Wordle #1,684 hints & answer for January 28, 2026
· Wednesday
This page always keeps Wordle #1684 for January 28, 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 #1684
What kind of word
Wiktionary lists it as an adjective, and also as an adverb.
What it means
“Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.”
Source: Wiktionary contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected and lightly formatted from Wiktionary; long entries may be shortened.
Fill the gap
“We're certainly having quite a _____ winter this year.”
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 U.
How it ends
Ends in L.
Reveal the answer and explanation
The answer to Wordle #1,684 was
CRUEL: Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.
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 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.
How difficult was it for the solver?
Solver pressure: 22/100 (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 #1,684, measured
This section compares CRUEL'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, CRUEL measured harder for the solver than about 22% of all 1,952 recorded answers to date. Its rating is easier for the solver. The example solver route takes four turns.
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
TRACE left the fewest candidates: its first-guess feedback left 8 of the 2,384 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, STARE left 122 candidates, about 15 times as many.
| Opener | First-guess feedback | Answers still possible |
|---|---|---|
| TRACE | TRACE | 8 |
| CRANE | CRANE | 10 |
| ARISE | ARISE | 22 |
| ADIEU | ADIEU | 23 |
| SALET | SALET | 45 |
| SLATE | SLATE | 64 |
| RAISE | RAISE | 104 |
| AUDIO | AUDIO | 111 |
| TARSE | TARSE | 116 |
| STARE | STARE | 122 |
“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 CRUEL → It shows which guesses reduced the candidate pool on each turn.
Solver replay
One route our solver takes from its usual opening word to CRUEL.
The solver reaches the answer in 4 guesses.
Common questions
- What was the Wordle answer for January 28, 2026?
- The Wordle answer for January 28, 2026 (puzzle #1684) was CRUEL.
- What does CRUEL mean?
- CRUEL: Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.
- Why was Wordle #1684 tricky?
- CRUEL 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.