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 Sunday’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 #1514) – 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 #1514) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is S.
S is the most common starting letter in the game, featuring in 365 of Wordle’s 2,309 answers. In fact, it’s almost twice as likely to begin an answer as the next most common starting letter, C.
Wordle hints (game #1514) – 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 #1514) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is H.
H is not a particularly common starting letter in Wordle: only 69 games begin with it, and it ranks in 15th place.
Wordle hints (game #1514) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1514.
- Today’s Wordle answer is a direction.
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 #1514)
- NYT average score: 3.3
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- My skill score: 98
- My luck score: 52
- My start word performance: DRAPE (426 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: SLATE (8)
- Tomorrow’s start word: WIDOW
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1514) is… SOUTH.
I can’t overestimate how important the second guess is in Wordle.
Everyone already knows about the importance of choosing one of the best Wordle start words, because millions of words have been written about it (many of them by me, admittedly). But start words are easy – you have a blank slate, can play whatever you want and get to shape the game in the way that works for you.
Do you like to uncover vowels early on? Then play AUDIO or ADIEU. Yes, I will judge you for it, and no they won’t perform as well as other words on the average day, but if it works for you then ignore the naysayers (myself included). Prefer a more measured approach? SLATE, CRANE, STARE and the rest await.
But second guesses are different. Here, you have to react to what’s come before, working out which letters are now most likely based on what’s already appeared. Or not appeared, in some cases. Did you uncover a green S at the start? Then you’ll probably want to include letters such as T, L, N, P and H in your second. Do you have a yellow R that’s not at the end and a yellow E that is at the end? Then come on – this has ‘ER game’ written all over it.
There’s more skill involved in a second guess than a first guess, essentially, so it’s always a nice feeling when one works really well, as it did for me today.
Admittedly, SOUTH is not a difficult Wordle; its current average score of 3.3 places it among the easiest games of the year, in fact. But it still needed solving, and after my opening DRAPE gave me zero letters and left 426 options, that looked like a tough challenge for me today.
The first thing I did when picking my second word was to look at the list of the top 10 letters and see what was left. R, A and E were all ruled out, which left two vowels – O and I – plus five consonants: S, T, C, N and L.
I could have gone in multiple directions here, of course. SONIC, maybe, or STOIC. But I try to avoid playing letters out of position too much, and C is not common at the end. In fact, it would be more likely to be at the start – but I wanted S there, because that is the most common of all opening letters by a long way.
SC was an option, and I nearly played SCION, but I prefer T to C in general – it’s far more versatile, given that it’s likely both after an S and at the end of a word. So instead, I discarded the I in favor of a U (the 11th most common letter) and played SNOUT.
WordleBot was a big fan of this, stating that it would have been one of its top picks too – but I don’t really care what the ‘Bot thinks. No, I’m more concerned with luck, and today it was very lucky indeed.
In fact, it must have been one of my luckiest second guesses ever, giving me green S and yellow O, U and T. Remarkably, it ruled out everything bar the answer, SOUTH, so I scored an unlikely three. A good way to start the week.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1513)
In a different time zone where it’s still Sunday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1513, too.
- Wordle yesterday had 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).
- The first letter in yesterday’s Wordle answer was M.
M is a middling letter when it comes to starting a word. It sits 10th in the rankings, with 107 occurrences in the 2,309 answers.
- 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 Y.
Y is the second most common ending letter in the game, behind only E. In total, 364 Wordle answers end with a Y.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1513.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is fresh tasting.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1513)
- NYT average score: 3.8
- My score: 5
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- My skill score: 93
- My luck score: 29
- My start word performance: RADII (284 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: SLATE (44)
- Tomorrow’s start word: DRAPE
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1513) was… MINTY.
I suffered some wretched luck today on my way to scoring a five, but I’ve had my fair share of good fortune lately, so I guess it all evens out in the long run.
MINTY should not have been a particularly difficult one for me – after all, its WordleBot-assigned average of 3.8 is below the norm for the game. There are no uncommon or repeated letters, and no similarly spelled words beyond MISTY; the likes of NIFTY, TINNY and WITTY were more popular guesses than that, and all differ by two letters.
So, no real excuses for me beyond that obvious one of the Wordle gods not smiling on my today.
My problems began before I’d even started, with my random word generator throwing out RADII. In truth, it wasn’t a complete disaster, in that it did give me a yellow I. But it still left 284 options, a far greater number than the 44 the ‘Bot had left after its SLATE.
SLICE should have been a good second guess. WordleBot gave me 92 for skill, and said that it would expect it to leave 13 solutions – but instead it left 40. A luck score of just seven tells the tale there.
Still, I had now ruled out most of the common consonants. R, S, L and C were all gone, which left T and N among the top 10. I included both of those in PITON and both turned yellow. The I turned green, too – so I was finally making progress.
The problem was that I was now three guesses in and still had five words to choose from. Worse still, all five seemed like genuinely likely options: TINNY, NIFTY, NIGHT, MINTY and NINTH.
On the plus side, I worked out that I could safely play any one of four of them and be sure of no worse than a five; the only one that didn’t apply to was NIGHT, which might have left me a 50/50 between MINTY and TINNY.
Among the other four, I decided that NINTH was the most likely, knowing as I do that Wordle likes number-words. Unfortunately for me, I’d forgotten that it had been a past Wordle answer – game #597 in February 2023.
So I went with it anyway and obviously it was wrong. That left MINTY as the only possible solution, so I had to settle for a worse-than-average score.
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 #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
- 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
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.