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 #1496) – 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 #1496) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is Q.
Q is one of the least likely letters to start a Wordle answer – but then again, it’s also one of the least common letters in the game anywhere!
Wordle hints (game #1496) – 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 #1496) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is 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.
Wordle hints (game #1496) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1496.
- Today’s Wordle answer is to shake with fear.
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 #1496)
- NYT average score: 4.1
- My score: 5
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- My skill score: 88
- My luck score: 33
- My start word performance: FETID (432 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: SLATE (31)
- Tomorrow’s start word: PUNCH
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1496) is… QUAKE.
Wordle really is hitting us with all of the big guns right now; letter traps, repeated letters, uncommon words, ER words, uncommon letters, combinations of some or all of the above…
The letter Q is the latest weapon in the game’s armory; it’s the second least likely letter to appear in Wordle, ahead of only J. For every Q that appears, there are more than 42 letter Es.
We last had one about five weeks ago, in the form of QUAIL (game #1457). QUAKE is slightly more difficult, apparently, with an average score of 4.1 versus 3.9 for QUAIL; that’s probably because of the additional compication of the letter K.
I certainly found it to be a tough one, scoring a second five in a row. I wasn’t helped much by my start word, FETID, which left more than 400 options, although my follow up of SANER did reduce the shortlist to 25.
PLACE cut that further to four – and what a bunch they were: WEAVE, AGAVE, AMAZE and QUAKE. I couldn’t recall any having been previous answers, so went with WEAVE first and then got the 50/50 between QUAKE and AMAZE correct for my five.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1495)
In a different time zone where it’s still Wednesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1495, 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 W.
W is a fairly average letter when it comes to starting an answer. There are 82 solutions that begin with a W, with means that it ranks 13th – so right in the middle of the alphabet.
- 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 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.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1495.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a liquid.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1495)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 5
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- My skill score: 56
- My luck score: 57
- My start word performance: EERIE (178 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: SLATE (43)
- Tomorrow’s start word: FETID
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1495) was… WATER.
How many words are there that end -ATER? Your answer may determine whether you think this Wordle was quite as difficult as WordleBot has made it out to be.
To my mind, there are five: WATER, EATER, LATER, HATER and CATER. However, the ‘Bot thinks DATER, TATER and RATER are also possible solutions, and others played MATER, PATER and GATER.
If all really were options than that’s a mighty 11 possibles – which would make this the worst letter trap in the game. Without those final six, though, it’s merely a moderately tricky one.
I mention this because the ‘Bot awarded me zero for my final guess, despite the fact that it proved to be correct. That’s because I still had four words left in theory: WATER, DATER, TATER and RATER. If WATER had been wrong, I could have failed altogether.
But really, what’s the chance of it being TATER? I suppose RATER and DATER are more likely – but it’s all relative.
Not that there’s any point in me quibbling over my skill score anyway, because I scored a five and didn’t exactly cover myself in glory at any stage.
I can console myself with the fact that I’m not the only one. The game has an average score of 4.2, indicating that it is a more difficult game than most.
And I’m sure I would have done better if not for my start word being EERIE, which contains three Es and therefore wasted two letters. I could see right away that an ER word was a possibility, so I played SANER next and confirmed my hunch.
PATCH next did a decent job of cutting down the shortlist, but I should have played something other than LATER on my fourth guess. That just left my gamble on WATER for the fifth go – a gamble that never felt like it was really that much of a risk anyway.
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 #1495, Wednesday 23 July: WATER
- Wordle #1494, Tuesday 22 July: BURNT
- Wordle #1493, Monday 21 July: TIZZY
- Wordle #1492, Sunday 20 July: BLANK
- Wordle #1491, Saturday 19 July: SWORD
- Wordle #1490, Friday 18 July: LORIS
- Wordle #1489, Thursday 17 July: MODAL
- Wordle #1488, Wednesday 16 July: NERVY
- 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
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.
