All Pairdle recaps

Pairdle recap for Sunday, October 18, 2026

The answers were HAVENS (Standard), SHALLOTS (Pro), QUESTIONED (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: HAVENS

Twelve tiles, three boxes, solved in three guesses.

The Pairdle Standard board for October 18, 2026 before any guess: three empty answer boxes above twelve letter tiles, DG, ED, IN, QU, DO, VE, KY, GU, EA, NS, IR, HA.

Sunday's Pairdle board had twelve tiles and three boxes, so the answer had six letters. The board words were HAVENS, GUINEA, QUIRKY and DODGED. The tiles could not spell any other word, so there were no traps. No two board words shared a pair, so each wrong guess could only rule out itself.

The first guess was QUIRKY. QU, IR and KY all came back grey and left the board. That left HAVENS, GUINEA and DODGED.

Guess 1, QUIRKY: QU grey, IR grey, KY grey.

The second guess was DODGED. DO, DG and ED all came back grey and left the board too. Now only HAVENS and GUINEA were left.

Guess 2, DODGED: DO grey, DG grey, ED grey.

The third guess was HAVENS. HA, VE and NS all turned blue. Three guesses.

Guess 3, HAVENS: every box blue, HA, VE, NS. That solved it.
All three Pairdle Standard guesses for October 18, 2026 stacked in order, QUIRKY, then DODGED, then HAVENS, with the last row all blue.

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

Pairdle Pro: SHALLOTS

Sixteen tiles, four boxes, solved in two guesses.

The Pairdle Pro board for October 18, 2026 before any guess: four empty answer boxes above sixteen letter tiles, TI, AR, GE, ON, NG, SH, YI, CH, NC, LO, RE, FU, RA, TS, LL, AL.

Sunday's Pairdle Pro board had sixteen tiles and four boxes, so the answer had eight letters. The board words were SHALLOTS, FUNCTION, RALLYING and RECHARGE. The tiles could also spell RATIONAL, which was not on the board. That was the trap. It borrows RA from RALLYING, TI and ON from FUNCTION, and AL from SHALLOTS.

The first guess was the trap RATIONAL. RA, TI and ON came back grey and left the board. AL turned red. That means AL is in the answer, but not in the fourth box.

Guess 1, RATIONAL: RA grey, TI grey, ON grey, AL red.

RALLYING needs RA, so it was out. FUNCTION needs TI and ON, so it was out too. RECHARGE has no AL, so it could not be the answer either. Only SHALLOTS has AL, and it sits in the second box.

Guess 2, SHALLOTS: every box blue, SH, AL, LO, TS. That solved it.

The second guess was SHALLOTS. SH, AL, LO and TS all turned blue. Two guesses.

Both Pairdle Pro guesses for October 18, 2026 stacked in order, RATIONAL, then SHALLOTS, with the last row all blue.

Every word the Pro 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.

  • FUNCTION, on the board
  • RALLYING, on the board
  • RATIONAL, trap word (not on the board)
  • RECHARGE, on the board
  • SHALLOTS, the answer

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

Pairdle Expert: QUESTIONED

Twenty tiles, five boxes, solved in two guesses.

The Pairdle Expert board for October 18, 2026 before any guess: five empty answer boxes above twenty letter tiles, NT, IO, SW, IS, PL, TI, QU, NG, LO, ES, ON, TE, PE, EX, AL, RS, NS, OS, WI, ED.

Sunday's Pairdle Expert board had twenty tiles and five boxes, so the answer had ten letters. The board words were QUESTIONED, EXPLOSIONS, SWALLOWING and PERSISTENT. The tiles could not spell any other word, so there were no traps. No two board words shared a pair.

The first guess was not a word. It was a test built from all four board words. SW went in the first box, as in SWALLOWING. PL went in the second box, as in EXPLOSIONS. IS went in the third box, as in PERSISTENT. ON and ED went in the last two boxes, where they sit in QUESTIONED.

Guess 1, the pairs SW, PL, IS, ON, ED: SW grey, PL grey, IS grey, ON blue, ED blue.

SW, PL and IS came back grey and left the board. That ruled out SWALLOWING, EXPLOSIONS and PERSISTENT in one guess. ON and ED turned blue, so the answer had to be QUESTIONED.

Guess 2, QUESTIONED: every box blue, QU, ES, TI, ON, ED. That solved it.

The second guess was QUESTIONED. QU, ES and TI turned blue to join ON and ED. Two guesses.

Both Pairdle Expert guesses for October 18, 2026 stacked in order, the pairs SW, PL, IS, ON, ED, then QUESTIONED, 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.