Puzzle #1886
Wordle Answer for August 18, 2026
STRIP (noun) — A long, thin piece of land; any long, thin area.
Difficulty: Challenging · players averaged 4.3 guesses
The day's hints, in case you're catching up
Hint 1Meaning
It means: A long, thin piece of land; any long, thin area.
Hint 2Vowels
It contains exactly one vowel: I.
Hint 3Letters
All five letters are unique — no letter appears twice.
Hint 4First letter
It starts with the letter S.
Hint 5Last letter
It ends with the letter P.
Why this word played the way it did
STRIP runs on a single vowel (I), which makes opener words like ADIEU or AUDIO nearly useless against it — players who started consonant-heavy had the edge. All five letters are distinct, so no double-letter traps — every green and yellow you earned carried full information.
The real danger came from near-neighbors: SCRIP and STREP differ by just one letter, and players who locked in four greens early often had to burn a guess — or two — separating them. The counter-move is to guess a word that tests the differing letters at once rather than trying each candidate in turn.
Community data puts puzzle #1886 at 4.3 guesses on average, which we rate challenging. Anything under four guesses on this one was a strong result.
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