All Pairdle recaps

Pairdle recap for Saturday, September 26, 2026

The answers were CANDLE (Standard), ENGULFED (Pro), CHEESECAKE (Expert). Below is each board as it was dealt, every guess with its colours, and the words the tiles could spell that were not on the board.

Tim NyeTim Nye

In Pairdle every tile is two letters, and each box in the answer row takes one tile. After a guess, a blue tile is the right pair in the right box, a red tile is in the word but in a different box, and a grey tile is not in the word at all.

Jump to: Standard, Pro, Expert.

Pairdle Standard: CANDLE

Twelve tiles, three boxes, solved in three guesses.

The Pairdle Standard board for September 26, 2026 before any guess: three empty answer boxes above twelve letter tiles, ND, NK, MI, CA, ED, GR, AD, LE, RA, SH, NG, AI.

The Pairdle board had twelve tiles and three boxes, so the answer had six letters. The tiles could spell nine words: AIMING, CANDLE, GRADED, MINDED, MINGLE, RANGED, RANKED, SHADED and SHRANK. Only four of those are on the board. The other five are traps, built from tiles that belong to the real words.

The first guess was SHADED, one of the traps. SH, AD and ED all came back grey. That also ruled out GRADED and MINDED, which both need ED at the end.

Guess 1, SHADED: SH grey, AD grey, ED grey.

The second guess was MINGLE, another trap. MI and NG went grey, but LE turned blue. So the answer ends in LE, and LE stays in the last box.

Guess 2, MINGLE: MI grey, NG grey, LE blue.

Two words on the list end in LE: MINGLE, which had just failed, and CANDLE. CA went in the first box and ND in the middle. All three blue. Three guesses.

Guess 3, CANDLE: every box blue, CA, ND, LE. That solved it.
All three Pairdle Standard guesses for September 26, 2026 stacked in order, SHADED, then MINGLE, then CANDLE, with the last row all blue.

Every word the Standard tiles could spell

The board is built from four words. Any other word the same tiles can spell is a trap: it looks right, but it was never on the board.

  • AIMING, on the board
  • CANDLE, the answer
  • GRADED, on the board
  • MINDED, trap word (not on the board)
  • MINGLE, trap word (not on the board)
  • RANGED, trap word (not on the board)
  • RANKED, trap word (not on the board)
  • SHADED, trap word (not on the board)
  • SHRANK, on the board

Shout-outs to the one-guess winners are in the video.

Pairdle Pro: ENGULFED

Sixteen tiles, four boxes, solved in three guesses.

The Pairdle Pro board for September 26, 2026 before any guess: four empty answer boxes above sixteen letter tiles, SE, BA, YI, GR, LF, GU, LL, EN, LI, TI, NE, ED, FI, AF, NG, BU.

The Pro board had sixteen tiles and four boxes, so the answer had eight letters. This time the tiles could only spell four words: BASELINE, BULLYING, ENGULFED and GRAFFITI. There were no trap words, so the whole puzzle was about which of the four it was and where each tile goes.

The first guess was BASELINE. BA, SE, LI and NE all came back grey. That took BASELINE off the list and left three words.

Guess 1, BASELINE: BA grey, SE grey, LI grey, NE grey.

With no clear word to try next, the second guess was a set of pairs rather than a real word: GU, EN, LF and ED. GU and EN came back red, which means both are in the answer but in the wrong boxes. LF and ED came back blue, so they stay in the third and fourth boxes.

Guess 2, the pairs GU, EN, LF, ED: GU red, EN red, LF blue, ED blue.

BULLYING and GRAFFITI have no LF or ED tile, so only ENGULFED fits. Swapping GU and EN gives EN, GU, LF, ED. All four blue. Three guesses.

Guess 3, ENGULFED: every box blue, EN, GU, LF, ED. That solved it.
All three Pairdle Pro guesses for September 26, 2026 stacked in order, BASELINE, then the pairs GU, EN, LF, ED, then ENGULFED, with the last row all blue.

Shout-outs to the one-guess winners are in the video.

Pairdle Expert: CHEESECAKE

Twenty tiles, five boxes, solved in three guesses.

The Pairdle Expert board for September 26, 2026 before any guess: five empty answer boxes above twenty letter tiles, EV, TE, TH, SE, KE, IT, CO, CH, AL, EE, ER, UR, IO, FO, AT, CA, EN, WH, NS, SO.

The Expert board had twenty tiles and five boxes, so the answer had ten letters. The tiles spelled four words: CHEESECAKE, COALITIONS, FOURTEENTH and WHATSOEVER. As on Pro, there were no traps, so every tile belonged to one of those four.

The first guess was WHATSOEVER. WH, AT, SO, EV and ER all came back grey. One word gone, three left.

Guess 1, WHATSOEVER: WH grey, AT grey, SO grey, EV grey, ER grey.

The second guess mixed pairs from CHEESECAKE: CH, SE, EE, CA and KE. CH, CA and KE turned blue, so the word starts with CH and ends with CA and KE. SE and EE turned red. Both are in the word, just in each other's boxes.

Guess 2, the pairs CH, SE, EE, CA, KE: CH blue, SE red, EE red, CA blue, KE blue.

Swapping them gives CH, EE, SE, CA, KE. All five blue. Three guesses.

Guess 3, CHEESECAKE: every box blue, CH, EE, SE, CA, KE. That solved it.
All three Pairdle Expert guesses for September 26, 2026 stacked in order, WHATSOEVER, then the pairs CH, SE, EE, CA, KE, then CHEESECAKE, with the last row all blue.

Shout-outs to the one-guess winners are in the video.

Play today's puzzle

A new board goes up every day at midnight Pacific time. Play today's Pairdle. If you want a method for finding the answer faster, read how to solve Pairdle column by column, and for the full rules see how to play Pairdle.