Today’s Wordle hints and answer: January 23, 2026, solution #1,679

Wordle displayed on a smartphone
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Most people find uncovering today's Wordle answer to be relatively straightforward. According to the New York Times' WordleBot, the average player completes Wordle #1,679 in 3.7 moves in both easy and hard modes.

Each day, we will update this article with Wordle hints and tips to help you find today's answer. And if the hints aren't enough, we'll even give you the answer, in case you're really stuck or just haven't had time to complete today's puzzle. Plus, we are also including an analysis of yesterday's puzzle, #1,678, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

Wordle today: Quick menu

Wordle is open on a phone held in a hand. TRAIN and GRIND have been played, with the RIN in GRIND all green.

(Image credit: Mike Kemp / Getty Images)

1. Today's hints

2. Start letter

3. Today's answer

4. Yesterday's answer

Today's Wordle answer — hints to help you solve it

Our first tip is that you should use one of the best Wordle start words for every game you play. But if you want some more specific clues to today's Wordle answer, then here you go:

  • It contains two of the five vowels.*
  • There are no repeated characters.
  • It contains three of the five most common Wordle letters.

* By vowel, we mean A, E, I, O, U. There are other letters that are sometimes considered to be vowels, depending on how they are used.

Those hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Wordle answer. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then skip down further for that.

Alright then, here's a larger hint: Today's Wordle answer is noble.

What does today's Wordle start with?

The answer to Wordle #1,679 starts with B, so combined with the hints above you should now have all the clues you need to get the answer and not break a Wordle streak.

OK, it's now time to scroll down for the answer…


An image indicating spoilers are ahead.


Today's Wordle answer

The game Wordle displayed on two smartphones

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

So, what is today's Wordle answer for game #1,679?

Drumroll, please — it's BARON.

Hello Wordlers. After three days of puzzles featuring none of the five most common Wordle letters, here's one with three.

That meant my usual opener of ORATE turned three yellow: 'O', 'R' and 'A'. That left 38 possible answers, according to WordleBot.

The Bot's best Wordle start words were stronger. SCRAP leaves 32 answers, while TABLE lowers that to 14. If you opened with CAPON, just eight options would remain in play.

Wordle #1,679

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

I like to play a mix of 'L', 'I', 'S', 'N', and 'C' on my second turn, but having three confirmed characters to fit in limited me somewhat.

In the end, I managed to get two of them with CORAL. It was a great move, turning 'R' green, and ruling out everything but two answers, according to WordleBot*.

Unfortunately, I then made a mistake and played an impossible word: ARROW. I'd already ruled 'R' out of second position, but this still left only the right answer.

It was, of course, BARON. I typed it in and took the four-turn win.

Hopefully you did well today, Wordlers. See you tomorrow.

* The other one was APRON.

Yesterday's Wordle answer

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are clues and the solution to the previous puzzle.

  • It contains one of the five vowels.*
  • There are no repeated characters.
  • It doesn't contain any of the five most common Wordle letters (but four are in the top ten).

The answer to Wordle #1,678 starts with C, so combined with the hints above you should now have all the clues you need to get the answer and not break a Wordle streak.

OK, it's now time to scroll down for the answer…

An image indicating spoilers are ahead.

The Wordle answer for game #1,678 was... CLINK.

Hello Wordlers. I owe a small debt to the cast of Stereophonic for getting me today's answer in four turns, which isn't a sentence I expected to be writing this morning.

I began, as usual, with ORATE, which contains all five of the most common Wordle letters. But for the third day running, it struck out, leaving me with 253 possible answers, according to WordleBot.

The Bot's best Wordle start words were a big improvement, given the density of other common characters, however. SPILT, for example, leaves 25 answers, while CLASP lowers that to 19. If you opened with PLACE, just ten options would remain in play.

Wordle #1,678

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

I usually try to play a mix of 'L', 'I', 'S', 'N', and 'C' on my second turn. But when I come up empty on the first go, I like to play both my remaining vowels, so I opted for MUSIC.

It turned both 'I' and 'C' yellow, leaving 19 possible answers, according to WordleBot*.

It was at this point the cast of Stereophonic unexpectedly gave me a helping hand. I had the soundtrack on while I did the puzzle, and the lyric "I long to CLICK my heels and disappear" was sung.

I duly typed in CLICK and every letter but the second 'C' turn green.

That left just one option. I typed in CLINK and celebrated a four-turn win.

Hopefully you did well today, Wordlers. See you tomorrow.

* These were: CHILD, CHILI, CHILL, PINCH, WINCH, FINCH, CLIFF, CLING, ZILCH, FILCH, CLINK, FLICK, PICKY, CLICK, ICING, CHICK, WHICH, CINCH and ICILY.

Previous Wordle answers

If you're looking for a list of older Wordle answers, we can also help. Here's a list going back 20 games.

  • Wordle #1,678: CLINK
  • Wordle #1,677: CUBIC
  • Wordle #1,676: SULLY
  • Wordle #1,675: WAXEN
  • Wordle #1,674: SUMAC
  • Wordle #1,673: FIERY
  • Wordle #1,672: RACER
  • Wordle #1,671: CHASM
  • Wordle #1,670: AVOID
  • Wordle #1,669: GUMBO
  • Wordle #1,668: TRIAL
  • Wordle #1,667: QUARK
  • Wordle #1,666: MANIC
  • Wordle #1,665: EIGHT
  • Wordle #1,664: BLAST
  • Wordle #1,663: PECAN
  • Wordle #1,662: OOMPH
  • Wordle #1,661: FILLY
  • Wordle #1,660: POSSE
  • Wordle #1,659: SITAR
  • Wordle #1,658: PROOF

Wordle tips — how to win at Wordle

The best tip I can give is to use one of the best Wordle start words. I can't stress this enough — it makes a massive difference.

Without one, you'll be scrabbling around in the dark trying (and possibly failing) to find the right five letters (or possibly fewer) out of the 26 possibles. But clever people (not me) have done the math and identified the best start words based on both frequency in English and frequency among Wordle answers. So use them!

Secondly, think about combinations, especially at the start and end. Some options are far more common than others — for instance, SH, ST, CR and CH all feature frequently.

Vowels obviously need consideration too: not all Wordle answers will contain more than one, but plenty do, and some even have three. A good Wordle start word should have used a couple, but if they don't feature you might well want to try another one or two on your next go. Plus, remember the Y — this sometimes acts as a surrogate vowel, and is easy to forget. It also appears at the end of plenty of words.

Finally, try out possibilities. So long as you don't press 'Enter' you can try possible answers to see how they look on screen. Put in likely letters plus any you know are definitely in the word, then mentally change one to the other available options. This technique has worked for me multiple times, and it's particularly helpful when the word in question is not an obvious one (like FJORD or ISLET).

But if you're still struggling with Wordle, check out how Tom's Guide's Wordle experts have honed their strategy after playing every Wordle so far and losing only once.

We also have plenty of Wordle tips and tricks to share, like how we've analyzed every Wordle answer to look for patterns and have some further advice for you there. And if you're new to the game you should also take a look at our What is Wordle? guide.

What else should I know about Wordle?

Wordle officially launched in October 2021, but actually started in June of that year and celebrated its first birthday on June 19, 2022. (You can read my thoughts on the 5 things Wordle needs to improve if it's to keep us playing for its third year.)

However, it only grew in popularity towards the end of the year, then went viral in January as the world woke up to its charms. In fact, it proved so successful that The New York Times bought Wordle for a seven-figure sum in early February and the game is now part of NYT Games.

It's played via the NYT Games website here, and is entirely free. Both the NYT and the game's creator, Josh Wardle, have stated that it will remain free. Some people think that Wordle has got harder since the NYT takeover, but it really hasn't.

Wordle is a simple game in which your challenge is to guess a five-letter word in six attempts. Each time you guess, you're told which of your chosen letters are in the target word, and whether they are in the right place.

If a letter is in the correct place, it turns green. If it's in the word but in the wrong place, it turns yellow. And if it's not in the word at all, it turns gray.

There's just one puzzle a day, and everyone completes the same one. It resets at midnight each day. You'll find more information about the game in our What is Wordle? article.

NYT Strands answer

If you've solved Wordle and need help with other games from the New York Times, we suggest you check out our guide on today's NYT Strands answer, which will give you an overview of how the game works and how to solve the puzzle.

Wordle Alternatives

If you're eager for another game to pass the time while you wait, we've put together a list of the best Wordle alternatives. We also have a page on today's Quordle answers, because it's our favorite.

Other Wordle alternatives to try are the ultra-stressful (but very good) Squabble and the soccer-themed, Who Are Ya?. We also like the geography-based Wordle clone Worldle, the Star Wars-themed SWordle and the math-based Mathler.

There are certainly plenty of options once you've finished Wordle for the day!

Meanwhile, if you need help with other games from the New York Times, we also have a guide on how to play NYT Connections, if you're interested in giving that one a try.

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. He also handles all the Wordle coverage on Tom's Guide and has been playing the addictive NYT game for the last several years in an effort to keep his streak forever intact.

With contributions from