It’s a bleak day for Wordle enthusiasts: nearly 50% of Wordle players saw their cherished streaks come to an end. Today’s word (puzzle 1426) is recorded as the fifth hardest in Wordle history. Out of almost two million games analyzed, just 49.8% of players successfully identified today’s word, according to Engaging Data and Wordlebot.

Don’t worry; I won’t ruin the surprise of the puzzle here. For that, you can check our daily Wordle solution page.

I can confirm the difficulty of today’s challenge. Several members of our team at PC Gamer took a shot at the puzzle and reported that we all used every guess available to solve it. (With the exception of Kara, who predicted it correctly on her first try, likely due to her role in scheduling all of PC Gamer’s Wordle solution posts.)

The selected word wasn’t obscure, leading many of us to guess several letters correctly early on due to their commonality. However, the word proved elusive, as players who scored a few yellow or green hints in the initial attempts mistakenly thought they had it figured out. Most of us struggled to find the answer.

Wordle can be challenging in various ways. Occasionally, a word like “BUNCH” will have players guessing all letters except the initial one, running out of attempts with guesses like “LUNCH,” “MUNCH,” and “PUNCH.” This situation can easily spell the end of a player’s streak.

Some tricky words contain a letter more than twice, like “MUMMY” or “JAZZY,” which players will breeze through if they guess that letter early. However, it can stump those who never think to guess that specific consonant. Even words that reuse a letter, like “COYLY,” can be perplexing if players get tied up in their guesses, especially when the word is somewhat unusual.

Then, of course, there was the infamous “PARER” from puzzle 454, which famously ended 60% of players’ streaks—after all, who commonly uses the term “PARER”? Even if I had a parer, I’d probably call it the knifey-thingie. “Hey honey, do you know where that knifey-thingie is? You know, the utensil for cutting?”

I assume if you’ve come this far, you’ve already tackled today’s Wordle, so my sympathies if your streak was broken. And if you guessed it (or cheated), congratulations: you’ve managed to get one more day in the world of Wordle.