All 25 clues solved, with letter counts and a per-clue breakdown. Fresh every morning, verified against the live game.
Tap any answer to jump to its clue and letter-tile breakdown.
The Word Craze Daily Theme for January 18, 2026 has 25 clues covering 128 letter tiles, with answers running from 3 to 9 letters. The shortest answers are HOE and LEI and CAM and RAD and EBB and STY and CAT and ESL and LET at 3 letters each, while the longest are BROADCAST and ABILITIES and ECONOMIST and ESCALATOR and SPARETIRE at 9 letters. Jump straight to the full clue table if you need a specific answer, or browse the letter breakdown for the vowel and consonant split on every word.
Across today's 25 clues the average answer is 5.1 letters long and 9 (36%) reuse at least one letter internally. L and S and E each open 4 answers — the most common starting letters today. Start with the shortest clues — they unlock crossings for the longer ones. Compare with today's Trivia Daily and Daily Mini, or return to the Word Craze hub for level and pack guides.
Yesterday's answers: January 17, 2026. If your app shows a different answer after a patch, ensure your app is up to date — corrections appear here after the next review.
January 18, 2026 · 25 clues
| # | Clue | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | To lower someone's spirits | DEPRESS7 letters |
| 2 | Hold tight | CLASP5 letters |
| 3 | Transmit or send out a message, often through television or radio | BROADCAST9 letters |
| 4 | Bowed or curved away from a straight line | BENT4 letters |
| 5 | Large group trained for war | ARMY4 letters |
| 6 | Soil-turning tool; farmer's weeder | HOE3 letters |
| 7 | Necklace in Native Hawaiian culture | LEI3 letters |
| 8 | Mitch's husband on "Modern Family" | CAM3 letters |
| 9 | Milky coffee drink | LATTE5 letters |
| 10 | Special skills or aptitudes | ABILITIES9 letters |
| 11 | Mexican mister | SENOR5 letters |
| 12 | Spoke or expressed something out loud | UTTERED7 letters |
| 13 | An expert in financial matters | ECONOMIST9 letters |
| 14 | Knife and fork separator, in a place setting | PLATE5 letters |
| 15 | A term that was popular in the 1980s to describe something that was cool or excellent | RAD3 letters |
| 16 | Moving staircase as in a shopping mall | ESCALATOR9 letters |
| 17 | Kept on a car, usually in the trunk, in case of a blowout | SPARETIRE9 letters |
| 18 | A flowing out or recession of water | EBB3 letters |
| 19 | Where boars are boarded | STY3 letters |
| 20 | Place for recovering addicts to get clean | REHAB5 letters |
| 21 | To strike with a firm blow | SMITE5 letters |
| 22 | Pet with nine lives, they say | CAT3 letters |
| 23 | A long, narrow mark | LINE4 letters |
| 24 | Subj. for some immigrants | ESL3 letters |
| 25 | "I won't ___ you down" | LET3 letters |
Letter patterns and solving metrics for each answer. See also the full clue table above.
To lower someone's spirits
Hold tight
Transmit or send out a message, often through television or radio
Bowed or curved away from a straight line
Large group trained for war
Soil-turning tool; farmer's weeder
Necklace in Native Hawaiian culture
Mitch's husband on "Modern Family"
Milky coffee drink
Special skills or aptitudes
Mexican mister
Spoke or expressed something out loud
An expert in financial matters
Knife and fork separator, in a place setting
A term that was popular in the 1980s to describe something that was cool or excellent
Moving staircase as in a shopping mall
Kept on a car, usually in the trunk, in case of a blowout
A flowing out or recession of water
Where boars are boarded
Place for recovering addicts to get clean
To strike with a firm blow
Pet with nine lives, they say
A long, narrow mark
Subj. for some immigrants
"I won't ___ you down"
Five steps that open the full crossword. More tips in the Word Craze hub.
Short answers have fewer crossing tiles, so solving them first seeds the longer answers for free. Scan the whole board and pick out every clue whose answer runs three or four letters - those are your quickest wins.
A clue that ends in "?" is hinting at a pun, double meaning, or lateral connection rather than a straight definition. Read it again as wordplay and the answer usually surfaces fast.
Each answer slot shows how many letters the answer has. Before typing, count the tiles and match them to your candidate word - one letter too long or short means wrong regardless of how good it looks.
Many Daily Theme answers are compound words. If the picture clue shows two distinct objects, name each one and fuse them. Splitting at the natural seam often bypasses the need to know the exact word upfront.
The picture clue and text clue together define the answer but are not redundant - each half adds information the other omits. Read the text, then examine the image for details the text left unnamed.
Five tactics that work on every dated Daily Theme — apply them today and carry them through the rest of the week.
Start with the longest answer on this board. Tap the longest word in the at-a-glance panel above and solve it first. Every crossing letter it places narrows the shorter answers that share a tile with it — on a typical Daily Theme board, one well-placed long answer can cascade three or four shorter entries to a single candidate.
Read the text clue and the image simultaneously. Each clue uses both a written description and a picture. The picture names the subject; the text tells you which property or aspect of that subject the answer covers. Reading only one of them loses half the information in the clue and roughly doubles the chance of guessing wrong.
Count the tile slots on every row before typing. The breakdown section above lists exact tile counts per answer. Cross-check any candidate against the slot length before committing — a five-letter guess in a six-letter slot is always wrong no matter how logical the word feels.
Treat a question-mark clue as a wordplay signal. Clues ending in "?" use a pun, double meaning, or lateral angle rather than a direct definition. Re-read them as playful hints, not factual descriptions. That reframe usually surfaces the answer within one or two re-reads.
Compare with the Trivia Daily and Daily Mini for today. Betta Games sometimes uses related vocabulary across all three daily formats on the same calendar date. If a clue here involves a topic that stumps you, checking today's Trivia Daily or Daily Mini often surfaces the same word in a context that makes the Daily Theme answer obvious.
The Word Craze Daily Theme is a daily picture-clue crossword released every morning by Betta Games. It is distinct from the Daily Mini and the Trivia Daily: the Theme is the full-size grid, solved and dated here every day. Every answer above is verified against the live game before it is published.
Return to the Word Craze section hub for level guides, pack answers, Endless Challenge ranges, and Hard Mode packs. This is an independent fan resource, not affiliated with Betta Games.
A daily nudge when the next Word Craze Daily Theme is solved and posted. No spam, unsubscribe any time.
Every answer on this page is read from the game's own puzzle data rather than retyped from another site, and is checked against what the board actually provides — so nothing listed can use a letter the level does not give you. The counts shown are computed from the stored data, not typed in by hand.
Reviewed by Priya Raghunathan, Word Games Editor at Puzzle Solved. The full checking routine is in the methodology, and the standards every page is held to are in the editorial policy.
Last checked — Sep 8, 2026