Puzzle #1888
Wordle Answer for August 20, 2026
MURKY (adjective) — Hard to see through, as a fog or mist.
Difficulty: Brutal · players averaged 5.5 guesses
The day's hints, in case you're catching up
Hint 1Meaning
It means: Hard to see through, as a fog or mist.
Hint 2Vowels
It contains exactly one vowel: U.
Hint 3Letters
All five letters are unique — no letter appears twice.
Hint 4First letter
It starts with the letter M.
Hint 5Last letter
It ends with the letter Y.
Why this word played the way it did
MURKY runs on a single vowel (U), 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: MUSKY and MURLY 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 #1888 at 5.5 guesses on average, which we rate brutal. Anything under four guesses on this one was a strong result.
Browse every past solution in the Wordle archive, or get hints for the current puzzle on the today page.