Wordle is a free daily word puzzle where you have six tries to guess a hidden five-letter word. After each guess, the letters change color: green if a letter is in the right spot, yellow if it's in the word but somewhere else, and gray if it isn't in the word. There's one puzzle a day, everyone gets the same word, and when you finish you can share a grid of colored squares that shows how you did without giving away the answer.
That's the dictionary answer. The more interesting answer is how a game with no ads, no app and no marketing ended up in millions of morning routines, including ours. We've spent the past year building hint tools around it and reading through every answer it has ever used, and the story still makes us smile.
Wordle in one paragraph
Wordle is a word-guessing game in the family of Mastermind and the old TV show Lingo. You pick a word, the game tells you which letters are right, and you use that feedback to narrow down the answer. What made Wordle different was restraint. One puzzle a day. No endless play. No accounts. A result you could share in a single tap that spoiled nothing. Those limits turned a solo puzzle into a shared daily ritual.
Who made Wordle?
Wordle was made by Josh Wardle, a software engineer from Wales who was living in Brooklyn. Before Wordle, he was known for social experiments at Reddit, including The Button and Place, which were both built around large groups of people doing one simple thing together.
He made Wordle for one person: his partner, Palak Shah, who loved word games. According to the game's history, the two of them played it privately for months before anyone else saw it. Shah also shaped one of the most important parts of the game. Wardle had a list of around 12,000 five-letter words, and many were obscure. She went through them and picked out about 2,500 that most people would recognize. That's why Wordle answers feel fair: they're words you know, even when you can't think of them.
When did Wordle start?
The first Wordle puzzle is dated June 19, 2021. Its answer was CIGAR, and it's puzzle number zero. Every puzzle since then has a number one higher than the day before. Our archive has every answer from that first CIGAR to today.
Wardle released the game to the public in October 2021. It was a simple web page, no app store listing and no sign-up. Growth started slowly and then very suddenly, over the winter of 2021 and 2022.
Why did Wordle get so popular?
We've thought about this a lot, partly because we build tools for word games and partly because we're hooked too. A few design choices did the heavy lifting.
- One puzzle a day: You can't binge Wordle. That scarcity makes each game feel like it matters, and it leaves you wanting tomorrow's.
- Everyone gets the same word: When your friend says "today's was rough," you know exactly what they mean. It gives people something small to talk about.
- The share grid: The colored-square grid lets you show off (or commiserate) without spoiling the puzzle. It's also mysterious to anyone who hasn't played, which made people curious.
- No pressure to pay or scroll: No ads, no energy meters, no endless levels. Five minutes and you're done.
- Fair words: Because the answers are common words, a loss feels like your fault in a good way, not the game's.
The share grid deserves special credit. Players in New Zealand began posting their results as emoji squares, and Wardle built the Share button around that idea. It's one of the rare features that came from players rather than from the designer.
The New York Times buys Wordle
On January 31, 2022, The New York Times announced that it had bought Wordle for "an undisclosed price in the low seven figures," meaning at least $1 million. Wardle said the game had grown far bigger than he ever expected, and that looking after it had become a lot for one person, including dealing with copycat apps trying to make money from it.
The Times promised Wordle would stay free for new and existing players, and it has. The game moved to the NYT Games site and app in February 2022. A few small changes came with the move, such as removing some words from the answer list, but the gameplay stayed the same.
How Wordle works now
Today, Wordle lives alongside other NYT Games like Connections, Strands and Pips. Here's what's the same and what's changed since 2022.
- Still free: The daily Wordle is free to play. Some other NYT games, including the Mini crossword since August 2025, now need a subscription, but Wordle doesn't.
- Edited answers: The Times now has an editor choosing and reviewing each answer, rather than following a fixed list from 2021.
- Local midnight: A new puzzle still appears at midnight in each player's own time zone.
- Repeats are back: For almost five years, no answer repeated. Since February 2, 2026, older answers have started to return, beginning with the very first one, CIGAR. Our archive shows 25 repeats through the end of September 2026.
- Hard Mode and stats: Hard Mode, streaks and guess statistics all carried over.
A short Wordle timeline
- January 2021: Josh Wardle builds the game for Palak Shah, and the two play it privately.
- June 19, 2021: The first puzzle in the official numbering, answer CIGAR.
- October 2021: Wordle goes public as a plain web page.
- December 2021: The Share button arrives, turning results into the now-famous emoji grid.
- January 31, 2022: The New York Times announces it has bought the game.
- February 2022: Wordle moves to the NYT Games site and app, still free.
- February 2, 2026: CIGAR returns, the first time an answer repeats.
- September 30, 2026: Puzzle #1,929.
Myths about Wordle we hear a lot
- "The answer is random." It isn't pulled at random from the dictionary. The answers come from a curated list of familiar words, and today an editor at the Times reviews them.
- "Hard words come on certain days." We scored every answer in our archive with the same difficulty rating we use on our hint page. The weekday averages range only from 1.26 on Saturdays to 1.50 on Sundays, and Saturday had the fewest "hard" words (2.9%) while Sunday and Friday had the most (6.5%). That's a real but small tilt, nowhere near enough to predict a tough day. Some weeks just feel cruel.
- "You can't win without a system." Plenty of players win every day on instinct. A system mainly helps on the rare tricky words, like ones with double letters.
- "Plurals are never answers." They're very rare, but a word that ends in S isn't banned. It just usually isn't a plural, like FOCUS or OASIS.
- "Answers never repeat." That was true until February 2026. Now older answers are coming back.
Wordle and the other NYT games
Wordle's success changed The New York Times' games section. The Times has since launched several daily puzzles that share its one-a-day, share-your-result style:
- Connections (June 2023): Sort 16 words into four groups of four. It's now the Times' second most played game. Stuck? See today's Connections hint.
- Strands (March 2024): A themed word search with a special word called the spangram. Our Strands hint page walks you through it.
- Pips (August 2025): A logic puzzle with dominoes and colored regions. For a nudge, try the Pips hint.
Wordle, Connections, Strands and Pips are free to play daily. The Mini crossword, which used to be free, moved behind the subscription in August 2025.
What a Wordle answer looks like
After studying all 1,928 answers from June 2021 to September 2026, we can describe a typical Wordle answer pretty well:
- Familiar: Everyday words like RIVER, SCUBA, LIGHT and SOUND, not obscure dictionary finds.
- Rarely plural: Only 13 answers end in a single S, and most of those aren't plurals: FOCUS, OASIS, CHAOS, BONUS.
- Two vowels, usually: 58% of answers have exactly two of A, E, I, O and U.
- Often a repeated letter: About 31% of answers repeat a letter, like BLOOD or GEESE.
- Common letters: E appears in 47% of all answers, A in 40% and R in 36%. J, Q, X and Z each appear in fewer than 2%.
That profile is useful when you're stuck. If two words fit your tiles and one is a plural or an obscure word, the other one is the better bet.
Is Wordle educational?
We think so, and so do plenty of teachers. Wordle rewards spelling knowledge, logical thinking and a feel for how English words are built. It teaches letter patterns without feeling like a lesson. Every answer is also a chance to learn a word. We've looked up more than a few answers in our own Online Dictionary after a game, which is exactly why we added the meaning to our hint page.
Wordle's many imitators
Wordle's success led to hundreds of spin-offs: games with longer words, several grids at once, numbers, geography, music and more. Quordle, which asks you to solve four words at once in nine guesses, became popular enough that Merriam-Webster bought it in January 2023. If you enjoy Quordle, our Quordle hint and answer finder keeps separate clues for each of the four words.
How to start playing today
- Open Wordle on the NYT Games website or app. It's free, and you don't need an account to play the daily puzzle.
- Type a five-letter word and press Enter. Start with a word full of common letters, like RAISE.
- Read the colors and use them in your next guess. Move yellow letters, keep green ones, and drop gray ones.
- Solve within six guesses. Then share your grid, if you like.
- Come back tomorrow. The streak counter starts with your first win, and it's surprisingly motivating. Play at the same time each day, with your morning coffee or on the train, and it quickly becomes part of your routine.
For a fuller walkthrough of the rules, colors and repeated letters, see our guide on how to play Wordle.
When you need a little help
Nobody wins every day, and a hint is better than a broken streak. On this site you can:
- Get a gentle hint: Wordle Hint Today has five hints that go from mild to obvious, plus a personal hint tool that works from your own guesses.
- See every word that fits: The Wordle Solver lists every possible answer for your colored tiles.
- Search by pattern: The five letter word finder lets you search for words like _A_ER with letters to include or exclude.
- Check past answers: The past Wordle answers page lists every answer since CIGAR.
Quick answers to common questions
Who owns Wordle now? The New York Times, since January 2022.
Is Wordle still free? Yes. The daily puzzle is free on the NYT Games website and app.
How many Wordle puzzles have there been? Puzzle #1,929 was on September 30, 2026, counting from #0 on June 19, 2021.
Why is it called Wordle? It's a play on the creator's last name, Wardle.
Can you play old Wordles? Free players get today's puzzle; past puzzles in the official game are for subscribers. Our past answers page lists every past word for free.
Is this site made by The New York Times? No. We're an independent site. Wordle is a trademark of The New York Times.