NYT Wordle today — answer and hints for game #1066, Monday, May 20
It’s time for your guide to today’s Wordle answer, featuring my commentary on the latest puzzle, plus a selection of hints designed to help you keep your streak going.
Don’t think you need any clues for Wordle today? No problem, just skip to my daily column. But remember: failure in this game is only ever six guesses away.
Want more word-based fun? My Quordle today page contains hints and answers for that game, and you can also take a look at my new NYT Strands today page for my verdict on the New York Times’ latest brainteaser.
SPOILER WARNING: Today’s Wordle answer and hints are below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to see them.
Your Wordle expert
Your Wordle expert
Marc McLaren
Wordle hints (game #1066) – clue #1 – Vowels
How many vowels does today’s Wordle have?
• Wordle today has vowels in two places*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Wordle hints (game #1066) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is N.
N is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter. Only 37 games begin with it and it ranks just 18th in this regard.
• There are no repeated letters in today’s Wordle.
Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it’s still more likely that a Wordle doesn’t have one.
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Wordle hints (game #1066) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is R.
R is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – it’s actually the 4th most common there, behind E, Y and T.
Wordle hints (game #1066) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1066.
Today’s Wordle answer is more pleasant.
If you just want to know today’s Wordle answer now, simply scroll down – but I’d always recommend trying to solve it on your own first. We’ve got lots of Wordle tips and tricks to help you, including a guide to the best Wordle start words.
If you don’t want to know today’s answer then DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER BECAUSE IT IS PRINTED BELOW. So don’t say you weren’t warned!
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1066)
(Image credit: New York Times)
NYT average score: 4.4
My score: 3
WordleBot’s score: 2
Best start word performance*: CRANE (2 remaining answers)
My start word performance: SPITE (100)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1066) is… NICER.
I thought I’d done rather well today, scoring a 3/6 on what is objectively a difficult Wordle – only to check WordleBot after I’d finished and discover that the silicon wordsmith scored a two. Typical. Then again, I did have 100 answers left after my first guess, whereas the ‘bot had only a pair, so I’m giving myself the moral victory.
NICER has an average score of 4.4 at the time of writing, making it the fourth difficult game in a row following HITCH (5.1), BRINY (4.5) and TUTOR (4.1). It’s the first time we’ve had four consecutive games above 4.0 since early April, but the overall average for the quartet is far higher this time. In fact, it’s the fifth hardest four-game run in the history of Wordle: 4.67, for those of you who are interested in these things.
The problem here is not a repeated letter as it was with HITCH and TUTOR, or a slightly obscure word as it was with BRINY, but rather that old favorite the ER answer. NICER is not the worst of these, in that the two consonants in positions #1 and #3 are not uncommon in the way that the J and K in JOKER are, for instance. However, the sheer volume of games with this format always bumps up the average score even with ‘easy’ letters.
As I said above, WordleBot scored a 2/6 today thanks to its designated starting word, CRANE, leaving only two possible solutions. I had 98 more than that, because SPITE was only marginally helpful in that it gave me two yellows but no greens. Plus, both of the yellows were vowels, which is (I think) less useful than getting a couple of consonants, if only because vowels are found all over the game, rather than being massively more common in certain places and next to certain other letters.
I knew right away that an ER word was a possibility, so decided to guard against that by playing LINER second. If it was an ER word, I wanted the maximum number of guesses to work out which one it was. And I got incredibly lucky with it; the I, E and R all turned green, and though the N was technically yellow it was effectively green too, because it now had to start the answer.
The upshot of all that was that I’d reduced my 100 possibles to one in a single guess, meaning I could play NICER next and score an average-beating 3/6.
In a different time zone where it’s still Sunday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1065, too.
Wordle yesterday had a vowel in one place.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
The first letter in yesterday’s Wordle answer was H.
H is not a particularly common starting letter in Wordle: only 69 games begin with it, and it ranks in 15th place.
There were repeated letters in yesterday’s Wordle.
Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it’s still more likely that a Wordle doesn’t have one.
The last letter in yesterday’s Wordle was H.
H is a regular visitor to the final spot in a Wordle word. It occurs 137 times at the end of a Wordle answer, making it the sixth most common letter there.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1065.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer is a small problem or a connection.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1065)
(Image credit: New York Times)
NYT average score: 5.1
My score: 3
WordleBot’s score: 4
Best start word performance*: TRICE (4 remaining answers)
OK, so this was a tough one. Not for me – I did it in three, thanks to an incredibly fortunate first guess. But seemingly for everyone else. WordleBot says it has an average score of 5.1, making it the hardest since JOLLY about a month ago, and one of only six games to reach five or more so far in 2024.
There are two aspects to its difficulty. One is the repeated H, which is unlikely even among repeated letters. According to my analysis of every Wordle answer, H is only repeated 10 times across Wordle’s 2,309 original solutions, and the last time it happened – HUNCH, game #990 in March, the score there was also 5.1.
But also like HUNCH, this is a game with multiple possible answers if you change one letter. Primarily that will be the first one, which could have given you WITCH, PITCH or DITCH, but also if you change the vowel then HUTCH or HATCH.
Some of the best start words might have made it easier, with TRACE leaving only 12 answers, SLICE 10 and TRICE four, but none of those are among the most popular, so most people will have faced an uphill battle to keep the score down today.
Not me, though, and that was down to pure chance. The thing about random start words is that very occasionally they perform incredibly well, and today was one of those days. I began with PITCH – which left me only three possible solutions: WITCH, HITCH and DITCH.
I nearly guessed it outright, because a 4/6 would be the worst-case scenario, but ultimately decided to guarantee a three instead and played HAWED. This gave me the green H that meant the solution had to be HITCH. Lucky me – unlucky everyone else.
Wordle answers: The past 50
I’ve been playing Wordle every day for more than two years now and have tracked all of the previous answers so I can help you improve your game. Here are the last 50 solutions starting with yesterday’s answer, or check out my past Wordle answers page for the full list.
Wordle #1065, Sunday 19 May: HITCH
Wordle #1064, Saturday 18 May: BRINY
Wordle #1063, Friday 17 May: TUTOR
Wordle #1062, Thursday 16 May: STALL
Wordle #1061, Wednesday 15 May: PINCH
Wordle #1060, Tuesday 14 May: AMASS
Wordle #1059, Monday 13 May: CUMIN
Wordle #1058, Sunday 12 May: OUTER
Wordle #1057, Saturday 11 May: TIDAL
Wordle #1056, Friday 10 May: MEDIA
Wordle #1055, Thursday 9 May: JERKY
Wordle #1054, Wednesday 8 May: PIOUS
Wordle #1053, Tuesday 7 May: MUSTY
Wordle #1052, Monday 6 May: SHAVE
Wordle #1051, Sunday 5 May: DECAL
Wordle #1050, Saturday 4 May: VALUE
Wordle #1049, Friday 3 May: EBONY
Wordle #1048, Thursday 2 May: SLICE
Wordle #1047, Wednesday 1 May: DIARY
Wordle #1046, Tuesday 30 April: PROWL
Wordle #1045, Monday 29 April: CRAFT
Wordle #1044, Sunday 28 April: PRUNE
Wordle #1043, Saturday 27 April: GLEAM
Wordle #1042, Friday 26 April: VAPID
Wordle #1041, Thursday 25 April: INTRO
Wordle #1040, Wednesday 24 April: OVERT
Wordle #1039, Tuesday 23 April: ROVER
Wordle #1038, Monday 22 April: LASER
Wordle #1037, Sunday 21 April: JOLLY
Wordle #1036, Saturday 20 April: LUCID
Wordle #1035, Friday 19 April: RAISE
Wordle #1034, Thursday 18 April: FACET
Wordle #1033, Wednesday 17 April: TITHE
Wordle #1032, Tuesday 16 April: SHANK
Wordle #1031, Monday 15 April: EQUIP
Wordle #1030, Sunday 14 April: BLIMP
Wordle #1029, Saturday 13 April: STEEL
Wordle #1028, Friday 12 April: WHINY
Wordle #1027, Thursday 11 April: LOUSE
Wordle #1026, Wednesday 10 April: BROTH
Wordle #1025, Tuesday 9 April: MERGE
Wordle #1024, Monday 8 April: BREED
Wordle #1023, Sunday 7 April: VOILA
Wordle #1022, Saturday 6 April: FINCH
Wordle #1021, Friday 5 April: WRIST
Wordle #1020, Thursday 4 April: CLIMB
Wordle #1019, Wednesday 3 April: PLAIT
Wordle #1018, Tuesday 2 April: SERUM
Wordle #1017, Monday 1 April: FROND
Wordle #1016, Sunday 31 March: TABOO
Wordle #1015, Saturday 30 March: FORCE
What is Wordle?
If you’re on this page then you almost certainly know what Wordle is already, and indeed have probably been playing it for a while. And even if you’ve not been playing it, you must surely have heard of it by now, because it’s the viral word game phenomenon that took the world by storm last year and is still going strong in 2024.
We’ve got a full guide to the game in our What is Wordle page, but if you just want a refresher then here are the basics.
What is Wordle?
Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day. You get six guesses, with each one revealing a little more information. If one of the letters in your guess is in the answer and in the right place, it turns green. If it’s in the answer but in the wrong place, it turns yellow. And if it’s not in the answer at all it turns gray. Simple, eh?
It’s played online via the Wordle website or the New York Times’ Crossword app (iOS / Android), and is entirely free.
Crucially, the answer is the same for everyone each day, meaning that you’re competing against the rest of the world, rather than just against yourself or the game. The puzzle then resets each day at midnight in your local time, giving you a new challenge, and the chance to extend your streak.
What are the Wordle rules?
The rules of Wordle are pretty straightforward, but with a couple of curveballs thrown in for good measure.
1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.
2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow.
3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray.
4. Answers are never plural.
5. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.
6. Each guess must be a valid word in Wordle’s dictionary. You can’t guess ABCDE, for instance.
7. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses unless you play on Hard mode.
8. You have six guesses to solve the Wordle.
9. You must complete the daily Wordle before midnight in your timezone.
10. All answers are drawn from Wordle’s list of 2,309 solutions. However…
11. Wordle will accept a wider pool of words as guesses – some 10,000 of them. For instance, you can guess a plural such as WORDS. It definitely won’t be right (see point 4 above), but Wordle will accept it as a guess.
It’s time for your guide to today’s Wordle answer, featuring my commentary on the latest puzzle, plus a selection of hints designed to help you keep your streak going. Don’t think you need any clues for Wordle today? No problem, just skip to my daily column. But remember: failure in…
