It happened again. You woke up, grabbed your coffee, opened the NYT Games app, and stared blankly at five empty grey boxes. If you're looking for the Wordle 1520 answer, you’re definitely not alone in your frustration.
Today is Sunday, January 18, 2026.
The game has changed a lot since Josh Wardle first sold it for seven figures. We've seen the rise of Wordle Bot 2.0 and the integration of deep-learning hint systems, but at its core, it’s still just you against a dictionary. Sometimes, the dictionary wins. Honestly, today’s puzzle is a bit of a jerk. It uses a letter structure that feels intuitive but leads you right into a "hard mode" trap where you’re just swapping the first letter over and over while the rows turn black.
The Wordle 1520 answer is STARE.
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Why STARE is Both a Blessing and a Curse
It’s ironic, isn't it? STARE is statistically one of the best starting words in the history of the game. Most veteran players use it as their "go-to" opener because it clears out the most common consonants and two of the most frequent vowels. But when the target word itself is the starting word you usually use—but decided to skip today—it feels like a personal insult from the algorithm.
The word STARE is a classic example of what linguists call high-frequency phonemes. It uses the "S-T" blend, which is ubiquitous in English, followed by a long 'A' sound facilitated by that silent 'E' at the end. If you missed it, don't feel too bad. The "S-T-A-R" sequence is a minefield. You could have easily guessed SHARE, SPARE, SNARE, or STARE.
This is the "Robin Hood" problem of Wordle. You hit the bullseye, but so did everyone else, or you missed by a single hair and lost everything.
Breaking Down the Mechanics of Today's Grid
Let's look at the data. According to the latest 2026 Wordle stats, words ending in 'E' have a 31% higher success rate if they are guessed by the third line. However, STARE belongs to a cluster of words known as "The Rhyme Trap."
When you get _ T A R E, you have way too many options:
- BARE
- CARE
- DARE
- FARE
- HARE
- MARE
- PARE
- RARE
- WARE
If you are playing on "Hard Mode," where you must use revealed hints in subsequent guesses, today could have been a total disaster for your streak. You basically have to pray to the RNG gods that you picked 'S' before you ran out of lines.
The Strategy Behind the Wordle 1520 Answer
Most people don't realize that the NYT editorial team, led by Tracy Bennett, chooses these words to balance difficulty and satisfaction. After a week of fairly obscure nouns, dropping a common verb like STARE feels like a "gimme," but it’s strategically placed to catch people who are overthinking.
I’ve been tracking these patterns for years. Usually, after a word with a double letter (like "GEESE" or "MAMMA"), the editors pivot to a standard five-letter staple. It resets the player's psychological baseline. You start looking for the "trick," but the trick is that there is no trick.
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How to Save Your Streak Next Time
If you struggled with the Wordle 1520 answer, it’s time to rethink your second guess.
If you get a yellow 'A' and 'R' on line one, do not immediately try to solve it if you see multiple possibilities. Instead, use a "burner" word. A burner word is a guess that uses as many of those missing lead consonants as possible. For the _ T A R E trap, a word like "FLIPS" or "CHAMP" can eliminate multiple trap-starters at once.
It feels counterintuitive to burn a turn, but it's the only way to guarantee a win in four.
The Cultural Impact of the Five-Letter Obsession
By 2026, Wordle has become more than a game; it’s a morning ritual that rivals the crossword. We’ve seen scientific papers, like the 2024 study from the Journal of Cognitive Psychology, suggesting that these short-burst linguistic puzzles actually help with "retrieval fluency" in aging brains.
But let's be real. We don't play it for the brain health. We play it to post those green squares in the group chat and feel superior to our cousins for twenty minutes.
The word STARE itself has an interesting etymology, coming from the Old English "starian," meaning to look fixedly. It’s exactly what you were doing at your screen five minutes ago. The irony is thick.
Actionable Steps for Tomorrow's Puzzle
Don't let today's result get in your head. Whether you got it in two or failed at six, the game resets at midnight.
- Check your starting word. If you aren't using a word with at least three vowels or high-frequency consonants (R, S, T, L, N), you're making it harder on yourself.
- Stop "Hard Mode" if you're on a 100+ day streak. It’s not worth the stress when a rhyme trap appears. You can toggle this in the settings.
- Analyze your fails. Use the Wordle Bot to see what the "optimal" play was. It’s annoying to be told by an AI that you’re inefficient, but it’s the fastest way to learn.
- Diversify your puzzles. If Wordle is getting too easy (or too frustrating), try Connections or the Mini Crossword to keep your linguistic processing sharp.
The Wordle 1520 answer is officially in the books. Take the win, lick your wounds if you lost, and get ready for 1521.