The hardest Wordle words, ranked from every past answer
We rated every past Wordle answer since June 2021 with Vowelkit's difficulty estimate, which looks at repeated letters, rare letters, letters in unusual spots and lookalike words that differ by one letter. Here are the hardest answers so far, the trap word families, and what the numbers say about this year.
Updated October 23, 2026. Based on 1,953 daily answers from June 19, 2021 to October 23, 2026 (1,925 different words). Today's answer is never included.
Key findings
- The hardest past answer by our estimate is kazoo (#730), followed by level, mummy, puppy, gamma.
- 31% of answers use a letter twice or more, 21% contain a rare letter (J, K, Q, V, X or Z), and 43% have four or more lookalike words that differ by just one letter.
- In 2026 so far, 51% of answers rated harder than usual, compared with 41% in 2022.
- 28 answers have now appeared twice, since repeats began in February 2026.
The 25 hardest Wordle words of all time
Ranked by our difficulty score (higher is harder). A word that was used twice is listed once, with its most recent date.
| Rank | Word | Puzzle | Score | Why it is hard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | kazoo | #730, June 19, 2023 | 6.73 | One repeated letter, two rare letters and letters in unusual spots, but only two lookalike words. |
| 2 | level | #1518, August 15, 2025 | 6.44 | Only three different letters, one rare letter and several lookalikes (5 other words differ by one letter). |
| 3 | mummy | #491, October 23, 2022 | 6.42 | Only three different letters, letters in unusual spots and many lookalikes (8 other words differ by one letter), but no rare letters. |
| 4 | puppy | #1837, June 30, 2026 | 6.42 | Only three different letters, letters in unusual spots and many lookalikes (8 other words differ by one letter), but no rare letters. |
| 5 | gamma | #93, September 20, 2021 | 6.33 | Only three different letters, letters in unusual spots and several lookalikes (5 other words differ by one letter), but no rare letters. |
| 6 | river | #1929, September 30, 2026 | 6.31 | One repeated letter, one rare letter and many lookalikes (15 other words differ by one letter). |
| 7 | jolly | #1037, April 21, 2024 | 6.29 | One repeated letter, one rare letter and many lookalikes (11 other words differ by one letter). |
| 8 | jelly | #1253, November 23, 2024 | 6.13 | One repeated letter, one rare letter, letters in unusual spots and many lookalikes (8 other words differ by one letter). |
| 9 | poppy | #1475, July 3, 2025 | 5.98 | Only three different letters, letters in unusual spots and several lookalikes (7 other words differ by one letter), but no rare letters. |
| 10 | verve | #795, August 23, 2023 | 5.95 | Only three different letters, one rare letter and several lookalikes (5 other words differ by one letter). |
| 11 | kayak | #671, April 21, 2023 | 5.93 | Only three different letters, one rare letter and letters in unusual spots, but only one lookalike word. |
| 12 | daddy | #833, September 30, 2023 | 5.88 | Only three different letters, letters in unusual spots and several lookalikes (6 other words differ by one letter), but no rare letters. |
| 13 | naval | #8, June 27, 2021 | 5.87 | One repeated letter, one rare letter, letters in unusual spots and several lookalikes (5 other words differ by one letter). |
| 14 | vivid | #251, February 25, 2022 | 5.87 | Only three different letters, one rare letter and letters in unusual spots, but only one lookalike word. |
| 15 | fuzzy | #1350, February 28, 2025 | 5.83 | One repeated letter, one rare letter, letters in unusual spots and several lookalikes (4 other words differ by one letter). |
| 16 | lever | #1574, October 10, 2025 | 5.83 | One repeated letter, one rare letter and many lookalikes (10 other words differ by one letter). |
| 17 | villa | #1387, April 6, 2025 | 5.81 | One repeated letter, one rare letter and letters in unusual spots, but only three lookalike words. |
| 18 | revel | #629, March 10, 2023 | 5.72 | One repeated letter, one rare letter and several lookalikes (7 other words differ by one letter). |
| 19 | civic | #96, September 23, 2021 | 5.71 | Only three different letters, one rare letter and letters in unusual spots, but only one lookalike word. |
| 20 | cluck | #46, August 4, 2021 | 5.67 | One repeated letter, one rare letter and several lookalikes (7 other words differ by one letter). |
| 21 | clock | #1788, May 12, 2026 | 5.65 | One repeated letter, one rare letter and many lookalikes (9 other words differ by one letter). |
| 22 | rover | #1039, April 23, 2024 | 5.65 | One repeated letter, one rare letter and many lookalikes (10 other words differ by one letter). |
| 23 | click | #1893, August 25, 2026 | 5.65 | One repeated letter, one rare letter and many lookalikes (10 other words differ by one letter). |
| 24 | chuck | #1799, May 23, 2026 | 5.63 | One repeated letter, one rare letter and several lookalikes (7 other words differ by one letter). |
| 25 | dizzy | #1714, February 27, 2026 | 5.61 | One repeated letter, one rare letter and letters in unusual spots, but only three lookalike words. |
Is Wordle getting harder? Year by year
The rating runs from 1 (easy) to 5 (hard), where 3 is a typical common five-letter word. "Harder than usual" means a rating of 3.4 or more.
| Year | Answers | Average rating | Harder than usual |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 (from June 19) | 196 | 3.1 | 40% |
| 2022 | 365 | 3.0 | 41% |
| 2023 | 365 | 3.0 | 40% |
| 2024 | 366 | 3.1 | 45% |
| 2025 | 365 | 3.2 | 45% |
| 2026 (so far) | 296 | 3.3 | 51% |
The trap word families
These patterns caught the most past answers. When the answer is one of them, finding four letters is the easy part: the last one can take every guess you have left.
- ?atch: 7 answers (HATCH, WATCH, CATCH, MATCH, PATCH, BATCH, LATCH)
- ?ound: 7 answers (POUND, ROUND, FOUND, SOUND, HOUND, WOUND, MOUND)
- ?ight: 6 answers (LIGHT, NIGHT, RIGHT, SIGHT, MIGHT, EIGHT)
- ?ower: 6 answers (SOWER, POWER, COWER, LOWER, ROWER, TOWER)
- sha?e: 6 answers (SHAKE, SHAME, SHADE, SHAVE, SHAPE, SHARE)
- ?aunt: 5 answers (JAUNT, TAUNT, GAUNT, HAUNT, DAUNT)
- ?each: 5 answers (PEACH, BEACH, TEACH, REACH, LEACH)
- ?over: 5 answers (LOVER, ROVER, COVER, HOVER, MOVER)
- ?rill: 5 answers (KRILL, FRILL, DRILL, GRILL, TRILL)
- ?usty: 5 answers (LUSTY, RUSTY, MUSTY, GUSTY, DUSTY)
Tip: if you are stuck on a family like this, spend a guess on a word that tests several of the missing letters at once. The Wordle solver shows which words still fit.
The 10 easiest answers so far
Common letters in their usual places and few lookalikes:
chute, dealt, biome, argue, rinse, frame, rainy, lapse, taupe, raise.
How we rated the answers
Each answer gets four counts, all from its letters:
- Repeated letters, which single-letter guesses rarely find.
- Rare letters: J, K, Q, V, X or Z.
- Letter spots: how often each letter sits in that position among common five-letter words (unusual spots are harder).
- Lookalikes: common words that match the answer in four of its five spots, like the _IGHT words.
The weighted sum is the score; the 1 to 5 rating places that score among the common five-letter words in Vowelkit's own answer list. We checked the estimate against public average guess counts for 35 days, and it ranks days in the same direction as players (rank correlation 0.62).
Limits: the score cannot see luck, a player's starting word, or how well people know a word, so a familiar word with a repeated letter can rate higher than it felt. It is an estimate, not the official difficulty. Answers come from the puzzle's public daily files, the same list as our past Wordle words page. The day's own estimate is on today's Wordle hint page.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the hardest Wordle word so far?
- By our estimate it is KAZOO (puzzle #730, June 19, 2023): one repeated letter, two rare letters and letters in unusual spots, but only two lookalike words. The next hardest are LEVEL, MUMMY, PUPPY, GAMMA.
- Is Wordle getting harder?
- By the letters alone, yes, a little. In 2022, 41% of answers rated harder than usual; in 2026 so far it is 51% (average rating 3.0 then, 3.3 now). The estimate cannot see how well people know a word, so treat it as a trend, not a verdict.
- What are the hardest words to guess in Wordle?
- Hard Wordle words share three things: a repeated letter (MUMMY, PUPPY, LEVEL), a rare letter like J, K, Q, V, X or Z (KAZOO, JOLLY, FUZZY), or many lookalikes that differ by one letter (the ?ATCH, ?OUND and ?IGHT families). Words with two or three of these, like KAZOO and LEVEL, are the hardest of all.
- Why are words like LIGHT, NIGHT and RIGHT so hard?
- They share four letters in the same spots, so once you have _IGHT you can still lose by guessing the first letter one word at a time. Our list of trap families below shows the patterns that past answers fall into most often.
- Can I use these numbers in an article?
- Yes. Please credit Vowelkit and link to this page. The figures update every day as new answers come in, so mention the date you read them. For questions, write to hello@vowelkit.com.
Want a fresh puzzle instead? Play today's Vowelkit word or make your own puzzle and send it to a friend as a link.