Wordle Answer Today: July 18, 2026 Solution and Hints for NYT Puzzle Number 1,855 Are Finally Revealed

Saturday's Wordle puzzle sent players guessing through a word with several unrelated everyday meanings, tripping up some solvers who initially leaned toward livestock-related terms before landing on the correct answer. The solution to Wordle #1,855 for July 18, 2026, is BOOTH.

The word functions as a concrete noun describing a small, enclosed or semi-enclosed space designed for a specific purpose, and it carries several distinct meanings depending on context. A voting booth offers privacy for casting a ballot, a restaurant booth refers to a seating arrangement with high-backed benches, and a telephone booth, a glass-and-steel enclosure once common on city streets before the smartphone era, has largely become a relic of the past. The word also serves as a well-known surname, most notably belonging to John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865.

Structurally, BOOTH features two vowels and three consonants, with one repeated letter: the double "O" that sits in the second and third positions of the word. Puzzle trackers noted that the word begins with the letter B, a relatively uncommon starting letter within the broader pool of Wordle answers, a detail that helped narrow the field of viable guesses for players paying close attention to letter frequency.

Hint sites offered a graduated series of clues throughout the day for players seeking assistance without having the answer spoiled outright. Early hints described the word as referring to a small enclosed area or space designed for a specific purpose, something a person might encounter at restaurants, events, fairs or voting locations, often providing separation or privacy from the surrounding area. Later hints noted the word could describe either a temporary shelter for livestock or an enclosure for privacy, a detail some outlets flagged as intentionally broad to avoid giving away the answer too directly. A final round of clues pointed to the word's connection to Lincoln's assassin as the most specific hint offered before the full answer was revealed.

Several puzzle trackers flagged specific false trails that players should watch out for when solving a word like BOOTH, given its double-letter structure. Words such as BOOTS, BOONS and BOOZE were cited as plausible near-misses that share the same opening letters and vowel pattern, potentially leading solvers astray in the middle rounds of guessing before the correct word became clear. The doubled "O" in particular was noted as a common trap in Wordle, since players who confirm one instance of a letter sometimes rule out the possibility of that letter appearing again elsewhere in the word, a habit that can slow down solvers when a puzzle features repeated letters, as has also been the case with past Wordle answers like SHEEP and BLOOM.

According to the New York Times' WordleBot, which tracks daily performance statistics, detailed completion data for Saturday's puzzle was still being compiled as of publication, following a pattern in which the previous day's puzzle, Wordle #1,854 and its answer LEGAL, saw players average roughly 4.0 guesses in easy mode and 3.9 in hard mode, according to WordleBot's tracking. That reflected a moderately challenging solve for Friday's law-related word, which also featured a repeated letter in its own double "L" structure.

Wordle, the daily five-letter word-guessing game, was originally developed by software engineer Josh Wardle before its public release in 2021. The game's simple format, a single new puzzle released once each day worldwide alongside a built-in system for sharing color-coded results without spoiling the answer for others, helped fuel its rapid rise in popularity following its debut. The New York Times acquired the game in early 2022 and has continued publishing a new puzzle daily ever since, with Wordle now standing as one of the paper's most widely played digital features alongside its Connections, Strands and traditional Crossword puzzles.

Puzzle strategists offered several general tips applicable beyond Saturday's specific solution. Players are commonly advised to use an opening guess capable of testing several commonly used vowels and consonants at once, helping narrow down which letters belong in the final word before committing to more targeted guesses in later rounds. Solvers are also encouraged to remain open to the possibility of repeated letters rather than assuming every letter in the answer is unique, particularly once several rounds of guessing with distinct letters have failed to produce a solution. For players down to their final two guesses, hint sites recommended prioritizing words that fit all previously confirmed letter placements and exclusions over riskier guesses aimed purely at eliminating additional letters, a strategy generally better suited to earlier rounds of the game when more attempts remain available.

Saturday's puzzle continued a stretch of varied Wordle solutions throughout the week, following Friday's LEGAL and Thursday's BUTTE, a geological term describing an isolated hill with steep sides and a flat top that similarly tripped up players who initially guessed the more common landform term MESA. The run of specialized vocabulary across recent days, spanning law, geology and now a multi-purpose noun tied to voting, dining and a notable historical figure, reflected the broad range of subject matter the puzzle draws from in selecting its daily answers.

Alongside Wordle, the Times also published its daily Spelling Bee puzzle for the previous day, July 17, with a center letter of U and a pangram of ALBUMEN, along with the independently operated word-association game Contexto, whose July 17 answer was ICON, according to puzzle trackers monitoring related word games.

For players who came up short on Saturday's puzzle, hint sites emphasized that a single missed day need not disrupt a broader Wordle habit, encouraging solvers to return the following day for puzzle #1,856. Wordle's daily reset occurs at midnight in each player's local time zone, meaning the puzzle refreshes independently around the world rather than at a single fixed global moment, continuing the game's now-familiar rhythm of one shared puzzle experienced individually across time zones by millions of solvers each day.