How an answer gets verified
Each puzzle has a date, a number and a word. The number comes straight from the date, since Wordle #0 was June 19, 2021 and it goes up by one a day. So when a source tells us about a puzzle, we can test whether its date and number agree with each other before we trust its word.
Shortly after midnight in New York, an automated job on our server reads the puzzle from the game's public feed at NYTimes.com and from any independent answer lists that have it yet: YourDictionary, Rock Paper Shotgun, Five Forks and WordleHints. An answer can be published in one of two ways:
- The official feed has it, its date and number check out, and no other source names a different word.
- The official feed is unavailable, and at least two independent lists name the same word for the same date and number.
Every puzzle page shows when it was published and last checked. Those are real times from that job, and we don't refresh them to make a page look newer.
When sources disagree, or nothing is available
The job stops and publishes nothing. The daily page keeps the date and number, which are safe to show, and says the puzzle is still being checked. Someone then looks at it by hand.
Seven puzzles went through this when we built the archive. In each case the official feed and at least one other list agreed, and one list named a different word. Those records keep the disagreement and the reason for the decision alongside the answer, and the puzzle's page says a person made the call.
No answers ahead of time
The job never asks about a date that hasn't started in New York, and the site's build refuses to run if a future puzzle turns up in its data. Wordle's own schedule can change, so we don't work from any list of upcoming words.
Dates and time zones
The official game switches at midnight in each player's own time zone. A single web page can't do that for everyone, so ours follows the New York calendar and shows the date beside the puzzle number. If your device's date is different, a note says so and points to the right puzzle. That note appears only in your browser. It doesn't change the page's heading or its contents.
How hints are written
The first four hints are counted from the word: how many vowels it has (A, E, I, O and U, with Y left out), whether a letter repeats, and its first and last letters.
The fifth hint uses the word's meaning. It comes from an editor's note where one exists, and otherwise from one sense listed in Princeton's WordNet, labeled as such. When WordNet has nothing usable, the fifth hint becomes another letter clue. We won't make up a definition to fill the slot.
For selected recent puzzles, an editor has written a specific meaning and a short commentary on the answer's spelling or usage. We show a worked color-tile example for those puzzles too; it is calculated from the answer and a sample guess, not taken from any player's private game.
Other dates may use automatically selected dictionary senses. Those are labeled as such and can occasionally be less familiar than the everyday sense. If a hint looks wrong, tell us.
What we don't publish
No difficulty ratings, win rates or "best starting word" claims, because we can't back them up. The solver's suggestions are labeled as a simple letter count. There are no invented authors or reviewers, and if a page says something was counted, it was counted.
How we avoid spoilers
Answers stay out of page titles, descriptions, headings, image text, web addresses and share previews. Covered hints and answers don't turn up with Find in Page and aren't read out by screen readers, and we ask search engines not to quote them. Nothing you reveal is saved, so every visit starts covered again.
Covering an answer is meant to stop accidents. It isn't a lock: anyone who opens the page source on purpose can find it.
Corrections
If we get something wrong, we fix it on the same URL and keep a record of what changed, when and why. The puzzle's record then shows a "Corrected" time. To report a mistake, use the contact page and include the puzzle number or date.
Who's responsible
The site's operator is responsible for everything published here, including the automated checks described above.