The Wordle answer for Wednesday, July 15, 2026 (puzzle #1852) is PSHAW.
Three hints for players still working through the grid:
Hint 1: This word is an interjection – it expresses a reaction rather than naming a thing or describing an action.
Hint 2: It conveys contempt, impatience, or dismissal – the verbal equivalent of a wave of the hand.
Hint 3: The word contains only one vowel, positioned fourth. It begins with a consonant cluster that rarely appears at the start of English words.
Today’s Wordle answer:
PSHAW
PSHAW is an exclamation of contempt or disbelief – the kind of word a Victorian character delivers while adjusting their cravat. It appears in Jane Austen, in Dickens, and across 18th- and 19th-century literature as a stock expression of dismissal. In modern English, it has retreated almost entirely into literary quotation and deliberate archaism, which makes it an unusual choice for a puzzle aimed at everyday solvers.
The opening consonant cluster is the main obstacle. PS- at the start of an English word is vanishingly rare – PSYCH and PSALM are the familiar examples – and most solvers will not attempt it without prompting. The common strategy of opening with vowel-heavy guesses like CRANE, SLATE, or AUDIO will surface the A and establish its fourth-position placement, but getting from A-in-position-4 to PS_AW is a significant inferential leap. Solvers who try SHAWL or DRAWN early will find the -HAW and -W partial patterns that close the gap.
Worth noting: SHAW on its own is a real word – an archaic English term for a thicket of small trees or undergrowth, surviving in rural dialect and in Thomas Hardy’s Wessex novels. PSHAW simply prefixes it with a P that transforms it from a noun into an exclamation. The connection is likely coincidental; PSHAW derives from an imitative root rather than from SHAW the noun.
One vowel (A), no repeated letters, a rare opening cluster, and a meaning most players will recognise once they see it but would never have guessed from a definition alone. PSHAW is the kind of answer that makes five-attempt solves feel like a minor triumph.
Yesterday’s Wordle #1851 answer was STEAK. Today’s NYT Spelling Bee answer for July 14, 2026 was VITRIOLIC. Wordle resets at midnight ET.
