Waffle #1759 Hints & Answers Today, November 15, 2026

Waffle (wafflegame.net) puzzle #1759, for Sunday, Nov. 15, 2026, opens with 6 of its 21 tiles green and 15 still to move. Clues come first, then a look at how the repeated letters start, and the answers wait in the marked last section.

Today’s board is short on greens and long on one crowded vowel; the colors and swap rules are on our Waffle page.

Clues for each of the six words

Across

• Row 1: starts with P and ends with T. What a roller spreads over a wall to change its color.
• Row 3: starts with R and ends with N. To become ready to eat, as fruit left in a bowl for a few days.
• Row 5: starts with L and ends with R. One level in a stack, such as a single sheet of pasta in a lasagna.

Down

• Column 1: starts with P and ends with L. Danger, the kind a hero faces in a story.
• Column 3: starts with I and ends with Y. To suggest something without saying it outright.
• Column 5: starts with T and ends with R. A person who adjusts a piano so every note sounds right.

Where the six greens sit

Row 1 has three greens: both of its corners and the square next to the left corner. The center is green, and the bottom row holds a corner pair. Corners and the center each belong to two words at once.

Word	Tiles already in place
Row 1	3 of 5
Row 3	1 of 5
Row 5	2 of 5
Column 1	2 of 5
Column 3	1 of 5
Column 5	2 of 5

Row 1 has the best start. Row 3 and column 3 have only the center to lean on.

Saturday’s board for comparison

Yesterday’s board was Waffle #1758: 7 tiles green and 14 out of place. Today’s board has one fewer green tile and one more to fix, though both need 10 swaps at the minimum.

Eleven different letters, one crowded vowel

The 21 tiles hold 11 different letters. One has four tiles, one has three, and five more appear twice. Four letters appear once. The four-tile letter is E, and none of its tiles starts where it belongs.

Keep your own record of the week on the printable weekly calendar or the November 2026 printable calendar.

More puzzles today: Wordle hints and Connections hints.

Waffle #1759 answers and swap route (spoilers)

Stop here if you still want to solve it yourself.

Direction	Position	Answer
Across	Row 1	Paint
Across	Row 3	Ripen
Across	Row 5	Layer
Down	Column 1	Peril
Down	Column 3	Imply
Down	Column 5	Tuner

The solved grid, with a dot for each hole:

P A I N T
E . M . U
R I P E N
I . L . E
L A Y E R

The starting grid

The starting grid, row by row, with dots for the holes:

P A M R T
Y . E . I
N E P L E
E . I . A
L I U N R

The green tiles are P in row 1, column 1; A in row 1, column 2; T in row 1, column 5; P in the center; L in row 5, column 1; and R in row 5, column 5.

Where each repeated letter starts and finishes

E, I, N, A, R, L and P each fill more than one square. T, M, U and Y fill one. Seven of the 15 misplaced tiles are E or I, and with the two N tiles that makes nine of 15.

Letter	Squares in the solved grid	Squares at the start	Start in place
E	Row 2, column 1; row 3, column 4; row 4, column 5; row 5, column 4	Row 2, column 3; row 3, column 2; row 3, column 5; row 4, column 1	0 of 4
I	Row 1, column 3; row 3, column 2; row 4, column 1	Row 2, column 5; row 4, column 3; row 5, column 2	0 of 3
N	Row 1, column 4; row 3, column 5	Row 3, column 1; row 5, column 4	0 of 2
A	Row 1, column 2; row 5, column 2	Row 1, column 2; row 4, column 5	1 of 2
R	Row 3, column 1; row 5, column 5	Row 1, column 4; row 5, column 5	1 of 2
L	Row 4, column 3; row 5, column 1	Row 3, column 4; row 5, column 1	1 of 2
P	Row 1, column 1; center	Row 1, column 1; center	2 of 2

A 10-swap route to finish

The minimum is 10 swaps, found by an exhaustive search and replayed on the starting grid to reach the solved one. Play them in order, because each one assumes the earlier ones are done. Swaps 2, 5, 7, 8 and 10 put two tiles home at once; the other five fix one each.

Swap	Squares	Letters
1	Row 1, column 3 and row 2, column 5	M and I
2	Row 1, column 4 and row 3, column 1	R and N
3	Row 2, column 1 and row 2, column 3	Y and E
4	Row 2, column 3 and row 2, column 5	Y and M
5	Row 2, column 5 and row 5, column 3	Y and U
6	Row 3, column 2 and row 4, column 3	E and I
7	Row 3, column 4 and row 4, column 3	L and E
8	Row 3, column 5 and row 5, column 4	E and N
9	Row 4, column 1 and row 5, column 2	E and I
10	Row 4, column 5 and row 5, column 2	A and E

Why the count is 10

Fifteen tiles are misplaced, and a loop of n tiles costs n minus 1 swaps, so swaps equal misplaced tiles minus loops. Ten swaps means 5 loops.