
- Wordle #1584, Monday 20 October: LIMBO
- Wordle #1583, Sunday 19 October: IDEAL
- Wordle #1582, Saturday 18 October: HAVEN
- Wordle #1581, Friday 17 October: GROSS
- Wordle #1580, Thursday 16 October: CATTY
- Wordle #1579, Wednesday 15 October: SPOOF
- Wordle #1578, Tuesday 14 October: FORUM
- Wordle #1577, Monday 13 October: BEARD
- Wordle #1576, Sunday 12 October: WOUND
- Wordle #1575, Saturday 11 October: STACK
- Wordle #1574, Friday 10 October: LEVER
- Wordle #1573, Thursday 9 October: HARDY
- Wordle #1572, Wednesday 8 October: ANNOY
- Wordle #1571, Tuesday 7 October: NYLON
- Wordle #1570, Monday 6 October: AMUSE
- Wordle #1569, Sunday 5 October: PLANE
- Wordle #1568, Saturday 4 October: RELAY
- Wordle #1567, Friday 3 October: SPASM
- Wordle #1566, Thursday 2 October: WIDTH
- Wordle #1565, Wednesday 1 October: SPOIL
- Wordle #1564, Tuesday 30 September: GEESE
- Wordle #1563, Monday 29 September: CIVIL
- Wordle #1562, Sunday 28 September: GOOEY
- Wordle #1561, Saturday 27 September: FRITZ
- Wordle #1560, Friday 26 September: DALLY
- Wordle #1559, Thursday 25 September: DRAPE
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.
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.
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.
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