NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1712, Wednesday, February 25

A phone displaying the Wordle logo sitting on a table surrounded by paperclips, pens and notebooks.

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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.

Skip the hints and jump straight to today's column.

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 #1712) - clue #1 - Vowels

How 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 #1712) - clue #2 - first letter

What letter does today's Wordle begin with?

• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is S.

S is the most common starting letter in the game, featuring in 365 of Wordle's 2,309 answers. In fact, it's almost twice as likely to begin an answer as the next most common starting letter, C.

Wordle hints (game #1712) - 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 #1712) - clue #4 - ending letter

What letter does today's Wordle end with?

• The last letter in today's Wordle is D.

D is a fairly common letter to end a Wordle answer: it's the eighth most likely to be in that position in a solution.

Wordle hints (game #1712) - clue #5 - last chance

Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1712.

• Today's Wordle answer is to tear very finely.

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!

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Today's Wordle answer (game #1712)

(Image credit: New York Times)

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• NYT average score: 3.9
• My score: 3
• WordleBot's score: 3
• My skill score: 86
• My luck score: 85
• My start word performance: SANER (8 remaining answers)
• WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (38)
• Tomorrow's start word: SANER

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Today's Wordle answer (game #1712) is… SHRED.

Being able to identify possible answers is an important part of the way that I play Wordle. It's not for everyone — because some people, I'm sure, prefer to play in a more organic way. But as with most things in my life, I take a methodical approach.

Today's game provides a good example, because my opening SANER left only eight possible solutions — a fantastically lucky result that set me well on the way to a three.

With a green S, green E and yellow R, I already knew what the format was; although the R could technically go in position #2, there are no words which start SR---, so it had to be S-RE-.

My next step after establishing that, was to work through the possibilities in, yes, a methodical manner. For this, I usually either write down the options on a scrap of paper, or if there are not many words to be found, simply use the keyboard.

That's what I did in this case: SQRE-… no; SWRE-… no; SERE-… no; and so on. Eventually, I came up with seven of them. STRE- gave me STREW and STREP, SPRE- gave me SPREE, SHRE- gave me SHREW and SHRED, SCRE- gave me SCREE and SCREW.

The one I missed, according to WordleBot, was SIRED, but I don't think that's really going to be an answer.

What I needed was a word to narrow down those seven words, and the closest I could come was DITCH, which might have left a 50/50 between either SCREW or SCREE, or between STREP or STREW, but which would otherwise give me the answer in three.

However, there were better options; the 'Bot would have gone with TWICE, and that would have guaranteed a three whatever the answer.

I might well have ended up with a four, then, but got lucky again when DITCH gave me the yellow D that pointed the way to SHRED as the only possible solution.

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Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1711)

In a different time zone where it's still Tuesday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1711, 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 R.

R is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – it's actually the 4th most common there, behind E, Y and T.

Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1711.

• Yesterday's Wordle answer is someone who purchases.

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Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1711)

(Image credit: New York Times)

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• NYT average score: 4.5
• My score: 5
• WordleBot's score: 5
• My skill score: 87
• My luck score: 33
• My start word performance: SANER (111 remaining answers)
• WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (329)
• Tomorrow's start word: SANER

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Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1711) was… BUYER.

Benjamin Franklin famously wrote that nothing is certain except death and taxes — but he'd clearly never played Wordle. If had, he might have added "…and difficult ER words."

We've not had one for more than a month, and on that occasion it was RACER, a word with a high-ish 4.2 average. About a month before that, we had MISER (average: 4.0) and a month before that, it was MAKER; a super-high 4.6.

There's a pattern here, obviously, and BUYER continues it neatly, with an average of 4.5. In fact, if you look at the past 50 ER words going all the way back to February 2024, there have been only eight with an average below 4.0 — compared to 33 of 4.0 to 4.9 and nine of 5.0 or above.

ER words: the last 50

Game	Answer	Date	Average score	My score
1214	CORER	Tuesday, 15 October 2024	5.7	5
1310	ROWER	Sunday, 19 January 2025	5.6	6
1497	GOFER	Friday, 25 July 2025	5.6	5
1426	EAGER	Thursday, 15 May 2025	5.5	4
1273	BOXER	Friday, 13 December 2024	5.3	5
980	PIPER	Saturday, 24 February 2024	5.2	4
1039	ROVER	Tuesday, 23 April 2024	5	6
1218	FIBER	Saturday, 19 October 2024	5	6
1300	WAFER	Thursday, 9 January 2025	5	6
1126	REFER	Friday, 19 July 2024	4.7	5
1351	HOVER	Saturday, 1 March 2025	4.7	4
1477	BALER	Saturday, 5 July 2025	4.7	4
1198	RIDER	Sunday, 29 September 2024	4.6	4
1205	LAGER	Sunday, 6 October 2024	4.6	3
1296	CYBER	Sunday, 5 January 2025	4.6	4
1319	FEVER	Tuesday, 28 January 2025	4.6	4
1614	MAKER	Wednesday, 19 November 2025	4.6	5
1142	LOWER	Sunday, 4 August 2024	4.5	4
1711	BUYER	Tuesday, 24 February 2026	4.5	5
1554	DEFER	Saturday, 20 September 2025	4.4	3
1095	COVER	Tuesday, 18 June 2024	4.3	4
1314	UPPER	Thursday, 23 January 2025	4.3	3
1320	UDDER	Wednesday, 29 January 2025	4.3	4
1347	DRYER	Tuesday, 25 February 2025	4.3	3
1468	OFFER	Thursday, 26 June 2025	4.3	2
967	NEVER	Sunday, 11 February 2024	4.2	4
1058	OUTER	Sunday, 12 May 2024	4.2	5
1073	SKIER	Monday, 27 May 2024	4.2	3
1089	DETER	Wednesday, 12 June 2024	4.2	3
1204	MINER	Saturday, 5 October 2024	4.2	4
1411	IDLER	Wednesday, 30 April 2025	4.2	5
1495	WATER	Wednesday, 23 July 2025	4.2	5
1574	LEVER	Friday, 10 October 2025	4.2	4
1588	TUBER	Friday, 24 October 2025	4.2	4
1672	RACER	Friday, 16 January 2026	4.2	3
1083	ETHER	Thursday, 6 June 2024	4.1	3
1157	METER	Monday, 19 August 2024	4.1	4
1176	OWNER	Saturday, 7 September 2024	4.1	3
1240	INNER	Sunday, 10 November 2024	4.1	4
1345	OTTER	Sunday, 23 February 2025	4	3
1368	TIMER	Tuesday, 18 March 2025	4	4
1638	MISER	Saturday, 13 December 2025	4	2
1066	NICER	Monday, 20 May 2024	3.9	3
1104	ORDER	Thursday, 27 June 2024	3.9	3
1530	TOWER	Wednesday, 27 August 2025	3.9	5
963	AFTER	Wednesday, 7 February 2024	3.8	4
994	CHEER	Saturday, 9 March 2024	3.7	4
1136	SUPER	Monday, 29 July 2024	3.6	3
1553	LATER	Friday, 19 September 2025	3.5	2
1038	LASER	Monday, 22 April 2024	3.3	3

It's hardly news that they're difficult, then, and I imagine most people know by now why that's the case: there are simply too many of them. BUYER has a further complication, in that the Y in the middle is not generally found in that position. Oh, and the U before it is less likely than any of the other vowels, too.

I scored a five, but I can't lay all the blame on the answer for that, because I didn't play particularly well either. SANER made decent progress, thanks to it already being an ER word itself. This is one of the reasons why I play it — so the fact that I didn't capitalize on that opening is a major frustration for me.

I followed up with CLOMP, which was chosen because I wanted to include lots of consonants that regularly appear in ER words, as each of C, L, M and P do. But WordleBot preferred PILOT, and in hindsight I can see that playing an extra vowel at this stage would have narrowed things down more quickly.

Instead, I still had 35 words to pick from, and though FIGHT cut them to five, that was still a couple too many for this stage of the game. I found all five, BUYER, DRYER, UDDER, RUDER and QUEER, but guessed wrong with RUDER and had to wait until the fifth attempt to finally solve the puzzle.

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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 #1711, Tuesday 24 February: BUYER
• Wordle #1710, Monday 23 February: ATTIC
• Wordle #1709, Sunday 22 February: GUAVA
• Wordle #1708, Saturday 21 February: AWAKE
• Wordle #1707, Friday 20 February: STANK
• Wordle #1706, Thursday 19 February: HOIST
• Wordle #1705, Wednesday 18 February: MOGUL
• Wordle #1704, Tuesday 17 February: SQUAD
• Wordle #1703, Monday 16 February: ROOST
• Wordle #1702, Sunday 15 February: SKULL
• Wordle #1701, Saturday 14 February: BLOOM
• Wordle #1700, Friday 13 February: MOOCH
• Wordle #1699, Thursday 12 February: SURGE
• Wordle #1698, Wednesday 11 February: VEGAN
• Wordle #1697, Tuesday 10 February: SCENE
• Wordle #1696, Monday 9 February: CELLO
• Wordle #1695, Sunday 8 February: EMBED
• Wordle #1694, Saturday 7 February: BLEAT
• Wordle #1693, Friday 6 February: GAVEL
• Wordle #1692, Thursday 5 February: SWOOP
• Wordle #1691, Wednesday 4 February: CHIDE
• Wordle #1690, Tuesday 3 February: WEIGH
• Wordle #1689, Monday 2 February: CIGAR
• Wordle #1688, Sunday 1 February: SPINY
• Wordle #1687, Saturday 31 January: ALLOT
• Wordle #1686, Friday 30 January: JUMBO
• Wordle #1685, Thursday 29 January: FLAKY
• Wordle #1684, Wednesday 28 January: CRUEL
• Wordle #1683, Tuesday 27 January: DUSKY
• Wordle #1682, Monday 26 January: FREAK
• Wordle #1681, Sunday 25 January: STRUT
• Wordle #1680, Saturday 24 January: CLIFF
• Wordle #1679, Friday 23 January: BARON
• Wordle #1678, Thursday 22 January: CLINK
• Wordle #1677, Wednesday 21 January: CUBIC
• Wordle #1676, Tuesday 20 January: SULLY
• Wordle #1675, Monday 19 January: WAXEN
• Wordle #1674, Sunday 18 January: SUMAC
• Wordle #1673, Saturday 17 January: FIERY
• Wordle #1672, Friday 16 January: RACER
• Wordle #1671, Thursday 15 January: CHASM
• Wordle #1670, Wednesday 14 January: AVOID
• Wordle #1669, Tuesday 13 January: GUMBO
• Wordle #1668, Monday 12 January: TRIAL
• Wordle #1667, Sunday 11 January: QUARK
• Wordle #1666, Saturday 10 January: MANIC
• Wordle #1665, Friday 9 January: EIGHT
• Wordle #1664, Thursday 8 January: BLAST
• Wordle #1663, Wednesday 7 January: PECAN
• Wordle #1662, Tuesday 6 January: OOMPH

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 2026.

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.

4a. Answers are never plural.

4b. …unless they are. There have been a couple of plural words that don't end in an S or ES, including FUNGI (game #439), ATRIA (#1478) and TEETH (#1551). But S and ES plurals are definitely outlawed.

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.

10a. All answers are drawn from Wordle's list of 2,309 solutions…

10b. …unless they are not. That's because 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.

10c. Plus, the NYT has now started repeating answers that have already appeared in Wordle. We have no idea how often it will do this, so you'll need to be on your guard.

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 4a above), but Wordle will accept it as a guess.