A little further down the page, today's Wordle clue is waiting for you. And if after a while you run out of lines, time, or doable words, don't panic: the answer to the December 19 (1279) game is just a click away, and you can always save your winning streak.

My fingers automatically sorted through the yellow words I found before my brain could find today's answer. A bit of an odd experience, but still counted as a win, so I won't complain. I would appreciate it if my hand gave me a little warning next time.

These people and their pets get lost unintentionally. They can mean anything from cutlery to socks that are out of their rightful place.

There are no double letters in today's puzzle.

If you are new to daily wordle puzzles, or if you just want to take a break and refresh yourself for a while, let me give you a quick tip to help you win. Nothing makes the rest of your day better than a small victory.

Since you're not dealing with a timer, you have plenty of time to find the winning word. If you get stuck, there's no shame in going back to the puzzle later that day and finishing it when your head is clearer.

Hey, you might need this: the answer to the December 19 (1279) Wordle is STRAY.

Keeping track of Wordle's last handful of answers helps eliminate the current possibilities. It is also useful for inspiring opening words and subsequent guesses if you are short on ideas for the day.

Here are the last 10 answers in Wordle:

Wordle displays five boxes in six columns each day, where the goal is to figure out the correct five-letter word by entering a guess and deleting or checking individual letters.

Getting a good start on a strong word like ARISE, i.e., one that contains multiple vowels, common consonants, and non-repeating letters, is a good tactic; pressing Enter will display the correct or incorrect answer in the box. If the box goes to ⬛️, it means the letter is not in the secret word at all. A 🟨 means the letter is in the word but not in that position. 🟩 means that the correct letter is in the correct position.

The second guess should complement the starting word, using another “good” word to cover the common letter missed last time, while avoiding the letter that we now know for sure is not present in today's answer. With any luck, a few colored squares will be created and you will be on the right track.

Then it is just a matter of using what you have learned to narrow down the correct words. You can try six times in all, and you can only use actual words (you cannot fill in the box with EEEEE to see if there is an E). Letters may be repeated (e.g. BOOKS).

If you need further advice, check out our Wordle tips.

Wordle was originally conceived by software engineer Josh Wardle as a surprise for his partner who liked word games. From there it spread to his family and was finally released to the public. Since then, the word puzzle game has spawned a slew of Wordle-like games, focusing the daily gimmicks on music, math, and geography; it wasn't long before Wordle became so popular that it was sold to the New York Times for a seven-figure sum. Indeed, it would only be a matter of time before we would be communicating solely through tricolored boxes.