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 Thursday’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 #1525) – 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 #1525) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is R.
R is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter. Despite ranking third overall in Wordle, it’s merely the 11th most likely to begin an answer.
Wordle hints (game #1525) – 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 #1525) – 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 #1525) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1525.
- Today’s Wordle answer is rodent-like.
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 #1525)
- NYT average score: 3.9
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- My skill score: 98
- My luck score: 39
- My start word performance: FENCE (810 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: SLATE (20)
- Tomorrow’s start word: SNIDE
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1525) is… RATTY.
This was one of those slightly frustrating games I sometimes have where my previous day’s start word would have a been lot more helpful than the one I had here.
Yesterday, I began with ATTIC – which was pretty useful at solving EXTOL in that it left only 41 options. But today, it would have cut the possibles list to 12 – whereas my FENCE was almost entirely useless and left 810. It’s a reminder, once again, that the best way to play the game is to pick one good start word and stick with it; maybe I’ll do that again in the future.
The reason why ATTIC would have helped was of course that like RATTY it contains a repeated T (plus an A). T is a common letter to appear twice, with 61 examples among the original list, so it shouldn’t have caused too many problems – and indeed the game’s average score of 3.9 implies it’s not too bad.
With no letters uncovered on my first guess, I needed a good second one and got it with TRAIL – which gave me three yellows. WordleBot told me later that I now had only 11 options left, but I always find it hard to identify possibilities when I only have yellows to work with; there are simply so many ways to assemble them.
I did work out, however, that the -TRA- and -ART- formats were the most likely, because they gave me PARTY, WARTY, STRAW, STRAP and STRAY. I also found RATTY – a rare example of me locating the eventual answer at this stage of the game – and AORTA, which is a lovely flowing word.
I decided PARTY was the best option and WordleBot agreed. It was guaranteed to solve the puzzle in four at worst, which I didn’t know at the time but which eventually led me to RATTY on the fourth guess.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1524)
In a different time zone where it’s still Thursday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1524, 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 E.
We don’t get many Wordle answers that start with an E – though it’s the most common letter in the game, it’s only the 14th most likely to begin a solution.
- 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 L.
L is a really common letter to find at the end of a Wordle. There are 155 games that finish with an L, and it ranks as the fifth most likely letter there.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1524.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is to sing the praises of.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1524)
- NYT average score: 4.1
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- My skill score: 94
- My luck score: 81
- My start word performance: ATTIC (41 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: SLATE (19)
- Tomorrow’s start word: FENCE
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1524) was… EXTOL.
I was on a rare run of form here and scored my fifth successive three. It’s far from my best ever sequence – I once notched up 10 threes or lower in a row, and another time had nine including three twos – but it’s my best since January and is welcome indeed after I had a pretty awful time of it in July.
But before I get too proud of my performance, I should point out that once again I had a massive helping hand from the Wordle gods, as my luck score of 81 indicates.
I needed it, too – because EXTOL is a difficult Wordle, with an average score of 4.1. The main problem here is the X, because while it’s not the least common letter in the game, it’s very close to being so.
As my analysis of every Wordle answer shows, there are only 37 solutions among the 2,309 on the original list that contain an X – putting it ahead of only Q (29) and J (27). It doesn’t have the advantage that they usually have of always appearing at the start of a word, either – J begins 20 of those 27 answers, Q starts 23 of its 29… but X appears fairly evenly across the second (12), third (14) and fifth (8) positions, with three also in the fourth spot.
That can make it hard to play for; let’s face it, if you have a green U in the second position of an answer, you know there’s a chance a Q will go before it. But with an X, you have to remember to actually consider it as an option. And if you’re anything like me, you don’t always do that.
Fortunately, I didn’t need to do so here – because my opening guess, ATTIC, left 41 solutions, while my second, LONER, cut them to one. EXTOL was that single possible answer, meaning I scored that fifth successive three with a minimum of fuss.
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 #1524, Thursday 21 August: EXTOL
- Wordle #1523, Wednesday 20 August: LLAMA
- Wordle #1522, Tuesday 19 August: ROWDY
- Wordle #1521, Monday 18 August: ISSUE
- Wordle #1520, Sunday 17 August: LOUSY
- Wordle #1519, Saturday 16 August: MATTE
- Wordle #1518, Friday 15 August: LEVEL
- Wordle #1517, Thursday 14 August: KNELL
- Wordle #1516, Wednesday 13 August: KEFIR
- Wordle #1515, Tuesday 12 August: NOMAD
- Wordle #1514, Monday 11 August: SOUTH
- Wordle #1513, Sunday 10 August: MINTY
- Wordle #1512, Saturday 9 August: NASAL
- Wordle #1511, Friday 8 August: IMBUE
- Wordle #1510, Thursday 7 August: CORAL
- Wordle #1509, Wednesday 6 August: GROAN
- Wordle #1508, Tuesday 5 August: STORK
- Wordle #1507, Monday 4 August: RIGID
- Wordle #1506, Sunday 3 August: LUMPY
- Wordle #1505, Saturday 2 August: DAUNT
- Wordle #1504, Friday 1 August: BANJO
- Wordle #1503, Thursday 31 July: FRILL
- Wordle #1502, Wednesday 30 July: ASSAY
- Wordle #1501, Tuesday 29 July: OMEGA
- Wordle #1500, Monday 28 July: SAVVY
- Wordle #1499, Sunday 27 July: WHOLE
- Wordle #1498, Saturday 26 July: HAUNT
- Wordle #1497, Friday 25 July: GOFER
- Wordle #1496, Thursday 24 July: QUAKE
- 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
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.