By FiveLetterWords · Guide updated . The puzzle date is shown separately.

This page always keeps Wordle #1666 for January 10, 2026. 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 #1666

What kind of word

Wiktionary lists it as an adjective, and also as a noun.

Where the vowels sit

The vowels are the second and fourth letters.

The middle letter

The middle letter is N.

How it starts

Begins with M.

How it ends

Ends in C.

Reveal the answer and explanation

The answer to Wordle #1,666 was

MANIC: Characterized by mania or craziness; wicked.

Source: Wiktionary contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected and lightly formatted from Wiktionary; long entries may be shortened.

Word difficulty: Easy

Why it may be easier: five different letters, at least two vowels and none of Q, Z, X, J, K, V or W.

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.

Compare past puzzle difficulty →

How difficult was it for the solver?

Solver pressure: 56/100 (middle of the pack). This is a percentile among past puzzles under the same strategy: 0 is easiest and 100 is hardest for the solver.

6 Possible answers after CRANE
141 Possible answers after SLATE
62 Possible answers after ADIEU
4 Guesses in the solver replay

This compares past puzzles under the same solver settings; it does not measure how players performed. Compare more puzzles →

Wordle #1,666, measured

This section compares MANIC'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

56/100

This score is a percentile, not an opinion. Under the site's fixed solver settings, MANIC measured harder for the solver than about 56% of all 1,952 recorded answers to date. Its rating is middle of the pack. The example solver route takes four turns; CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU leave about 69.7 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 6 of the 2,384 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, SLATE left 141 candidates, about 24 times as many.

First-guess feedback each opener would have received against MANIC, and how many answer-pool words would still match it
OpenerFirst-guess feedbackAnswers still possible
CRANE CRANE 6
RAISE RAISE 14
ARISE ARISE 35
TRACE TRACE 35
AUDIO AUDIO 37
ADIEU ADIEU 62
TARSE TARSE 68
SALET SALET 85
STARE STARE 132
SLATE SLATE 141

“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 →

What did you get?

Tap your result to compare it with contributed games. Your choice stays in this browser and is not sent anywhere.

1 Suppressed
2 Suppressed
3 12
4 10
5 Suppressed
6 Suppressed
X Suppressed

The bars pool all 40 contributed games across every completed puzzle. The Observatory does not publish per-puzzle guess distributions below its sample threshold, so this is the broadest available comparison. “Suppressed” marks a low-count cell.

Solver replay

One route our solver takes from its usual opening word to MANIC.

The solver reaches the answer in 4 guesses.

Common questions

What was the Wordle answer for January 10, 2026?
The Wordle answer for January 10, 2026 (puzzle #1666) was MANIC.
What does MANIC mean?
MANIC: Characterized by mania or craziness; wicked.
Why was Wordle #1666 tricky?
MANIC is rated easy for estimated word difficulty. Why it may be easier: five different letters, at least two vowels and none of Q, Z, X, J, K, V or W.

Keep solving and playing