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 Friday’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 #1505) – 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 #1505) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is D.
D is the ninth most common starting letter in the game, so maybe slightly less likely than you might expect.
Wordle hints (game #1505) – 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 #1505) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is T.
T is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – in fact only E and Y are more likely in that position.
Wordle hints (game #1505) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1505.
- Today’s Wordle answer is to lessen the courage of.
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 #1505)
- NYT average score: 4.2
- My score: 4
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- My skill score: 98
- My luck score: 47
- My start word performance: MISER (398 remaining answers)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: SLATE (64)
- Tomorrow’s start word: BUYER
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1505) is… DAUNT.
Exactly a week ago, the Wordle answer was HAUNT – which will presumably have helped out some people today when it came to solving DAUNT.
After all, the -AUNT format has six solutions: DAUNT, HAUNT, JAUNT, GAUNT, TAUNT and VAUNT. That makes it one of the trickier word traps in Wordle, so at least if one of those words was eliminated you will have had a slightly easier time of it.
If you used a past Wordle answers list, you’ll have had more than one ruled out – because JAUNT (game #123), TAUNT (#444) and GAUNT (#1117) have all been answers already. With HAUNT also ruled out, that left only DAUNT and VAUNT as genuine contenders here.
I don’t know how many people look at past answers lists, but I am not (generally) among them yet; that may change at some point, because as Wordle moves steadily towards its end game, it’s becoming ever more difficult to remember what’s gone before.
Then again, maybe it doesn’t matter what’s gone before – in that the chance of solving the puzzle, the steps you need to take to narrow down the word, the start word you begin with, the probability of certain letters being included… none of that is fundamentally affected by the fact that we’ve now had 1,500 Wordles. The challenge for game #1 is the same as that for game #1,505, it’s just that now some words are not the answer because they’ve already been the answer – rather than simply because they are not the answer.
Does that make sense? I’m not sure. But it reflects my muddling thinking on whether or not I should consult a list. And bearing in mind that I maintain a list myself, I definitely don’t have an ethical problem with people looking at one. I’m just not sure that I want to use one myself.
Anyway, I digress. DAUNT has a high average score of 4.2. But of course it does – because all Wordles have high average scores at the moment! It will have been easier if you knew about the past answers, harder if you didn’t, and that’s that.
It will also have been harder if you began with MISER, as I did, because that left 398 possible solutions. Still, it had ruled out four common letters, so it made the task of choosing the next word easier.
I went with TALON, which WordleBot loved, and got reasonably lucky; the T and N turned yellow, the A turned green. This cut my shortlist to seven, of which five were in that -AUNT format – HAUNT, VAUNT, GAUNT, JAUNT and DAUNT. The others, according to the ‘Bot, were NATTY and PANTY, neither of which I thought of.
I remembered that HAUNT had just appeared, but didn’t recall the others – so played JUDGE. This was guaranteed to rule in/out JAUNT, DAUNT and GAUNT, and given that HAUNT was already dismissed would effectively point me towards VAUNT if it was the answer too.
As it happened, the D turned yellow, meaning that the answer had to be DAUNT and that I scored a satisfactory four.
Yesterday’s Wordle hints (game #1504)
In a different time zone where it’s still Friday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1504, 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 B.
B is a very, very common starting letter in Wordle. In fact, it’s the third most common overall, behind only S and C.
- 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 O.
O is a middling ending letter. It ranks 12th in this regard, and finishes 58 Wordle answers in total.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1504.
- Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a musical instrument.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1504)
- NYT average score: 4.3
- My score: 2
- WordleBot’s score: 4
- My skill score: 99
- My luck score: 99
- My start word performance: BARON (1 remaining answer)
- WordleBot’s start word performance: SLATE (201)
- Tomorrow’s start word: MISER
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1504) was… BANJO.
It’s a very, very rare day when I score a 99 on both skill and luck, but this was one such example.
I don’t really know why I was awarded top marks for skill, given that my start word – which doesn’t count towards the ‘Bot’s ratings – left only one answer. I suppose I still had to spot that BARON, my opener, had left BANJO as the solution – but that wasn’t exactly a tough ask.
For those of you who didn’t get lucky in the way that I did, you may have found BANJO to be quite difficult. It has an average score of 4.3, meaning that August starts as July finished, with another tricky one.
The biggest problem here is the J, because that’s the least common letter in the game. To make matters worse, of the 27 times when J appears in a Wordle answer, it’s at the start 20 times and elsewhere only seven. In the fourth position, as it is here, it features only twice. The other game with that format? That would be NINJA, the answer to game #872 in November 2023 and another tough one (4.6).
Still, we’re getting through the Js pretty quickly now; BANJO is the 19th to appear, meaning there are only eight left unless the NYT adds in any extras. I dare say most of us well be pleased to see the back of the letter in general – although in this game at least, I didn’t need to worry about it at all.
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 #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
- Wordle #1462, Friday 20 June: TAUPE
- Wordle #1461, Thursday 19 June: CURIO
- Wordle #1460, Wednesday 18 June: MUNCH
- Wordle #1459, Tuesday 17 June: PRANK
- Wordle #1458, Monday 16 June: PETTY
- Wordle #1457, Sunday 15 June: QUAIL
- Wordle #1456, Saturday 14 June: GHOST
- Wordle #1455, Friday 13 June: BILGE
- Wordle #1454, Thursday 12 June: VIXEN
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.
