NYT Wordle #1889 answer & hints: Friday, August 21, 2026

Updated: Friday, August 21, 2026 · Hints reviewed by Omer Liban · New puzzle daily at midnight in your local timezone. · Puzzle editor: Tracy Bennett.

This page has every level of help for the NYT Wordle puzzle #1889 of Friday, August 21, 2026: 3 spoiler-free hint tiers that narrow things down step by step, followed by the complete answers with explanations — each behind its own tap-to-reveal card.

Need a nudge on today's Wordle without ruining it? Open the hints one at a time — from a gentle first-letter clue to the full answer.

Wordle hints (August 21, 2026)

1Gentle nudge

Today's word starts with the letter “T”.
It contains 2 vowels.

2Bigger hint

No repeated letters today — five different letters.
The letters, in alphabetical order, are: A C E R T.

3Almost there

The first three letters are “TRA”.

Want to earn it? The free Wordle Solver shows every word that still fits your greens and yellows — a middle path between hints and the answer.

Wordle answers — August 21, 2026 (#1889)

★Today's Wordle answer, explained

The answer is TRACE.
What it means — noun: An act of tracing.

The puzzle, explained

TRACE was a pretty straightforward Wordle once you locked in those vowels—A and E are both super common, and they're positioned in spots (positions 3 and 5) that most players guess fairly early. The real trap was probably the C, which isn't the most frequent consonant, so if you were stuck with T_A_E, you might've wasted a guess or two cycling through TRADE, FRAME, or BRAKE before landing on it. That said, there weren't any weird letter combinations or obscure vowel placements to mess with you, so it was definitely on the easier side compared to some of the curveballs Wordle throws. If you nailed it in three or four guesses, you pretty much played it by the book.

Next in today's routine: Strands → · every game's answers on one page. New puzzle daily at midnight in your local timezone. Bookmark this page for tomorrow's hints. Or play Wordle on the official site.

More of today's puzzles

LinkedIn puzzles

Wordle — common questions

What time does Wordle reset?

Wordle resets at midnight in your own local timezone, unlike most other NYT games which flip at midnight US Eastern Time.

Can the Wordle answer have repeated letters?

Yes — repeated letters appear regularly, so don't rule out a letter you've already placed once.

Does Wordle use American or British spelling?

Wordle is edited by the New York Times and uses American spellings — worth remembering for words like FAVOR or COLOR.

Previous Wordle puzzles

Full Wordle archive (138 puzzles) → · The best Wordle starting words →