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 Tuesday’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 #1523) – clue #1 – Vowels
How many vowels does today’s Wordle have?
• Wordle today has a 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 #1523) – 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 #1523) – 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 #1523) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is A.
A is a relatively common ending letter. It ranks 10th in this regard and today’s game is one of 63 in which you’ll find an A there.
Wordle hints (game #1523) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1523.
- Today’s Wordle answer is an animal.
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 #1523)
- NYT average score: 4.5
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- My skill score: 98
- My luck score: 57
- My start word performance: COUGH (1053 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: SLATE (22)
- Tomorrow’s start word: ATTIC
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1523) is… LLAMA.
LLAMA is an undeniably difficult Wordle. It contains two repeated letters, making it one of only 38 games among the original list of 2,309 to have that format, and more importantly it starts with a double L.
As you can imagine, it’s the only word in Wordle to have that format (among that original list at least), but then again it’s one of only a handful of words in use in the English language that starts LL. There are a few others, all of which (I think) are translated from Spanish; LLANO, which means ‘an open grassy plain’ is another that makes it into English dictionaries.
Of course, LL is also a common starting format in Welsh, but I don’t think any of those words would find their way into Wordle, despite the game’s creator Josh Wardle hailing from that country.
Anyway, the key detail here is that it’s a difficult one. It has an average score of 4.5 at the time of writing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that increased over the course of the day.
I’m feeling rather smug about my result, because I somehow managed a three and beat WordleBot for the third day in a row. What’s more, that was despite an opening guess of COUGH that left more than 1,000 possible answers.
Once again, I had a healthy dollop of good fortune, but unlike yesterday’s game (see below), where my third guess was the lucky one, here it was the second.
With zero letters uncovered, I followed my usual process and drew up a list of the most common remaining letters: E, A, I in that order for the vowels, and R, T, L, N and S for the consonants.
Playing LATER therefore involved nothing more complicated than assembling them into a word. Obviously there was a little brainpower involved too, in that I made sure I went for an ER word (just in case), but though the ‘Bot gave me 97 for skill and 98 for luck, really the latter played a much bigger part here.
Amazingly, LATER ruled out 1,052 options and left LLAMA as the only word left – and that was despite the fact I still had only one green and one yellow letter on the board.
It took me a while to find it, mind – that LL really didn’t suggest itself until I’d exhausted the other possibilities, which were all either LI— or LY— words; there’s no other letters that could follow an L, other than ones which had been ruled out already.
Try as I might, I couldn’t spot any words that fit the LIA–, LI-A- or LI–A pattern, so I played LLAMA with fingers crossed and was rewarded with that three.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1522)
In a different time zone where it’s still Tuesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1522, 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 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.
- 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 #1522.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is boisterous.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1522)
- NYT average score: 4.0
- My score: 3
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- My skill score: 87
- My luck score: 45
- My start word performance: PETAL (345 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: SLATE (315)
- Tomorrow’s start word: COUGH
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1522) was… ROWDY.
HOWDY! If you’re feeling DOWDY, then why not solve this Wordle and celebrate by getting ROWDY?
Yes, this Wordle word is a classic letter-trap game, albeit far from the worst given that there are only three options. To make it easier still, many people will have included an R in their first or second guess, which will have negated that problem right away.
In fact, looking at the results from the thousands of Wordlers who have completed the puzzle, very few appear to have chosen either HOWDY or DOWDY. Instead, many went with ROUND on the second guess and WORDY or ROCKY on the third and fourth.
Either way, it’s not too difficult. Threes and fours will most likely have been been the order of the day here, as its current average score of 4.0 indicates.
Strangely, WordleBot only scored a four itself, for the second day in a row. That was despite the fact that its start word, SLATE, left slightly fewer options than my PETAL did – 315 to 345. And – big flex here – I scored another three, my third in a row.
Does this mean I’m smarter than the ‘Bot? Yes, I think it proves without a doubt that I am (so long as we forget all of the many times when it has beaten me).
As with yesterday’s game, I needed a massive helping of luck to score that three. My first guess, PETAL, was not helpful – which was a surprise, because I had high hopes for it.
With no letters on the board, I played SCORN next – but there was no genius involved here; I simply formed a word from the most common remaining letters.
SCORN gave me two yellow letters and cut my options to 13, at which point I took a look at what the possibilities were and came up with… well, one.
Let me explain. I didn’t know there were only 13 options left at this point, because I didn’t bother to do a thorough job of trying to work it out. With only two yellow letters I figured there would be 30 or more and instead just wanted another good narrowing-down word that would give me a proper shortlist of three or four words.
ROWDY was my narrowing-down choice, because it included my yellow R and O, added the very-common-at-the-end Y and the useful D, plus a W to make up the numbers.
I genuinely didn’t expect it to be correct, but I played it anyway and was amazed – and delighted – when all five letters turned green. I didn’t deserve a three at all, but I’ll take it all the same.
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 #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
- Wordle #1473, Tuesday 1 July: MOLDY
- Wordle #1472, Monday 30 June: BLINK
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.