Wordle players looking for help with today’s puzzle can find hints, clues and the full solution below for Wordle #1858, the daily word puzzle released Tuesday, July 21, 2026.

Wordle challenges players to identify a five-letter word within six attempts, with the game providing color-coded feedback after each guess to indicate which letters are correct and properly placed, which letters appear in the word but in the wrong position, and which letters do not appear in the word at all. A new puzzle becomes available daily at midnight local time, meaning players around the world receive access to that day’s word at different moments depending on their time zone.

Hints for today’s Wordle

For players who want a nudge in the right direction without having the answer fully revealed, several outlets covering today’s puzzle offered a series of progressive hints. According to those hints, today’s word contains just one vowel among its five letters, a relatively uncommon structure that can make the puzzle trickier to solve through standard guessing strategies. That single vowel, the letter I, sits in the third position of the word.

Today’s word also contains one repeated letter, with both instances of that letter appearing consecutively at the very end of the word. The puzzle begins with the letters “SH,” the same opening combination found in common words such as “share,” “shout” and “shrug,” a detail that several outlets suggested could help narrow down potential guesses.

A definitional clue

Beyond the structural hints, coverage of today’s puzzle also offered a definitional clue tied to the word’s meaning, which centers on deception or hidden promotional motives. According to that hint, the word describes someone who secretly promotes a product, scheme, or point of view while presenting themselves as an impartial or unaffiliated observer. The term is commonly used in discussions of online scams, influencer marketing, and situations involving undisclosed sponsorships or hidden financial incentives.

Today’s Wordle answer

The answer to Wordle #1858 for July 21, 2026, is SHILL.

As both a noun and a verb, “shill” refers to someone who poses as an enthusiastic, impartial customer or supporter of something, such as at an auction, a street game, or an online promotion, while secretly working on behalf of the seller or organizer to encourage others to participate. As a verb, to “shill” means to act in that deceptive promotional capacity, or more broadly, to promote something in a misleading way for personal gain.

The word has seen a notable rise in everyday usage in recent years, particularly within the context of social media, where undisclosed sponsored content and hidden brand partnerships have brought increased public attention to the practice of “shilling” products or ideas without full transparency about financial or personal incentives involved.

Puzzle difficulty

According to Wordlebot, the New York Times’ internal tool that analyzes daily Wordle difficulty based on aggregate player performance, today’s puzzle carried an average difficulty rating of 4.4 out of a possible 6 guesses, suggesting most players needed a moderate number of attempts to reach the correct answer. The puzzle’s relatively unusual letter structure, featuring only a single vowel and a doubled final consonant, likely contributed to that above-average difficulty level for many solvers.

About Wordle

Wordle, now owned and published by The New York Times, has become one of the most widely played daily word games since it first gained viral popularity in early 2022. The game’s simple format, one puzzle per day shared by all players regardless of location, has helped fuel its continued popularity, as solvers frequently compare results and maintain personal solving streaks across social media platforms.

Players looking for extra help with future puzzles can typically find daily hints and starter word suggestions published by various gaming and puzzle-focused outlets shortly after each day’s Wordle becomes available, offering a way to work through the puzzle with partial guidance rather than having the answer revealed outright.

Other daily puzzles

For players interested in additional daily word and logic puzzles beyond Wordle, The New York Times also publishes several other games on a similar daily schedule, including Connections, a puzzle that challenges players to identify hidden groupings among a set of words, and Strands, a word-search-style puzzle built around a central theme, or “spangram.” Tuesday’s editions of both games, Connections puzzle number 1136 and Strands puzzle number 870, were also published alongside today’s Wordle, offering solvers additional options as part of their daily puzzle routine.

With today’s Wordle answer now solved, a new puzzle will become available at midnight local time Wednesday, continuing the game’s now-familiar daily rhythm. Players looking to maintain their solving streaks or simply enjoy the daily challenge can expect a fresh five-letter word and accompanying set of clues from various outlets to help guide their next attempt, regardless of whether today’s puzzle proved to be a quick solve or a more challenging one given its unusual single-vowel structure.

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday that the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be honored, directly contradicting an assurance from President Donald Trump earlier the same day that Netanyahu would face no arrest while in the United States.

Speaking at a press conference, Mamdani reiterated his position on the warrant in direct terms. “If someone is charged with a warrant by the International Criminal Court for these kinds of crimes, that’s something I believe should be honored. And I’ve also said that we will follow our local laws,” Mamdani said.

Trump’s assurance to Netanyahu

Mamdani’s comments came hours after Trump posted on Truth Social that Netanyahu “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America.” Trump’s post did not name Mamdani directly, though it came amid the mayor’s continued public statements about the ICC warrant, and credited Israel with assisting the United States in its ongoing military conflict with Iran.

Trump later told reporters that he had no tension with Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, despite having ordered a halt to trade with Madrid and criticizing Spain as a partner within NATO, remarks made during the same public appearance in which he addressed the Netanyahu situation.

Mamdani’s escalating rhetoric

Mamdani went further in describing the basis for his position, characterizing Netanyahu in stark terms tied to the war in Gaza. “We’re speaking about someone who’s the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant. And he’s the subject of this arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity, for war crimes, and he’s the architect of the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza as Israel’s prime minister,” Mamdani said.

The mayor’s comments Monday represented a continuation of positions he first articulated during his mayoral campaign, when he said he would direct police to arrest Netanyahu if the Israeli leader set foot in New York City, framing the move as straightforward enforcement of the existing ICC warrant. Since taking office, Mamdani has confirmed that his administration’s legal department is actively reviewing whether the city has legal authority to act on the warrant, particularly given that Netanyahu typically travels to New York each September to address the United Nations General Assembly.

In an earlier interview published Saturday, Mamdani had used even more direct language regarding where he believes Netanyahu should ultimately face justice. “I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani said at the time.

A position rooted in international law, Mamdani says

In prior public comments, including a Fox News interview with anchor Martha MacCallum, Mamdani has framed his position as grounded in a broader commitment to international law rather than a personal grievance against Netanyahu specifically. “I’ve said that this is a city that believes international law, and this is a city that wants to uplift and uphold those beliefs,” Mamdani told MacCallum, who noted in response that the United States itself does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction. Mamdani acknowledged that the U.S. has not signed the treaty establishing the court, but maintained that New York should nonetheless honor the warrant, comparing it to a separate ICC warrant issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mamdani has said he does not intend to create new local laws to facilitate any arrest, but rather to exhaust existing legal options available to the city.

The ICC warrant’s origins

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for both Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024, citing allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity connected to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The ICC, established in 2002 to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, operates under jurisdiction that Israel rejects, and neither Israel nor the United States is a member of the court.

Israel’s response

Israel has firmly rejected both the ICC’s authority and Mamdani’s remarks. In a statement reposted by Netanyahu himself over the weekend, his office described the ICC as “a kangaroo court that has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis.” The statement went on to characterize the warrant against Netanyahu as “bogus,” attributing it to what it described as a discredited former ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, who the statement said issued the warrant shortly before allegations of sexual misconduct against him became public, characterizing the move as an attempt by Khan to divert attention from scrutiny of his own conduct.

Netanyahu’s office also accused Mamdani directly of using the arrest threat to distract from what it characterized as his own failed policies as mayor. The Trump administration has separately imposed sanctions on Khan and roughly a dozen other ICC staff members, in what officials have described as retaliation for the warrants issued against senior Israeli officials over the Gaza war, as well as separate ICC investigations involving U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

A clash with national implications

Monday’s exchange underscores a broader and increasingly public divide between Mamdani’s administration and the Trump administration over how the United States should engage with the International Criminal Court and its rulings involving allied foreign leaders. With Netanyahu expected to travel to New York in September for the UN General Assembly, as he has in previous years, the dispute over whether the city could or would attempt to act on the ICC warrant is likely to remain a closely watched flashpoint in the coming months.

With Trump having now publicly guaranteed Netanyahu’s safety from arrest while in the United States, and Mamdani continuing to insist that the ICC warrant should be honored under international law, the two leaders’ starkly opposing positions appear likely to remain unresolved heading into the fall, when Netanyahu’s anticipated UN visit could bring the dispute to a more concrete test. For now, both sides have shown no indication of backing away from their respective positions, leaving the question of how, or whether, any attempt to enforce the warrant in New York City might actually unfold as one of the more unusual open legal and political questions facing the incoming mayoral administration.

UTI AMC‘s Executive Vice President – Equity, V Srivatsa, believes investors may be better off leaning towards largecaps despite the superior long-term growth prospects of midcap stocks. With the midcap segment trading at a record valuation premium over largecaps, he said the risk-reward has turned more favourable for largecaps, whose earnings growth is improving while valuations remain around historical averages. Edited excerpts from a chat:

With valuations elevated in several pockets, how do you assess the broader market’s risk-reward proposition today?
While valuations remain in excess in certain pockets such as capital goods, consumer durables, defense and healthcare albeit this is led by better earnings visibility and growth, there are also pockets where valuations are below mean in sectors such as banks, insurance, information technology and telecom. Thus, risk reward remains balanced. The earnings growth for Nifty 50 for next year is around 14% as per Bloomberg estimates after two years of sub-par growth and valuations also remain below the last couple of years. With the oil price stabilising and rupee stabilising, we see more macro stability ahead coupled with the earnings growth should lead to positive risk reward going ahead.
Where do you currently see a better balance between growth and valuation: largecaps or midcaps?
The Nifty 50 trades at one year forward estimates of around 17x (as per Bloomberg) which is in line with the last five-year averages and the earnings growth of around 14% is respectable which is led by capital goods and services, telecom, metals and financials. The mid cap also is expected to grow in similar lines and trades at 50% premium to large caps. While the longer-term outlook for mid cap is superior to large caps, the valuation premium is at record high and there could be mean reversion especially when the growth is picking up for the large cap. Hence on a risk reward basis, a large cap looks superior. Which sectors offer the strongest earnings visibility over the next three to five years, and where are expectations running ahead of fundamentals?
In terms of sectors, power equipment, defense, electronic manufacturing services (EMS), healthcare and retail offers highest earnings visibility led by strong order book in case of capital goods and EMS players and strong trends in demand in healthcare and retail. In case of capital goods (power equipment/defense, EMS), while the order visibility is high, there could be peaking of orders in the next three years posing cyclical risks post three years and current valuations do not factor any medium-term weakness which is not ruled out as these businesses are pro cyclical. In case of healthcare and retail, valuations are fair and there could be a long tail of growth justifying the valuations.

Does AI represent a structural growth opportunity for Indian IT companies, or could productivity gains disrupt their traditional revenue model?
AI represents a very good long-term opportunity as the global companies embrace AI in their business, they would need the service of Indian IT service providers to integrate the AI into their systems, and this would present a significant opportunity for them. However, in the near term, there could be pressure on two counts, one is to incorporate AI to reduce cost of delivery and passing on the benefits to clients and second is possible cuts in IT services spending as AI hardware costs crowds out the IT services spending. Yet we believe that there would be long term benefits to the Indian IT services companies.
Capital goods companies have benefited from the investment cycle. What indicators would signal that the cycle is strengthening or approaching a peak?
The key indicators that we will watch to assess the cycle are changes in the government policies, upward or downward revision in government capex, global demand for global linked industries, weakening profitability in end user industries and capex announcements. Government policies and corporate profitability and demand would be the key signals to watch out for the capex order cycle.
What are the biggest risks to Indian equities today: earnings disappointments, stretched valuations, global uncertainty or domestic growth moderation?
Global uncertainty would be the biggest risk for the Indian markets as the geo political risks have increased manifold in the last few years and it has important bearing on the oil prices wherein higher oil prices can cause instability in the Indian economy and also high geo political risks affects global sentiment towards equities and flows trends towards safer assets .

If you have to start an SIP of Rs 10,000 as an investor with moderate risk appetite at this stage, how would it be spread out across various fund categories?
I would suggest a mix of flexicap or large mid cap funds and smaller allocations towards hybrid funds.