Today's Wordle answer is a pretty common word that may still trip you up. According to the New York Times' WordleBot (opens in new tab), Wordle #526 can be solved in an average of 3.9 and 3.6 turns in easy and hard mode respectively. I, however, had to make do with a score of five.
If today's Wordle has you scratching your head, we're here to help. At Tom's Guide, we've honed our strategy after playing every Wordle so far and losing only once, so hopefully our advice will be helpful.
Aside from a list of the best Wordle start words, we have plenty of Wordle tips and tricks to share. We have also 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.
Each day, we will update this article with tips to help you find today's Wordle answer. And if the hints aren't enough, we'll even give you the solution, 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, #525, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
So be warned: spoilers lie ahead for game #526. Only read on if you want to know today's Wordle answer!
Today's Wordle answer #526 — 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 one of the five vowels.*
- It has one repeated letter.
- Only one letter is in the top ten most common characters in the Wordle dictionary.
* 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 a bigger clue; or, if you just want to know the answer, then skip down further for that.
Alright then, here's the final hint: Today's Wordle answer will put a smile on your face.
OK, it's time to scroll down for the answer…
Today's Wordle answer #526, Sunday, November 27
So, what is today's Wordle answer for game #526?
Drumroll please — it's HAPPY.
Hello Wordlers. Alan Martin back for Sunday and Monday’s Wordles. And I’m afraid I made a bit of a meal out of Wordle #526, completing it in five moves, rather than the 3.9 (easy mode) or 3.6 (hard mode) turns that WordleBot claims is par for the course. What can I say? Double letters always trip me up.
I started with my usual pick of AUDIT — my favorite of the best Wordle start words. As I keep telling anybody who’ll listen, I like it due to its use of three vowels and that ever-handy ‘T’.
Today, it wasn’t much cop, however, giving me just a yellow ‘A’ to contend with. Not only that, but it left a whopping 455 possible answers to play in my five remaining goes. I would have to tread carefully.
It won’t surprise you to know that with that many possible answers remaining, there’s no shortage of better choices today — although surprisingly few of WordleBot’s faves would have brought things down to double figures. CARTE (96), PLATE (21) and PARSE (10) would all have been better, however.
The next move was to nudge that ‘A’ along, and to introduce four new letters to help hunt down the elusive Wordle. My eventual pick of EARNS matched these two aims, but didn’t help much, giving me a green ‘A’ but leaving everything else grey. It was, WordleBot says, a “bit unlucky” leaving 34 possible answers on the table.
I should add that at this point, with scores of 11 and 7 for luck on my first two goes, I had been supremely unlucky. And that luck didn’t improve on the next go, where my play of BALMY earned a luck score of just 8. It did, however, give me a green ‘Y’ for my trouble.
That meant that only six possible answers were left with three goes remaining. Unfortunately, my next guess — WACKY — was one of the incorrect five. That left three possible answers, but if I’d gone with WHELP I’d have narrowed it down to one.
Not that it mattered. I took my 1-in-3 shot on the next go, turning the entire word green with HAPPY. Ironic, really, given how UNHAPPY I was with a score of five. Maybe tomorrow will be better — I’ll see you then, Wordlers.
Yesterday's Wordle answer #525, Saturday, November 26
Reading this in a later time zone? The Wordle answer for game #525 was CLEAN.
Kelly back today, with Alan on tomorrow and Monday. Today's Wordle put a smile on my face, since I notched a rare 2/6. I have a feeling many of you might've matched me or scored a 3/6.
As usual, I began with RAISE, which is my favorite among the best Wordle start words because it has three vowels and two very common vowels.
Wordlebot rated it as middling for luck, as it left 80 possible solutions. In fact, most typical start words would've fared better, including LANCE (1), CRANE (2), SLANT (5) and SLATE (9). One of the few that had more remaining solutions was STARE (110).
I had a yellow 'A' and 'E' and no consonants. Whenever that happens, I like to guess a word incorporating a couple of the most consonants besides 'R' and 'S,' which are 'T,' 'L,' 'N' and 'C.'
I decided to go with a word that had three of them: CLEAN.
And to my delight, all five letters turned green!
The quick win came out of a combination of strategy and luck. I might've chosen CLEAT, which also had three of those common consonants. According to Wordlebot, other players in position guessed TEACH, PLEAT and CHEAT — all of which are good options.
Did you match or beat me today? Send me an email (opens in new tab) to let me know. I might not get back to everybody, but I will try!
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 #525: CLEAN
- Wordle #524: ITCHY
- Wordle #523: FEAST
- Wordle #522: DRIVE
- Wordle #521: PRIME
- Wordle #520: AXIOM
- Wordle #519: BRAVE
- Wordle #518: AVERT
- Wordle #517: GLYPH
- Wordle #516: THERE
- Wordle #515: BAKER
- Wordle #514: SNARL
- Wordle #513: MAPLE
- Wordle #512: INANE
- Wordle #511: VALET
- Wordle #510: MEDAL
- Wordle #509: UNITE
- Wordle #508: RAINY
- Wordle #507: SPELL
- Wordle #506: BEGIN
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).
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 second 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 (opens in new tab), 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.
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, and also today's Heardle answer — because that's great too.
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!
