The popular daily word puzzle Wordle continues to challenge players with its five-letter word guessing game. For Monday, August 24, 2026, the answer is "RUNNY." The word describes something in a liquid state, such as the yolk of a sunny-side-up egg.
For those seeking a nudge to preserve their winning streaks, today's puzzle offered several clues. The word is liquid, begins with the letter 'R,' and ends with 'Y.' It contains only one vowel and four unique letters. A suggested starting word that reveals two yellow letters is "COURT."
Wordle, created by software engineer Josh Wardle, gained immense popularity shortly after its October 2021 release. Its viral success was partly due to an integrated sharing feature that allowed players to post their results without revealing the daily answer. The New York Times acquired the game in January 2022.
The game accepts most five-letter words as guesses, but the daily answers are drawn from a more limited list of common words. While the New York Times aims to avoid obscure or politically charged words, it has occasionally adjusted answers for sensitive contexts. For example, the word "FETUS" was changed to "SHINE" on March 30th following news regarding Roe v. Wade.
Players looking to increase the game's difficulty can enable "Hard Mode" via the settings cog, which requires all revealed letters to be incorporated into subsequent guesses. An even stricter "Ultra-Hard" variation mandates that every guess must be a plausible answer based on all previous clues.
Beyond the standard Wordle, numerous variations and inspired games exist, such as Worldle (guessing countries by shape), Waffle (rearranging letters), Moviedle (guessing movies from short clips), and Quordle (solving four Wordles simultaneously). For those who wish to share their progress, Wordle's built-in sharing function allows results to be posted to social media or other apps without spoiling the answer for others.