Parseword Answer Today: Hints & Step-by-Step Parse

Today's Parseword Answer, One Step at a Time

This page walks you to today's Parseword answer without spoiling it. Five hints go from gentle to specific — which end holds the definition, which transforms the parse uses, the signal words, the definition itself and the first step — and the answer stays hidden until you reveal it.

Behind the reveal you'll find more than the Parseword answer itself. Every step of the official parse is listed in order: what was selected, what it turned into, which transform did it and which word signalled it. That's the part most Parseword answer pages skip, and it's the part that makes tomorrow's puzzle easier.

Each Parseword answer is read from the official game once it rolls over at 08:00 UTC. Before anything is published, the parse is checked: the definition has to appear in the clue, and the last step has to produce the answer. If the game can't be reached, the page keeps the last verified puzzle and says which day it's from.

Past Parseword Answers

Every recent Parseword answer with its clue — tap a date for that day's hints and step-by-step parse. Today's puzzle also has its own permanent page.

What Is Parseword?

Parseword is a free daily cryptic clue game from Wordle creator Josh Wardle. Instead of typing an answer, you take the clue apart: select words, apply transforms such as replacements, anagrams and reversals, and keep going until only the definition and the answer are left.

Wardle built Parseword with Matt Lee and Chris Dary, and it launched publicly in March 2026, with a free iPhone app following days later. The clues are written by professional cryptic setters — the very first came from Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon, and each day's setter is credited on the puzzle (and on this page). Puzzle numbering starts from #1 on January 29, 2026, which is how today's Parseword answer gets its number.

What makes Parseword different from other daily cryptics is that the game shows you the grammar of a clue. You can't just guess the word; you have to prove it, one transform at a time. That makes it a brilliant teacher — and a frustrating one when a single step won't come, which is exactly what the hints above are for.

How to Play Parseword

1. Leave the definition alone. It always sits at the left or right end of the clue, can be more than one word, and is never transformed.
2. Select a word or phrase. Tap the words you want to change. For transforms that act on several pieces at once — a container, say — select all of them together.
3. Pick a transform. The game offers options; choose the one the clue supports. An indicator word is used up once you apply it, and some clues include decoy indicators that aren't on the solving path.
4. Repeat until one word remains. When the wordplay side becomes a single word that fits the definition and the letter count, the puzzle is solved.

There are three ways to play. Learn shows the definition up front and suggests which transforms to use; Play is the standard daily puzzle; Challenge hides the answer length and gives fewer indicator prompts. The help buttons — reveal definition, hint, check, undo and reset — are always available, but each one costs you the top rating.

Parseword Transform Types Cheat Sheet

The game uses its own names for the classic cryptic devices. Knowing them is half of every Parseword answer — the hints above use these exact names — and the examples are ours:

Each of these has a traditional cryptic crossword name, too. Our guide to every cryptic clue type covers them with longer examples, and the anagram indicators list is the most useful single cheat sheet for both games.

When Does Parseword Reset?

Parseword changes once a day for everyone, at 08:00 UTC. Unlike games that follow your local midnight, there's a single worldwide puzzle per day:

Difficulty tends to climb through the week: early-week Parseword puzzles are usually gentler, and the weekend brings longer parses with more steps. Today's difficulty label is shown on the clue card at the top of the page, and the page switches to the new Parseword answer on the first update after each reset.

Parseword Scoring: Perfect, No Assists and Streaks

When you finish, the share text shows the puzzle number, your time and a rating:

• 💎 Perfect — no hints, no definition reveal, no checks and no undo or reset.
• ⭐ No Assists — you avoided the help buttons but undid or reset along the way.
• ✅ N Assists — the number of times you leaned on the help buttons (a wrong check counts as one).
• ⚡ — appears when you finish in under a minute.

The game also tracks your current and longest streak. If you're protecting a streak, our hints are a gentler option than the in-game hint button: read the first one or two here, then finish the Parseword yourself before you check the Parseword answer.

Some puzzles hide an Easter egg: a joke transform the setters planted that the game will accept. When today's puzzle has one, it's listed inside the answer reveal above.

Five Tips to Reach the Parseword Answer Faster

1. Read the clue backwards once. The definition is at an end, so reading from the right often exposes it before the surface story distracts you.
2. Count letters early. If a word in the clue has exactly as many letters as the answer and there's a word like broken or wild nearby, try an Anagram before anything else.
3. Replace short words first. Little words — a, one, the French, first of — are usually single letters. Clearing them makes the remaining parse obvious.
4. Treat indicators as tokens. Each indicator is spent once. If one is still unused near the end, you've skipped a step — or it's a decoy, which the game sometimes includes.
5. Use our hints in order. Hint 1 and Hint 2 don't name a single word of the answer, so they protect a Perfect rating far better than the in-game hint button.

Every Parseword answer on this site lists the full parse, so reading a few past puzzles is the fastest way to learn which signal words each setter favours.

Parseword vs Minute Cryptic

If you enjoy one, you'll enjoy the other — and they train complementary skills. Parseword makes you prove each step; Minute Cryptic rewards spotting the whole trick at once. For unlimited practice between the two, try our unlimited cryptic clues.

Parseword FAQ

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