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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.
Your Wordle expert
Wordle hints (game #1537) – clue #1 – VowelsHow 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 #1537) – clue #2 – first letterWhat letter does today’s Wordle begin with?• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is F.
F is a very common starting letter in Wordle. It ranks seventh behind only S, C, B, T, P and A and overall there are 135 solutions that begin with this letter.
Wordle hints (game #1537) – clue #3 – repeated lettersDoes 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.
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Wordle hints (game #1537) – clue #4 – ending letterWhat letter does today’s Wordle end with?• The last letter in today’s Wordle is H.
H is a regular visitor to the final spot in a Wordle word. It occurs 137 times at the end of a Wordle answer, making it the sixth most common letter there.
Wordle hints (game #1537) – clue #5 – last chanceStill looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1537.
Today’s Wordle answer is to bring back or return something.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 #1537)
(Image credit: New York Times)NYT average score: 3.7My score: 4WordleBot’s score: 3My skill score: 86My luck score: 48My start word performance: WAIVE (422 remaining answers)WordleBot’s start word performance: SLATE (119)Tomorrow’s start word: FIZZYToday’s Wordle answer (game #1537) is… FETCH.
As a word, FETCH is a reasonably common one that’s probably used more by dog owners than anyone else. I certainly say it plenty to mine, a chocolate Labrador retriever who loves to play FETCH but who is sadly not bright enough to realize that he is meant to drop the ball when he brings it to me. Although that said, he has worked out that if he does eventually drop it, I’ll give him a treat – so maybe he knows exactly what he’s doing and has actually been training me all of this time.
Anyway, I digress. As a Wordle word, FETCH is a fairly standard example. It has a current average of 3.7 – so low, but not super-low – and contains mostly common letters.
E, T and C certainly fit that bill, F and H less so. However, the CH combination at the end is the second most common in that position, and the F at the start is seventh by frequency there – so while they are not top 10 letters in general, they do make sense where they are today.
I had to accept another four myself, which was frustrating because I played far more sensibly than I did yesterday but ended up with the same score. That was chiefly because my opening WAIVE was not particularly helpful and left 422 options.
My second guess, LATER, cut that to seven – but a three was always unlikely by that point. With that in mind, I didn’t even try to solve it, instead focusing on guaranteeing myself a four.
I came up with five of those seven words: PETTY, JETTY, FETCH, DETOX and SETUP, but missed GETUP and FETUS. The first of those seems unlikely – is it really a single word in the way that SETUP is? – while the second of those definitely was on the Wordle answers list at some point, but as I discussed in one of last week’s columns, it may well not be one now.
Based on the words I had found, I decided that PONGY was the best choice, because it would definitely rule in/out all of those on my shortlist. In reality, it might have left me a 50/50 between FETCH and FETUS; WordleBot suggested I should have played PESTO instead in order to avoid that result.
As it happens, that was the scenario that played out, and technically I did face that choice. In my head, though, I had only FETCH left as an option and got lucky when it proved to be correct.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1536)In a different time zone where it’s still Tuesday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1536, 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 T.T is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only E and Y are more likely in that position.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1536.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer is power, authority or strength.Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1536)
(Image credit: New York Times)NYT average score: 4.3My score: 4WordleBot’s score: 4My skill score: 69My luck score: 62My start word performance: SIXTY (51 remaining answers)WordleBot’s start word performance: SLATE (102)Tomorrow’s start word: WAIVEYesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1536) was… MIGHT.
Wordle has many ways of tripping up the unwary, from repeated letters to uncommon letters to unusual words.
There are also the many more-difficult-than-the-average formats – such as the classic ER pattern that’s given us the likes of CORER and PARER, and my own most-hated Wordle format, the OO game.
But the worst, surely, is the letter-trap format. I used to call these too-many-answers games, and I’ve also seen them referred to as Pillars of Doom. But whatever you call them, they can be a right pain to deal with – and the -IGHT variant is the worst of them all.
That’s because there are nine possible solutions to it: WIGHT, RIGHT, TIGHT, LIGHT, FIGHT, SIGHT, MIGHT, NIGHT and EIGHT. That puts it one ahead of the next worst, the -OUND format that can serve up either WOUND, ROUND, POUND, HOUND, FOUND, SOUND, MOUND or BOUND.
LIGHT (game #226), NIGHT (#388), RIGHT (#827) and SIGHT (#879) have all appeared as past Wordle answers, so if you checked a list you will at least have been able to rule out those four. But if not… well, then like me you may have had to scrabble around a little to solve it.
In fact, I could easily have lost my streak here, because I made a really poor mistake that could easily have seen me crash out. Instead, I got lucky – but others may not have been so fortunate.
Unsurprisingly, it has a high average score of 4.3; that makes it the most difficult since MIRTH more than a week ago. And somehow, I scored a four that I definitely did not deserve.
My game started well enough, with my opening SIXTY giving me a green I and a yellow T and cutting the word list to 51. WordleBot had exactly double that with its SLATE, while STARE was at 120 and CRANE at a horrible 356.
From that promising position I made relatively good progress on guess number two, playing CHANT because I thought I might be looking at either an -ITCH or -IGHT letter-trap game – correctly, as it turned out.
My hunch was proven right when the T turned green at the end of the word and the H went yellow; this would have to be a -IGHT word.
So, what to play next? Well, I identified six possible solutions: FIGHT, MIGHT, RIGHT, LIGHT, WIGHT and BIGHT. The latter, apparently, does not figure in WordleBot’s list – so maybe it won’t be an answer after all. However, I somehow missed TIGHT and EIGHT.
I have no idea how I did that. I guess the fact that EIGHT begins with a vowel and that the T would be repeated confused my brain. I’m as baffled as you, honestly.
Anyway, that led me to play BRAWL next – which I hoped would rule in/out BIGHT, RIGHT, WIGHT and LIGHT. And indeed, it ruled them all out.
In my head, that left two: FIGHT and MIGHT. In reality, I had four – those two plus TIGHT and EIGHT. My next guess was therefore a really poor choice, because I played MIGHT expecting that a five would be the worst result I could get, but really I might still have had three words left.
If things had worked out differently, then I could easily have lost my 1,338-game Wordle streak. As it was, I experienced a massive dose of good luck when all five letters turned green and I escaped with a four. Phew!
Wordle answers: The past 50I’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 #1536, Tuesday 2 September: MIGHTWordle #1535, Monday 1 September: LEASTWordle #1534, Sunday 31 August: PETALWordle #1533, Saturday 30 August: ELATEWordle #1532, Friday 29 August: GRAFTWordle #1531, Thursday 28 August: SPLITWordle #1530, Wednesday 27 August: TOWERWordle #1529, Tuesday 26 August: ANNEXWordle #1528, Monday 25 August: MIRTHWordle #1527, Sunday 24 August: SPOREWordle #1526, Saturday 23 August: UNIONWordle #1525, Friday 22 August: RATTYWordle #1524, Thursday 21 August: EXTOLWordle #1523, Wednesday 20 August: LLAMAWordle #1522, Tuesday 19 August: ROWDYWordle #1521, Monday 18 August: ISSUEWordle #1520, Sunday 17 August: LOUSYWordle #1519, Saturday 16 August: MATTEWordle #1518, Friday 15 August: LEVELWordle #1517, Thursday 14 August: KNELLWordle #1516, Wednesday 13 August: KEFIRWordle #1515, Tuesday 12 August: NOMADWordle #1514, Monday 11 August: SOUTHWordle #1513, Sunday 10 August: MINTYWordle #1512, Saturday 9 August: NASALWordle #1511, Friday 8 August: IMBUEWordle #1510, Thursday 7 August: CORALWordle #1509, Wednesday 6 August: GROANWordle #1508, Tuesday 5 August: STORKWordle #1507, Monday 4 August: RIGIDWordle #1506, Sunday 3 August: LUMPYWordle #1505, Saturday 2 August: DAUNTWordle #1504, Friday 1 August: BANJOWordle #1503, Thursday 31 July: FRILLWordle #1502, Wednesday 30 July: ASSAYWordle #1501, Tuesday 29 July: OMEGAWordle #1500, Monday 28 July: SAVVYWordle #1499, Sunday 27 July: WHOLEWordle #1498, Saturday 26 July: HAUNTWordle #1497, Friday 25 July: GOFERWordle #1496, Thursday 24 July: QUAKEWordle #1495, Wednesday 23 July: WATERWordle #1494, Tuesday 22 July: BURNTWordle #1493, Monday 21 July: TIZZYWordle #1492, Sunday 20 July: BLANKWordle #1491, Saturday 19 July: SWORDWordle #1490, Friday 18 July: LORISWordle #1489, Thursday 17 July: MODALWordle #1488, Wednesday 16 July: NERVYWordle #1487, Tuesday 15 July: FOISTWhat 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.
4b… Unless they are. There have been a couple of plural words that don’t end in an S, including FUNGI (game #439) and ATRIA (#1478)
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 which weren’t in that list of 2,309 solutions. More will undoubtedly come over the next few years.
Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief, the latest in a long line of senior editorial roles he’s held in a career that started the week that Google launched (nice of them to mark the occasion). Prior to joining TR, he was UK Editor in Chief on Tom’s Guide, where he oversaw all gaming, streaming, audio, TV, entertainment, how-to and cameras coverage. He’s also a former editor of the tech website Stuff and spent five years at the music magazine NME, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people’s fun. He’s based in London, and has tested and written about phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, games, TVs, cameras and pretty much every other type of gadget you can think of. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). He also enjoys live music, gaming, cycling, and beating Wordle (he authors the daily Wordle today page).