Look, we've all been there. It’s 7:30 AM, you’re nursing a lukewarm coffee, and you’re staring at a grid of gray boxes like they’re some kind of personal insult. You’ve got two tries left. The pressure is weirdly high for a game about five-letter words. Honestly, the wordle new york times answers have a way of making you feel like a Rhodes Scholar one day and someone who’s forgotten the basic English alphabet the next.
If you’re here because you’re stuck on today’s puzzle, or you just want to know why everyone is suddenly obsessed with the word "GUMBO" or "AVOID," you aren't alone. Millions of us are doing this same dance every single day.
The Reality of Today's Wordle New York Times Answers
Let’s get the immediate news out of the way. If you are playing on Wednesday, January 14, 2026, the answer you are looking for is AVOID.
It’s a bit of a tricky one. It starts with a vowel, which always throws people off. We tend to look for those sturdy consonants like S or T to anchor our guesses. But when that first box turns green on an A, your brain has to do a quick pivot. For Wordle #1670, if you started with something like ADIEU or AUDIO, you probably felt like a genius. You cleared out those vowels early.
But if you started with STARE? You were probably sweating by guess four.
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Yesterday was even weirder. On January 13, the answer was GUMBO. People were losing their minds. It’s not that it’s an impossible word, but it’s specific. It’s "moderately challenging," according to the NYT’s own tracking, with players taking an average of 4.8 guesses to find it. That’s a lot of yellow squares before the win.
Why Some Words Just Break Us
There’s a science to why some wordle new york times answers feel harder than others. It usually comes down to "the trap." You know the one. You get _IGHT and suddenly you’re guessing LIGHT, MIGHT, SIGHT, FIGHT, and NIGHT while your chances vanish into thin air.
- Double Letters: These are the silent killers. Words like "ABBEY" or "MAMMA" feel like a betrayal because we’re conditioned to try five different letters.
- Vowel-Heavy Starts: Words starting with A or O (like today’s AVOID) disrupt the usual "consonant-vowel-consonant" rhythm our brains prefer.
- Obscure Vocabulary: Every now and then, the NYT throws in something like "QUARK" (which popped up on January 11). If you aren't a physics buff, that Q and K combo is a nightmare.
How to Stop Losing Your Streak
Keeping a streak alive for 100, 200, or 500 days is a point of pride. It’s basically a digital badge of honor. But to keep it, you've gotta be strategic. You can’t just wing it with "FUZZY" on guess one.
The data nerds (and I say that with love) have actually solved the best starting words. Most researchers, including those at Real Statistics, point to SLATE, CRANE, or SALET as the most efficient openers. Why? Because they use the most common letters in the most common positions.
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Personally? I’m an ADIEU fan. Is it the most mathematically "correct" start? Maybe not. But it clears out four vowels in one go. If I see no yellow or green after ADIEU, I know I’m looking at a word with an O or maybe an Y. That’s huge.
The Two-Word Strategy
If your first word is a total bust (all gray), don't panic. You need a "cleanup" word. If you start with CRANE and get nothing, try something like PIOUS or ADIEU. You want to eliminate as many unique letters as possible by the end of guess two.
Don't try to solve it on guess two if you only have one yellow letter. It’s a trap. Use that second guess to rule out more of the alphabet. You've got six tries—use them.
The Evolution of the Game
Since the New York Times bought Wordle from Josh Wardle back in 2022, things have changed a bit. We now have an official Wordle Editor, Tracy Bennett. She’s the one who actually curates the list. It’s not just a random computer algorithm anymore; there’s a human element to it.
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This is why we see "themed" words sometimes—though Tracy has said in interviews that many of these are coincidences. Still, when "PARTY" or "FEAST" shows up around a holiday, it feels intentional.
The NYT also introduced WordleBot, which is basically an AI that judges your choices. It’ll tell you that your guess was "unlucky" or "inefficient." It’s a great tool if you want to get better, but man, it can be condescending when it tells you that STARE was a better choice than your favorite "fun" word.
Is Wordle Getting Harder?
People ask this every time there’s a tough week. Honestly? Not really. The pool of 2,300-ish words hasn't fundamentally changed. What has changed is our collective fatigue. We’ve seen so many words now that we start overthinking. We expect the "trick," so when the answer is something simple like TRIAL (January 12), we spend three guesses looking for a double Z.
Actionable Tips for Tomorrow's Puzzle
If you want to actually improve your game and stop panic-searching for answers, here is what you should do:
- Vary Your Openers: If STARE isn't working for you this week, switch to TRACE or AUDIO. Sometimes a fresh perspective changes how you see the yellow hints.
- Watch the Ends: A huge number of Wordle words end in ER, TY, or SE. If you’re stuck, check if those fit.
- Step Away: If you’re on guess five and your brain is fried, put the phone down. Go do something else for twenty minutes. Most "aha!" moments happen when you aren't staring directly at the screen.
- Check the Archive: Remember that the NYT rarely repeats an answer. If you know "GUMBO" was yesterday, you can safely ignore it for the next few years.
Winning at Wordle isn't about having the biggest vocabulary. It’s about being a good eliminator. Use your first two guesses to burn through the most common letters (R, S, T, L, N and the vowels), and the grid will almost always start to reveal itself. Keep that streak alive, and maybe tomorrow the boxes will turn green a little faster.