Wordle #1,552 hints & answer for September 18, 2025
· Thursday
This page always keeps Wordle #1552 for September 18, 2025. Check that number against your game before opening a hint. The answer remains below a separate reveal.
Wordle changes at midnight in your local time zone. For the current local puzzle, use today’s hints. This dated page keeps the same puzzle when the day changes.
Our independent hints use the verified puzzle answer. Play the official game at The New York Times.
Hints for Wordle #1552
What kind of word
Wiktionary lists it as a noun.
Fill the gap
“He was looking for a _____ to chop some steak.”
Source: Wiktionary contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentence selected from Wiktionary, with the answer removed.
The middle letter
The middle letter is I.
Where the vowels sit
The vowels are the third and fifth letters.
How it starts
Begins with K.
Reveal the answer and explanation
The answer to Wordle #1,552 was
KNIFE: A utensil or a tool designed for cutting, consisting of a flat piece of hard material, usually steel or other metal (the blade), usually sharpened on one edge, attached to a handle. The blade may be pointed for piercing.
Source: Wiktionary contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected and lightly formatted from Wiktionary; long entries may be shortened.
Why it may be difficult: uncommon letters.
The word rating describes familiarity and letter features. The solver score below measures how a fixed strategy handles the puzzle; an unusual word can still be easy for that strategy.
How difficult was it for the solver?
Solver pressure: 15/100 (easier for the solver). This is a percentile among past puzzles under the same strategy: 0 is easiest and 100 is hardest for the solver.
This compares past puzzles under the same solver settings; it does not measure how players performed. Compare more puzzles →
Wordle #1,552, measured
This section compares KNIFE's solver-difficulty percentile, first-guess results for ten familiar openers, and opt-in player reports. Each number identifies its dataset.
Solver difficulty, as a percentile
This score is a percentile, not an opinion. Under the site's fixed solver settings, KNIFE measured harder for the solver than about 15% of all 1,952 recorded answers to date. Its rating is easier for the solver. CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU leave about 62.3 possible answers.
Solver pressure ranks the answer within the pool; it does not measure player performance. The opener table compares first-guess results, and the contributed ratings report player results.
CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU benchmark
CRANE left the fewest candidates: its first-guess feedback left 23 of the 2,384 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, AUDIO left 275 candidates, about 12 times as many.
| Opener | First-guess feedback | Answers still possible |
|---|---|---|
| CRANE | CRANE | 23 |
| ARISE | ARISE | 24 |
| RAISE | RAISE | 24 |
| ADIEU | ADIEU | 53 |
| STARE | STARE | 91 |
| TARSE | TARSE | 91 |
| TRACE | TRACE | 109 |
| SLATE | SLATE | 111 |
| SALET | SALET | 173 |
| AUDIO | AUDIO | 275 |
“Answers still possible” counts the words in the site's 2,384-word working answer pool whose feedback would match that opener exactly. This is pattern arithmetic, not a simulation. A smaller number means the opener left fewer possible answers after the first guess. It does not describe later turns.
Contributed player ratings
Not enough contributed games to publish player figures for this puzzle. Per-puzzle numbers appear only after at least 10 opt-in games arrive. See how the Observatory collects and publishes player data →
See the solver's route to KNIFE → It shows which guesses reduced the candidate pool on each turn.
Solver replay
One route our solver takes from its usual opening word to KNIFE.
The solver reaches the answer in 3 guesses.
Common questions
- What was the Wordle answer for September 18, 2025?
- The Wordle answer for September 18, 2025 (puzzle #1552) was KNIFE.
- What does KNIFE mean?
- KNIFE: A utensil or a tool designed for cutting, consisting of a flat piece of hard material, usually steel or other metal (the blade), usually sharpened on one edge, attached to a handle. The blade may be pointed for piercing.
- Why was Wordle #1552 tricky?
- KNIFE is rated moderate for estimated word difficulty. Why it may be difficult: uncommon letters.