Wordle hints today for #1,189: Clues and answer for Friday, September 20

Here are some clues and the first letter for today's word.

Kris Holt
·Contributing Reporter
·4 min read

Hey, there! Welcome to our daily Wordle guide. Some hints and the answer for Friday's edition of the hugely popular word game lie ahead to help make sure your streak stays alive as we roll into the weekend. But maybe Wordle is an entirely new thing for you, and you're not quite sure how to get started. Either way, don't worry — we're here to help you out.

Wordle is a deceptively simple daily word game that first emerged in 2021. The gist is that there is one five-letter word to deduce every day by process of elimination. The daily word is the same for everyone.

Wordle blew up in popularity in late 2021 after creator Josh Wardle made it easy for players to share an emoji-based grid with their friends and followers that detailed how they fared each day. The game's success spurred dozens of clones across a swathe of categories and formats.

The New York Times purchased Wordle in early 2022 for an undisclosed sum. The publication said that players collectively played Wordle 4.8 billion times in 2023. So, it's little surprise that Wordle is one of the best online games and puzzles you can play daily.

To start playing Wordle, you simply need to enter one five-letter word. The game will tell you how close you are to that day's secret word by highlighting letters that are in the correct position in green. Letters that appear in the word but aren't in the right spot will be highlighted in yellow. If you guess any letters that are not in the secret word, the game will gray those out on the virtual keyboard.

You'll only have six guesses to find each day's word, though you still can use grayed-out letters to help narrow things down. It's also worth remembering that letters can appear in the secret word more than once.

Wordle is free to play on the NYT's website and apps, as well as on Meta Quest headsets. The game refreshes at midnight local time. If you log into a New York Times account, you can track your stats, including the all-important win streak. In addition, a tool called the Wordlebot can tell you how well you performed. Paid NYT Games subscribers also have access to an archive of 1,000+ previous Wordle games.

Before today's Wordle hints, here are the answers to recent puzzles that you may have missed:

Thursday, September 19 — PRESS

Wednesday, September 18 — FULLY

Tuesday, September 17 — BEAUT

Monday, September 16 — HONEY

Sunday, September 15 — RECUR

Every day, we'll try to make Wordle a little easier for you. First, we'll offer a hint that describes the meaning of the word or how it might be used in a phrase or sentence. We'll also tell you if there are any double (or even triple) letters in the word.

In case you still haven't quite figured it out by that point, we'll then provide the first letter of the word. Those who are still stumped after that can continue on to find out the answer for today's Wordle.

This should go without saying, but make sure to scroll slowly. Spoilers are ahead.

Here's a hint for today's Wordle answer:

There's no [blank] without fire

There are no repeated letters in today's Wordle answer.

The first letter of today's Wordle answer is S.

This is your final warning before we reveal today's Wordle answer. No takesies-backsies. Don't blame us if you happen to scroll too far and accidentally spoil the game for yourself.

Today's Wordle answer is...

SMOKE

Not to worry if you didn't figure out today's Wordle word. If you made it this far down the page, hopefully you at least kept your streak going. And, hey: there's always another game tomorrow.

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