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 #1518) – 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 #1518) – 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 #1518) – 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 #1518) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is 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.
Wordle hints (game #1518) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1518.
- Today’s Wordle answer is not on an incline.
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 #1518)
- NYT average score: 4.3
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 3
- My skill score: 93
- My luck score: 89
- My start word performance: LUMEN (27 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: SLATE (98)
- Tomorrow’s start word: ERASE
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1518) is… LEVEL.
Here’s a bit of trivia for you that doesn’t impact anyone’s game but that might be interesting: the NYT changed today’s answer.
I sometimes play the game a few days in advance, because if I have a particularly busy few days ahead of me I won’t necessarily have time to sit down and give Wordle my full attention. I always write this column on the day, though, because a) WordleBot won’t give me the average score or rate my own performance until it’s past midnight on the day in question and b) there’s always an outside chance that the answer will change without me knowing, and I’d look pretty stupid if I said it was one word when really it was another.
That’s what has happened to a few other sites today; rather than having LEVEL as the solution they have the alternative word that I initially solved a few days ago. I won’t say what it is, in case Wordle reintroduces it in the near future, but I can’t imagine why they changed it – there’s nothing controversial about it as far as I can see.
It was, however, an easier word than LEVEL is – so maybe this is just another example of the NYT trying to ramp up the difficulty for reasons they have yet to explain.
And believe me, it is difficult. Though you don’t need to believe me, because if you’re reading this you have presumably already played it, so you know that.
LEVEL stands out for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s only the fifth ever palindrome to appear in the game, as far as I can tell; the others were CIVIC (game #96), MADAM (#387), KAYAK (#671) and REFER (#1126).
That’s enough to make me love it right away, because palindromes are great. The fact that I scored a three on it is merely a coincidence of course…
It also has only three letters, L, E and V, which is another rare occurrence within Wordle. And it has two repeated letters, which again is uncommon; there are only 38 of these in the game’s 2,309 original solutions.
WordleBot says it has a current average score of 4.3, forming a triumvirate of tricky puzzles to end the week after KEFIR (4.5) and KNELL (4.4). As I said, maybe its difficulty is why Wordle included it instead of that other word that was initially due to appear.
My three came thanks to a very fortunate start word, LUMEN, which left only 27 remaining answers. I found 16 of them, of which all were either ER or EL-ending words: LASER, LATER, LAGER, LIFER, LIVER, LITER, LOSER, LOWER, LOVER, LAYER, LEPER, LEVER, LEVEL, LAPEL, LABEL and LIBEL.
Of the 11 that I missed, most were ED words that I don’t think will really be solutions, but I did fail to spot two genuine options in the form of LEVEE and LATEX. The ‘Bot also had LACEY, but surely that’s an incorrect spelling of lacy? What am I missing?
Anyway, with the answers on my shortlist in mind I played VITAL next, because it looked like it would do the best job of cutting down the answers. It wouldn’t guarantee me a three, because there was no way I could do that – but with a bit of luck it might leave only one solution.
And I got that luck. The V at the start turned yellow, the L at the end turned green and that meant the solution had to be LEVEL. Go ahead, NYT – make it more difficult. We can take it.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1517)
In a different time zone where it’s still Thursday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1517, 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 K.
K is not a common starting letter in Wordle by any measure. In fact it ranks 22nd out of 26; a mere 20 answers begin with a K.
- There were 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 #1517.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a sign of the end of something.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1517)
- NYT average score: 4.5
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- My skill score: 99
- My luck score: 35
- My start word performance: COBRA (567 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: SLATE (98)
- Tomorrow’s start word: LUMEN
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1517) was… KNELL.
Right, so this is how it’s going to be now, is it? A period of relatively easy Wordles from the original list, then a couple of really difficult ones newly added by the NYT. That’s fine if so, at least we know where we stand.
And make no mistake, KNELL is a difficult Wordle answer. It has an average score of 4.5 at the time of writing – which is a tiny bit higher than yesterday’s KEFIR, which was at 4.4.
That K at the start was not expected – at least not by me. We’ve never before had two K-starting answers in a row, which is unsurprising given that as my analysis of every Wordle answer shows, K only starts 20 of Wordle’s 2,309 original words.
KNELL is the 18th such word to appear, but is the third that’s been added by the NYT puzzle setters, so there are a minimum of five still to come. But quite possibly more, given that Wordle’s editor appears to be hunting around for uncommon words.
For the record, the ones we’ve had so far are KARMA (game #13), KEBAB (#108), KNOLL (#219), KHAKI (#421), KNOCK (#539), KOALA (#574), KIOSK (#610), KAYAK (#671), KNEEL (#710), KAZOO (#730), KNELT (#845), KNEAD (#1103), KNAVE (#1168), KNACK (#1306), KRILL (#1385), KNOWN (#1406) and yesterday’s KEFIR. That’s a pretty tricky bunch, all told.
The thing about KNELL is that the K is not the only complication to it. There’s also that KN start, and the repeated L, and the fact that it’s really not a common word. In fact, I’ve only ever heard it as part of the phrase ‘death knell’. It certainly wouldn’t be the first thing to jump to mind if I was asked to name a five-letter word starting with K…
I escaped with a four, thanks to a couple of good choices on guesses two and three. And I know they were good choices, because WordleBot awarded me a 99 for skill, which at least partly offset my luck score of just 35.
It also made amends for my opening guess, COBRA, which drew a blank and left 567 options. On the plus side, that did rule out four common letters, so playing STILE next required nothing more than the ability to assemble five of the remaining six from the top 10 into a genuine word.
STILE gave me a green L and yellow E, and cut the options to eight. I found six of those, which were JELLY, NEWLY, WHELK, WHELP, QUELL and KNELL – but missed DWELL and KVELL.
Based on the words I did have jotted down, I decided that WHELK would be my best guess and the ‘Bot agreed.
Even here I didn’t get that much luck. WHELK might have given me a three if it was correct, and was almost guaranteed to give me a four even if it wasn’t; it would definitely rule out all of the options, other than maybe leaving a 50/50 between KNELL and KVELL. Obviously I didn’t know that at the time, given that I’d missed the latter – so I thought I was a dead cert for a four.
Instead, of course, the worst of those three scenarios played out; not only was WHELK not correct, but it didn’t rule out all of the other options either, instead leaving me with that 50/50.
Then again, is it really a 50/50 if you don’t know that there’s a second option? Technically yes, but I was never going to play anything other than KNELL in reality, so it was only later that I found out I might have scored a five. I would probably have been happy with that given how tough KNELL is, but I’ll gladly take a four instead.
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 #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
- 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
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.