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◆ Merriam-Webster

Hurdle Hints, Answers & Strategy Guide

Five Wordles in sequence — each round seeds the next.

Hurdle is Merriam-Webster's daily word ladder: five Wordle-style rounds in sequence, where the answer to each round becomes your opening guess in the next, and a final round tests what you've pieced together. Consistency beats luck. A new ladder drops daily. TECHi keeps spoiler-safe hints and today's answers, yesterday's solutions, and an evergreen how-to-play guide.

Today: Friday, June 19, 2026

Jump straight to today's (June 19, 2026) hintsCheck yesterday

◆ Three pages, one game

Pick your moment.

Open today’s hints when you are solving now, jump to yesterday if you missed a day, or use the guide when you want rules and strategy.

Catching up? Here are the most recent solutions.

Recent Hurdle answers
DatePuzzleAnswer
Fri, Jun 19, 20261630LYMPH / TABOO / ITCHY / VIOLA / ABHOR
Thu, Jun 18, 20261629DYING / MORAL / ANIME / CACHE / STOAT
Wed, Jun 17, 20261628ZESTY / GUEST / TORCH / STEED / POINT
Tue, Jun 16, 20261627LATER / MOSEY / THUNK / QUOTA / CONGA

◆ Strategy

How to Win at Hurdle

The best daily word-game routine is simple: test common letters, protect your remaining guesses, and only chase repeated letters after the board gives you evidence.

Open with balanced letters

Use an opener with common consonants and at least two vowels so the second guess has real information.

Play the pattern, not the word list

Green letters fix the frame. Yellow letters tell you where not to look. Build the next guess from those constraints first.

Delay double letters

Repeated letters can win a late board, but early repeats usually waste coverage unless a clue strongly points there.

Best starting words

Best Hurdle starting words
WordWhy it works
SLATECovers two vowels and three high-frequency consonants.
CRANETests common consonants while keeping A and E in play.
RAISEA vowel-heavy opener that still checks R and S.
ROASTUseful when you want O plus a common ending consonant pattern.
TRAINChecks T, R, and N early without repeating letters.

◆ FAQ

Hurdle questions, answered

What is the best Hurdle starting word?
SLATE, CRANE, RAISE, ROAST, and TRAIN are strong openers because they cover common letters without repeats.
Should I read Hurdle hints before the answer?
Yes. The daily page is ordered from hints to reveal, so you can stop before the answer if you still want to solve it yourself.

More Daily Puzzles