Today's Hurdle Hints and Answers for Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Today's Hurdle is a five-word chain: BRING, CARRY, THEIR, DEFER, LEMON. Each solved answer becomes the opening guess for the next puzzle, so the whole run is a test of how well you adapt to carry-over letter data. DEFER is the sharpest spike thanks to its repeated E, and CARRY's double R catches solvers who assume five-letter words never repeat consonants. Spoiler-free hints come first; the full chain is blurred at the bottom of the page until you tap Reveal.

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April 21, 2026 · 5 linked puzzles · Chain resets at midnight local time.

Each Hurdle answer becomes the first guess of the next puzzle, so carry-over tile data is the whole game. Give yourself a run at the chain before you peek — the hints below are spoiler-free, and the full reveal is gated at the bottom of the page.

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Hints for today's Hurdle chain (spoiler-free)

Each bullet targets a single hurdle and gives you an opener plus one letter-position clue. Read only the row for the puzzle you're stuck on; the rest of the chain stays clean.

Hurdle-by-hurdle hints (today)

• Hurdle 1 Five letters, starts with B at position 1, common action verb meaning to take something to a destination.
• Hurdle 2 Five letters, starts with C at position 1, repeated consonant sits at positions 3 and 4; means to transport or hold.
• Hurdle 3 Five letters, T at position 1, a possessive pronoun used for a group of people.
• Hurdle 4 Five letters, D at position 1, means to postpone or yield to another's judgment. One letter repeats.
• Final Hurdle Five letters, L at position 1, a familiar yellow citrus fruit.

Hurdle 1 walkthrough: April 21

BRING is the chain's starting puzzle. Without carry-over data yet, openers like BANKS or BRINY narrow the vowel slot quickly and confirm the I at position 3. The word rewards methodical solvers who treat the first grid as information gathering rather than a speed round — every tile placed here pays off again when BRING becomes the opening guess for Hurdle 2.

Hurdle 2 walkthrough: April 21

CARRY is Tuesday's first real test. The double R catches solvers who assume each letter appears only once in a five-letter word. If the feedback places R correctly at one slot but leaves another R-shaped gap, pivot to a repeated-consonant candidate. Lock in the CA- opening, confirm the RR pattern at positions 3 and 4, and the puzzle resolves inside two guesses for most players.

Hurdle 3 walkthrough: April 21

THEIR is a possessive pronoun — a word type that shows up less often in Hurdle but is fully valid on Merriam-Webster's list. Both E and I appear in the word but are separated, and the overall arrangement reads as grammatical rather than the noun or verb patterns most players expect. Treat it like any five-letter target once the T from carry-over is confirmed at position 1.

Hurdle 4 walkthrough: April 21

DEFER contains two E's: one at position 2 and one at position 5. That repeated vowel is Tuesday's primary difficulty spike. Solvers who assume five-letter Hurdle words never repeat letters will burn a guess testing DEFIR or DEFUR before landing correctly. Once the tile feedback shows E twice, the word collapses fast. D at position 1 and F at position 3 are the structural anchors.

Final Hurdle walkthrough: April 21

LEMON closes Tuesday's chain with familiar vocabulary and a clean letter spread. No repeated letters, no uncommon consonant clusters. The challenge after four rounds is mental fatigue rather than vocabulary difficulty. L at position 1 is the anchor, and once E and O are placed in sequence the final answer resolves in a guess or two.

Today's Hurdle answers

Last chance to work it out yourself. The five answers below are blurred until you tap Reveal; tap Copy to grab the full chain in one shot.

Hurdle · April 21, 2026

Today's Hurdle Answers

Full five-word chain · tap Reveal to unblur each answer in order.

1. Hurdle 1 BRING
2. Hurdle 2 CARRY
3. Hurdle 3 THEIR
4. Hurdle 4 DEFER
5. Final LEMON

Reveal answers

Copy all five

How the BRING → CARRY → THEIR → DEFER → LEMON chain works

Hurdle's chain mechanic means each completed answer is forced into the next puzzle as guess one — so the shared-letter overlap between consecutive answers controls how much free information you get. Tuesday's chain is mixed: BRING → CARRY shares R (useful), CARRY → THEIR shares R again (productive), THEIR → DEFER shares E and R (high signal), and DEFER → LEMON shares E (modest). No consecutive pair shares three letters, which keeps the difficulty honest.

Two letters earn their keep across the whole chain. R shows up in three of the five answers (BRING, CARRY, THEIR), making it the single most productive consonant you'll see today. E is the dominant vowel, appearing in THEIR, DEFER (twice), and LEMON. Players who lock R and E early carry momentum into every subsequent hurdle.

Hurdle chain strategy: how to solve five in a row

Chain puzzles reward different habits than single-grid Wordle. The three principles that separate clean runs from stalled ones:

1. Trust the carry-over Each prior answer is forced as guess one. Read the tile feedback on those letters as free intel — do not waste a second guess re-testing positions that the carry-over already cleared.
2. Prioritize vowel coverage After the forced starter, pick a second guess that fills the vowel slots the carry-over missed. On Hurdle 2 (CARRY), BRING covered I and no other vowels, so a word with A plus two of E/O/U tightens the candidate pool fastest.
3. Track repeated letters The double R in CARRY and double E in DEFER are today's structural traps. When a confirmed letter still leaves a grey slot, suspect a repeat before reaching for an exotic alternative. Most players who stall on these two hurdles burn guesses testing single-occurrence words.
4. Ration your guesses You get six per hurdle. Clearing each puzzle in three to four keeps momentum without depleting the mental runway by Hurdle 4, where DEFER's repeated E punishes sloppy solvers.

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