Highest estimated difficulty
WAXEN appears less than once per million words in the corpus-based frequency data, so familiarity alone sets a Brutal floor. Its letters add points too, but corpus frequency sets the minimum rating.
Past Answers
Wordle Answers: January 2026
Browse all 31 completed answers from January 2026, with a page for each puzzle's definition, difficulty and solver replay.
January 2026 in review
January 2026 is complete, with 31 puzzles and every date recorded. On the site's word-property scale it was an ordinary month. The highest estimated difficulty occurred on Jan 19, 2026 and the lowest on Jan 1, 2026; 10 answers doubled a letter and 8 answers used at least one of Q, Z, X, J, K, V or W.
The hardest and easiest answers
Lowest estimated difficulty
FABLE has five distinct letters, 2 vowels and no uncommon letters. Common first guesses therefore test many of its letters.
The spread ran from 0 points on Jan 1, 2026 to 5 on Jan 19, 2026. Both numbers describe single words, not a sequence. A hard day and an easy one can occur in the same week, so the trend line below compares whole months rather than individual days.
The difficulty trend
An ordinary month. January's 31 answers averaged 1.6 points on the estimated word-difficulty scale against 1.6 across the trailing six months, and a gap of less than 0.1 points sits inside the normal month-to-month spread of about ±0.3. At roughly thirty answers a month that is sampling noise, not a change in how answers were chosen. The difference does not support changing openers or strategy. The scale combines general-English corpus frequency with repeats, uncommon letters and missing vowels. It measures word properties, not player results.
Letters and patterns
10 of 31 answers doubled a letter, in line with the long-run archive rate of about 31%. This matches the usual rate. Test a repeat when the board stalls.
8 of 31 answers used at least one of Q, Z, X, J, K, V or W, in line with the long-run archive rate of about 28%. Standard openers test these letters less often, so the difficulty scale adds a penalty for each one.
No day reused an earlier answer: every puzzle this month was a first appearance in the site's recorded history. Repeats do happen, so a word having been a solution before is still no reason to drop it from your guesses.
Double-letter days: Jan 2 (#1,658) doubled O; Jan 4 (#1,660) doubled S; Jan 5 (#1,661) doubled L; Jan 6 (#1,662) doubled O; Jan 16 (#1,672) doubled R; Jan 20 (#1,676) doubled L; Jan 21 (#1,677) doubled C; Jan 24 (#1,680) doubled F; Jan 25 (#1,681) doubled T; Jan 31 (#1,687) doubled L.
Uncommon-letter days: Jan 11 (#1,667) used K and Q; Jan 14 (#1,670) used V; Jan 19 (#1,675) used W and X; Jan 22 (#1,678) used K; Jan 26 (#1,682) used K; Jan 27 (#1,683) used K; Jan 29 (#1,685) used K; Jan 30 (#1,686) used J.
How players fared
No day from this month has reached the Observatory's minimum public sample of 10 opt-in games, so no crowd numbers appear. The gate is deliberate: below it, a handful of results could stand in for a crowd and misrepresent a day.
Answer words are shown only for completed puzzles. Open a puzzle for its definition, difficulty and solver replay.
| Date | Day | Puzzle | Answer | Word difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 31, 2026 | Saturday | #1,687 → | ALLOT | Tricky |
| Jan 30, 2026 | Friday | #1,686 → | JUMBO | Moderate |
| Jan 29, 2026 | Thursday | #1,685 → | FLAKY | Tricky |
| Jan 28, 2026 | Wednesday | #1,684 → | CRUEL | Easy |
| Jan 27, 2026 | Tuesday | #1,683 → | DUSKY | Tricky |
| Jan 26, 2026 | Monday | #1,682 → | FREAK | Moderate |
| Jan 25, 2026 | Sunday | #1,681 → | STRUT | Tricky |
| Jan 24, 2026 | Saturday | #1,680 → | CLIFF | Tricky |
| Jan 23, 2026 | Friday | #1,679 → | BARON | Easy |
| Jan 22, 2026 | Thursday | #1,678 → | CLINK | Tricky |
| Jan 21, 2026 | Wednesday | #1,677 → | CUBIC | Moderate |
| Jan 20, 2026 | Tuesday | #1,676 → | SULLY | Tricky |
| Jan 19, 2026 | Monday | #1,675 → | WAXEN | Brutal |
| Jan 18, 2026 | Sunday | #1,674 → | SUMAC | Hard |
| Jan 17, 2026 | Saturday | #1,673 → | FIERY | Easy |
| Jan 16, 2026 | Friday | #1,672 → | RACER | Moderate |
| Jan 15, 2026 | Thursday | #1,671 → | CHASM | Tricky |
| Jan 14, 2026 | Wednesday | #1,670 → | AVOID | Moderate |
| Jan 13, 2026 | Tuesday | #1,669 → | GUMBO | Tricky |
| Jan 12, 2026 | Monday | #1,668 → | TRIAL | Easy |
| Jan 11, 2026 | Sunday | #1,667 → | QUARK | Tricky |
| Jan 10, 2026 | Saturday | #1,666 → | MANIC | Easy |
| Jan 9, 2026 | Friday | #1,665 → | EIGHT | Easy |
| Jan 8, 2026 | Thursday | #1,664 → | BLAST | Moderate |
| Jan 7, 2026 | Wednesday | #1,663 → | PECAN | Tricky |
| Jan 6, 2026 | Tuesday | #1,662 → | OOMPH | Tricky |
| Jan 5, 2026 | Monday | #1,661 → | FILLY | Tricky |
| Jan 4, 2026 | Sunday | #1,660 → | POSSE | Moderate |
| Jan 3, 2026 | Saturday | #1,659 → | SITAR | Hard |
| Jan 2, 2026 | Friday | #1,658 → | PROOF | Moderate |
| Jan 1, 2026 | Thursday | #1,657 → | FABLE | Easy |
On this day in Wordle
Past answers published on September 7 in earlier years. Every puzzle listed here is complete, so this section does not spoil a live game.
-
1 year ago
Nothing unusual appears in the letters: all five are distinct and familiar. Ordinary letter coverage works well on words like this.
-
2 years ago
Nothing unusual appears in the letters: all five are distinct and familiar. Ordinary letter coverage works well on words like this.
-
3 years ago
The doubled L raises the difficulty. Once a letter shows up yellow or green, few players try it a second time unprompted.
The Easy-to-Brutal badge combines general-English corpus frequency with repeats, uncommon letters and vowel count. It estimates word difficulty, not player results. Dates come from the site's recorded answer history.
Archive totals
Estimated word difficulty combines wordfreq corpus frequency with repeats, uncommon letters and vowel count. It measures word properties, not player results. Compare solver difficulty →
- Easy 7
- Moderate 8
- Tricky 13
- Hard 2
- Brutal 1