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If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

To entice.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answer

TEMPT

Hurdle Word 2 hint

To shed fluids.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for July 21, 2026 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

BLEED

Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today

Hurdle Word 3 hint

Accurate.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for July 21 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for July 21, 2026 Hurdle Word 3 answer

EXACT

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Loud.

Hurdle Word 4 answer

NOISY

Final Hurdle hint

Cunningly.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

SLYLY

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

To entice.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answer

TEMPT

Hurdle Word 2 hint

To shed fluids.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for July 21, 2026 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

BLEED

Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today

Hurdle Word 3 hint

Accurate.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for July 21 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for July 21, 2026 Hurdle Word 3 answer

EXACT

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Loud.

Hurdle Word 4 answer

NOISY

Final Hurdle hint

Cunningly.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

SLYLY

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

It's the First Quarter phase of the lunar cycle tonight, which means the Moon is halfway between the New Moon and Full Moon phases.

Keep reading to see what you can spot on the Moon's surface tonight.

What is today’s Moon phase?

As of Tuesday, July 21, NASA's Daily Moon Guide tracker tells us the Moon phase is in First Quarter phase, with 48% of its surface visible.

You won't need any visual aids to be able to spot the Mares Crisium and Fecunditatis. Binoculars will also help you to see the Endymion Crater, Posidonius Crater, and the Mare Nectaris. A telescope helps you see even more, including the Apollo 17 and 11 landing spots, and the Rupes Altai.

When is the next Full Moon?

The next Full Moon will take place on July 29.

What are Moon phases?

The Moon takes roughly 29.5 days to complete its journey around Earth, passing through eight distinct phases during each lunar cycle, according to NASA. While the Moon’s same side is always visible from our planet, the portion of its surface lit by the Sun changes as it moves along its orbit. These shifting levels of illumination are what create the different appearances we see throughout the month, from a slender crescent shape to a half-lit Moon and finally a bright Full Moon, before the cycle begins once again.

The eight phases are:

New Moon - The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) - Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

Today's Connections: Sports Edition will be easier if you watch the WNBA.

As we've shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.

Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight, and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections: Sports Edition?

The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. The sports Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Each puzzle features 16 words, and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake — players get up to four mistakes before the game ends.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. Here's a hint for today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Olympic events

• Green: Rule violations

• Blue: Rooks

• Purple: Similar colors

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Summer Olympic Sports

• Green: Against the Rules in Soccer

• Blue: WNBA Rookies

• Purple: Things That Are Red

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections: Sports Edition #666 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• Summer Olympic Sports: EQUESTRIAN, FIELD HOCKEY, VOLLEYBALL, WATER POLO

• Against the Rules in Soccer: FOUL, HANDBALL, OFFSIDE, SIMULATION

• WNBA Rookies: BETTS, FAM, FUDD, MILES

• Things That Are Red: BOXING GLOVES, COACH'S CHALLENGE FLAG, DODGEBALL, GOAL LIGHT

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new sports Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.

Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.

Released in August 2025, Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.

Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move on to the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.

How to play Pips

If you've ever played dominoes, you'll have a passing familiarity with how Pips is played. As we've shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for July 21, 2026

The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible — and common — for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.

Here are common examples you'll run into across the difficulty levels:

• Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.

• Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.

• Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.

• Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.

If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for July 21, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for July 21 Pips

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally; 6-4, placed horizontally.

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-1, placed vertically; 3-5, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 3-5, placed horizontally; 5-2, placed vertically.

Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 3-1, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 5-2, placed vertically.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for July 21 Pips

Number (8): Everything in this space must add up to 8. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally; 4-2 placed horizontally.

Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally; 6-5, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 4-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 6-5, placed vertically; 5-2, placed horizontally.

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 5-2, placed horizontally; 3-2, placed horizontally; 2-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 0-0, placed horizontally; 0-1, placed vertically.

Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 0-1, placed vertically.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for July 21 Pips

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-2, placed vertically.

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-4, placed vertically.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 3-2, placed vertically; 2-1, placed vertically.

Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. The answer is 4-0, placed vertically; 2-4, placed vertically.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-0, placed horizontally.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 1-0, placed horizontally.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-0, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 3-1, placed horizontally.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 1-0, placed vertically.

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 4-3, placed horizontally.

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 4-3, placed horizontally.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-4, placed horizontally.

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 1-4, placed horizontally.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-5, placed vertically.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-5, placed vertically.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-5, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 2-5, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 1-5, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 0-5, placed vertically.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally.

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally; 6-3, placed vertically; 3-5, placed horizontally.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 3-5, placed horizontally.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.

Released in August 2025, Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.

Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move on to the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.

How to play Pips

If you've ever played dominoes, you'll have a passing familiarity with how Pips is played. As we've shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for July 21, 2026

The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible — and common — for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.

Here are common examples you'll run into across the difficulty levels:

• Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.

• Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.

• Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.

• Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.

If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for July 21, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for July 21 Pips

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally; 6-4, placed horizontally.

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-1, placed vertically; 3-5, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 3-5, placed horizontally; 5-2, placed vertically.

Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 3-1, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 5-2, placed vertically.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for July 21 Pips

Number (8): Everything in this space must add up to 8. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally; 4-2 placed horizontally.

Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally; 6-5, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 4-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 6-5, placed vertically; 5-2, placed horizontally.

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 5-2, placed horizontally; 3-2, placed horizontally; 2-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 0-0, placed horizontally; 0-1, placed vertically.

Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 0-1, placed vertically.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for July 21 Pips

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-2, placed vertically.

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-4, placed vertically.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 3-2, placed vertically; 2-1, placed vertically.

Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. The answer is 4-0, placed vertically; 2-4, placed vertically.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-0, placed horizontally.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 1-0, placed horizontally.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-0, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 3-1, placed horizontally.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 1-0, placed vertically.

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 4-3, placed horizontally.

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 4-3, placed horizontally.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-4, placed horizontally.

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 1-4, placed horizontally.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-5, placed vertically.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-5, placed vertically.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-5, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 2-5, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 1-5, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 0-5, placed vertically.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally.

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally; 6-3, placed vertically; 3-5, placed horizontally.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 3-5, placed horizontally.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you're a theater kid.

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for July 21, 2026 Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Shirts

• Green: Computer add-ons

• Blue: Broadway shows

• Purple: Electronic transmission

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

Here are today's Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Kinds of tops

• Green: Software downloads

• Blue: Elements of a musical

• Purple: Tele___

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #1136 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Kinds of tops: CROP, HALTER, TANK, TUBE

• Software downloads: APP, DRIVER, EXTENSION, PLUGIN

• Elements of a musical: BOOK, LYRICS, MUSIC, ORCHESTRATION

• Tele___: GRAM, KENESIS, PROMPTER, VISION

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for July 21, 2026

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.

Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you're a good writer.

Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for July 21, 2026 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Write there

The words are related to paper.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe writing utensils.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Stationery.

NYT Strands word list for July 21

• Envelope

• Letterhead

• Stationery

• Notepad

• File

• Card

• Sheet

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.

Today's Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you can keep a secret.

If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for July 21, 2026 Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for July 21, 2026 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

A decoy.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

The letter L appears twice.

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter S.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today's Wordle is...

SHILL

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints. Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Wordle.

You've waited long enough for Apple's relaunch of Siri as an AI assistant, and now you can finally try out the Siri AI beta for iOS. But, psst, don't tell anyone, but there's even more Siri AI for you to try out with a secret Siri AI interface on Mac.

A Reddit user on the r/MacOSBeta subreddit has discovered a "hidden lightweight UI" for Siri AI in the macOS 27 Golden Gate beta. This feature basically provides users with an array of AI tools, presented in a pop-up menu whenever text is highlighted.

Reddit

The Siri AI pop-up interface includes AI tools such as Rewrite, Proofread, "How does this sound?," and "Edit with Siri." There are also menu options for summarization and providing bullet points from the selected text.

Siri AI can also provide a selection of specific tools dependent on the context of what's selected. For example, highlighting a phone number provides a pop-up to "Add to contacts" or when selecting an address the pop-up offers an "Open in Maps" option. There are tools for creating calendar events, composing messages and emails, and tracking flights and packages as well.

Why is the feature hidden? Well, as MacRumors points out, the Siri AI interface in macOS 27 developer beta 3 and public beta 1 is simply an unfinished product. Certain features don't yet work how they're supposed to. Some options don't work at all. Clearly, Apple has yet to make it available because it's simply not ready.

However, Reddit users say there is a way to turn the interface on in the macOS Golden Gate Beta. According to Redditor pdfu, if users running the macOS 27 beta simply need to open up the Terminal and input a few lines of code.

Please note: We do not recommend running terminal instructions or changing important OS files unless you fully understand what you're doing. We have not tested these terminal instructions, so proceed at your own risk.

sudo mkdir -p /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain && sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/WritingTools LightweightUI_macOS -dict Enabled -bool true

After that, the Reddit threat instructs users to restart their computer and the Siri AI interface will be enabled.

If you've had enough of the unfinished interface, you can turn it back off by once again opening Terminal and the following input:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/WritingTools LightweightUI_macOS -dict Enabled -bool false

It's unclear if the Siri AI interface will launch with the official version of the new macOS. However, it's certainly interesting to see Apple further brand its Siri AI relaunch as an all-in-one AI tool across the company's products.

While the rest of the world was watching the World Cup on Sunday evening, mathematician Levent Alpöge casually announced on X that he had used Anthropic's Fable 5 to disprove the Jacobian conjecture.

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The Jacobian conjecture is a long-standing open problem in algebraic geometry that's bedeviled highly accomplished mathematicians for almost 90 years. It was included in "Smale's problems," a list of unresolved math problems put forward by mathematician Stephen Smale in 1998.

But that proved no obstacle for Fable 5, Anthropic's latest frontier AI model. (You may remember Fable 5 as the public version of Claude Mythos Preview, the AI model that Anthropic says has such advanced cybersecurity capabilities that it was too dangerous for public release.)

Alpöge is part of Harvard's Society of Fellows, and his Linkedin profile notes an affiliation with Anthropic. We've reached out to Anthropic with questions about Alpöge's work.

Meanwhile, for those of us who don't understand polynomial functions from n-dimensional space, the question is: Does this represent a major breakthrough in artificial intelligence, or mathematics, or neither?

"This did not cause me to update my priors about what AI can and can't do," professor and mathematician Andrew Blumberg told Mashable. "This is exactly the kind of thing I would expect AI to be able to do. If there was a counterexample that was concise and easy to state that people haven't found because it's a pain to search through all this stuff, AI will find it."

Blumberg, who has a joint appointment in mathematics and computer science at Columbia University, is involved in the First Proof project, an effort to test the capabilities of frontier large language models in solving research-level mathematics. So, it's safe to say he understands mathematics and AI better than most of us.

'You want to learn something from the answer'

Providing a counterexample to the Jacobian conjecture is still a significant achievement for AI in mathematics, Blumberg notes. But he also says there's a big difference between providing a positive proof for a major math problem and providing a single counterexample that disproves it. Here's the metaphor Blumberg used to explain.

"Suppose that Moses came down from the mountain with tablets, and on the tablet was written, 'Cancer can be cured.' Would you care? You don't just want the answer to the question. You want to learn something from the answer. And the reason Smale thought this problem was important is because he thought that if we solved it, we would understand more things about the about the way nature is structured."

In other words, Blumberg says, "this counterexample tells us essentially nothing. It's just, you know, there are a lot of polynomials, and it's hard for people to check them all, but it's not hard for machines."

The Jacobian conjecture isn't the only math problem AI has tackled in recent months. OpenAI announced in May an "internal model" had disproved the Erdős unit distance conjecture, a central conjecture in discrete geometry.

However, in that case, the result was more productive, Blumberg says. That's because OpenAI didn't just provide a counterexample — but a disproof of the problem itself.

"The disproof there already has led to interesting things because experts in the area unpacked what was going on in the disproof and then used it to do other things," Blumberg says.

And that's not necessarily the case with the Jacobian conjecture counterexample, he adds — while conceding he's not expert enough to see if there's something special about the structure of the counterexample that we can learn from. "But it's not in and of itself interesting."

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Paramount+ subscribers in the U.S. can look forward to boldly going where no one has gone before, with Captain Pike and the crew of the Starship Enterprise in the fourth season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds this Thursday. But before then, if you're hunting for a flick or two for movie night this week, I've got some primo selections below.

Subscription creep is a real problem. It is one thing for $20 a month, and then another for $5, and before you know it, you're forking over hundreds monthly for services you might not even use. If you have a Raspberry Pi sitting around waiting for a project, you can turn it into a small self-hosting hub that can replace several subscription services as long as you take the right precautions.

Lamborghini's personalization division, Ad Personam, has been dressing up Aventadors, Huracáns, and now Temerarios since 2006, when it debuted with a limited run of Gallardos at the Paris Motor Show. Twenty years and more than 400 exterior colors later, the division did something it has never done before in a Lamborghini production car. It put wool inside one.

Is Samsung about to completely change the foldable game? Samsung’s July 22 Unpacked Event is just around the corner, and massive upgrades are incoming. We’re expecting a brand-new, wider Galaxy Z Fold 8 alongside an ultra-premium Fold 8 Ultra. Plus, we should get our first look at the next-gen Watch Ultra 2 and a new pair of Android XR smart glasses.

As we round the corner into the final straight of July, Netflix still has a lot of life left in it when it comes to options that make for good weekday movie nights. Netflix U.S. viewers seem to still be flocking to the disaster doc, Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea, that we covered in our weekly roundup of documentaries, as it still sits in the streamer's Top 3, but if a doc isn't what you're looking for, read on.

Every four years, the World Cup reminds us why we fall in love with sports in the first place.

The 2026 tournament was one of firsts. For the first time, three countries — Canada, Mexico, and the United States — shared hosting duties. For the first time, the field expanded from 32 to 48 teams, giving more nations a chance to compete on the sport's biggest stage and more federations the opportunity to showcase their depth.

That expansion brought historic debuts for Cape Verde, Jordan, Curaçao, and Uzbekistan. Their first appearances delivered some of the tournament's most unforgettable moments.

It also felt like a farewell tour. Cristiano Ronaldo. Lionel Messi. Luka Modrić. Neymar. Son Heung-min. Guillermo Ochoa. A generation that shaped the sport for two decades took one last bow on the biggest stage, with several likely making their final World Cup appearances.

Taken together, those storylines made this World Cup feel bigger than any single match. Over the course of several weeks, the tournament gave us unforgettable goals, shocking upsets, viral celebrations, heartbreaking exits, and moments that transcended soccer altogether. Here are the moments that defined the 2026 World Cup.

Vozinha and the Blue Sharks

The best feel-good story of the World Cup has to be Cape Verde's historic run and their goalkeeper, Vozinha (née Josimar José Évora Dias). The 40-year-old keeper and Cape Verde stalwart rocketed to international fame after a heroic performance against eventual champions Spain, keeping a clean sheet against the European giants to earn the 500,000-strong nation its first-ever points in a World Cup.

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Vozinha, who was on the verge of retirement from club football, blew up on social media, amassing 29 million Instagram followers to become one of the most-followed soccer players on the platform.

The magic kept coming for the Blue Sharks. A 2-2 draw with Uruguay and a scoreless draw against Saudi Arabia secured a second-place finish in their group behind Spain, and a spot in the knockouts. There, the smallest nation ever to reach a World Cup knockout round took defending champs Argentina to the brink, including a spectacular extra-time equalizer from Sidney Lopes Cabral. It wasn't enough — an own goal in the 111th minute gave Argentina the lead, and the win.

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Even in defeat, Cape Verde and Vozinha became the darlings of the 2026 World Cup, earning a hero's welcome when they returned home to Praia, the nation's capital.

America's World Cup ends in disappointment and controversy

The U.S.'s lowest moment in the tournament came wrapped in controversy. Folarin Balogun was sent off in the round of 32 against Bosnia-Herzegovina for a tackle that injured Tarik Muharemovic — a red card overturned on review, then reinstated by VAR, that should have kept him out of the quarterfinal against Belgium.

Instead, on the eve of that match, news broke that President Trump had personally called FIFA president Gianni Infantino about the suspension, and FIFA's disciplinary committee — invoking the same conveniently vague rule it used to keep Cristiano Ronaldo eligible for his final World Cup — cleared Balogun to play.

FIFA denied any connection to the call, but the optics were brutal regardless: the first in-tournament suspension reversal FIFA had made since 1962. Balogun's actual impact on the game was negligible — one good chance in the 82nd minute that Thibaut Courtois saved — and the U.S. lost 4-1, undone far more by sloppy defending than by anything happening off the pitch. But the timing made it impossible to separate the two.

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A team that had looked loose and confident through the group stage and into the knockout rounds showed up tight and rattled.

Insane Third Place game ends Golden Boot race

The World Cup is known for its magnificent scorers: Pelé, Maradona, Klose. It's rare to see one player absolutely rake in the goals in a single tournament, but 2026 delivered a real fight for the crown. Heading into the final weekend, Messi and Mbappé sat tied atop the table at eight goals each, having both already passed Miroslav Klose on the World Cup's all-time scoring list along the way. Behind them, England's Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane lingered at six apiece, two goals back but not out of it.

Then the third-place game happened, and it blew the race open. England beat France 6-4 in a match that had no business being that entertaining for a game "nobody wanted to play."

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Instead, it turned into an old-fashioned track meet. Mbappé found the net twice to push his tally to 10, breaking the tie with Messi outright and matching the mark he set back in 2022. Bellingham, meanwhile, kept crashing the box the way he had all tournament and picked up his seventh, cutting the gap to Mbappé to three with only the final left. With that crazy game over, and Spain's 1-0 win over Argentina, Mbappé ended the tournament as the Golden Boot winner.

The last time this fixture featured multiple Golden Boot winners padding their totals was in 1990, and even that wasn't a shootout like this one. Between Mbappé and Messi, both represent the first 8+ goal scorers since Gerd Müller scored 10 back in 1970.

We truly are blessed.

International fans experience American baseball

One of the best things about the World Cup is when international fans and players come to town and immerse themselves in local culture. The best subplot from this year's World Cup was undoubtedly taking place at the ballpark.

With days off between fixtures, traveling World Cup fans started showing up in force at MLB games, and stadiums across the country turned into unlikely satellite fan zones. It kicked off on June 14 at Fenway, when Scottish fans fresh off a win over Haiti marched from downtown Boston straight into a Red Sox game — timed, by pure coincidence, with the ballpark's own Scottish Heritage Night.

Two days later, the Tartan Army (the nickname for the Scottish supporters) packed part of the upper deck at Yankee Stadium, and by June 22, roughly 8,000 of them turned up in Miami for a Marlins-Rangers game, making up nearly half the announced crowd.

Norway's supporters did their own version of the takeover at Citi Field on June 24, filling the outfield seats in Viking helmets and getting the stadium's mascots to join their signature rowing celebration. Even England manager Thomas Tuchel, a generally terse-looking man, threw out a ceremonial first pitch at Kauffman Stadium during the team's stay in Kansas City. He could definitely strike out Timothée Chalamet in three pitches.

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For all the goodwill the tournament generated, the road to it exposed something uglier. In the run-up to the World Cup, visa denials and delays became a recurring headache for teams, and in some cases, outright barred people from the competition entirely.

Swiss forward Breel Embolo was blocked from boarding a flight to his own team's training camp over a year-old conviction that had already been settled back home. South Africa's delegation nearly missed its trip to Mexico when more than 20 players and staff got stuck waiting on visas, and Iran's team ended up sleeping in Mexico every night of the tournament after U.S. officials barred its players and staff from overnight stays, with more than a dozen federation staffers, including the federation's own president, never cleared to travel at all.

None of this happened by accident. It was the Trump administration's own immigration architecture doing exactly what it was built to do, and the tournament exposed it long before the opening whistle.

The policy wasn't limited to a handful of unlucky cases: 39 countries entered the tournament under some form of U.S. travel restriction, and for 19 of them the State Department had stopped issuing visas altogether, a list that happened to include four World Cup nations (Iran, Haiti, Côte d'Ivoire, and Senegal).

Somali referee Omar Artan, freshly named his continent's top official and set to become the first Somali to work a World Cup match, was detained for eleven hours at Miami International Airport and sent back to Istanbul over alleged "associations with suspected members of terror organizations" that CBP officials declined to specify.

To be fair, Canada has also been just as strict, with Ghanaian fans getting an 11 percent approval rate for visas to the country. Most notably, Ghanaian player Thomas Partey had his visa and subsequent appeal denied and missed Ghana's World Cup opener due to ongoing criminal proceedings in the UK. Partey, however, was allowed to play in the team's other group-stage matches in the US.

Through all of this, FIFA, the one body with standing to push back, chose instead to call it a host country's prerogative.

The world falls in love with Erling Haaland

The most terrifying striker in the world seems to be a completely normal guy. It's something only Erling Haaland seems to be able to do, with the ruthlessly efficient Norwegian striker netting himself into the Golden Boot conversation alongside Messi and Mbappé.

Off the field, though, the man nicknamed "The Terminator" is a glorified Snapchat shitposter.

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On his personal Snapchat, you can find selfies with Shrek, face filters, and a bit where he wanders around Manhattan in a cap pretending nobody recognizes him. Despite being two years younger than fellow Gen Z superstar Mbappé, the Manchester City striker doesn't seem to carry the same weight of expectations as his world soccer compatriots. This man is doing photoshoots with cowboy hats and wearing shirts that say "y'all can kiss my Dallas."

It's probably why the world can't get enough of him.

Estadio Azteca

The Estadio Azteca, the home of Mexican soccer, delivered one of the most breathtaking scenes in this World Cup.

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The stadium is a historic site not just in Mexico but also in World Cup history. It also made for some great memes. Mexico hosted the World Cup for the third time and, for the first time ever, won all three group-stage games. The vibes coming off El Tri and its fans were at an all-time high — probably the only thing higher than the altitude at Estadio Azteca, which became a running joke all tournament long.

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I use FOSS (free and open-source) tools every day on my Linux machine. But before I started really getting into it, there was one app that changed the way I thought about software to that point: LibreOffice. Discovering it changed my mind about how I use software and I consider it a hidden gem that's hiding in plain sight.

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