Highest estimated difficulty
ACRID appears less than once per million words in the corpus-based frequency data, so familiarity alone sets a Hard floor. Its five distinct letters include at least two vowels and none of Q, Z, X, J, K, V or W.
Past Answers
Wordle Answers: May 2023
Browse all 31 completed answers from May 2023, with a page for each puzzle's definition, difficulty and solver replay.
May 2023 in review
May 2023 is complete, with 31 puzzles and every date recorded. On the site's word-property scale it was an ordinary month. The highest estimated difficulty occurred on May 13, 2023 and the lowest on May 1, 2023; 7 answers doubled a letter and 10 answers used at least one of Q, Z, X, J, K, V or W.
The hardest and easiest answers
Lowest estimated difficulty
RANGE has five distinct letters, 2 vowels and no uncommon letters. Common first guesses therefore test many of its letters.
The spread ran from 0 points on May 1, 2023 to 3.5 on May 13, 2023. Both numbers describe single words, not a sequence. A hard day and an easy one can occur in the same week, so the trend line below compares whole months rather than individual days.
The difficulty trend
An ordinary month. May's 31 answers averaged 1.5 points on the estimated word-difficulty scale against 1.4 across the trailing six months, and a gap of 0.1 points sits inside the normal month-to-month spread of about ±0.3. At roughly thirty answers a month that is sampling noise, not a change in how answers were chosen. The difference does not support changing openers or strategy. The scale combines general-English corpus frequency with repeats, uncommon letters and missing vowels. It measures word properties, not player results.
Letters and patterns
7 of 31 answers doubled a letter, in line with the long-run archive rate of about 31%. This matches the usual rate. Test a repeat when the board stalls.
10 of 31 answers used at least one of Q, Z, X, J, K, V or W, in line with the long-run archive rate of about 28%. Standard openers test these letters less often, so the difficulty scale adds a penalty for each one.
No day reused an earlier answer: every puzzle this month was a first appearance in the site's recorded history. Repeats do happen, so a word having been a solution before is still no reason to drop it from your guesses.
Double-letter days: May 4 (#684) doubled P; May 9 (#689) doubled C and O; May 11 (#691) doubled O; May 16 (#696) doubled T; May 22 (#702) doubled O; May 24 (#704) doubled T; May 30 (#710) doubled E.
Uncommon-letter days: May 2 (#682) used K; May 5 (#685) used W; May 8 (#688) used W; May 12 (#692) used K; May 17 (#697) used K; May 20 (#700) used K; May 23 (#703) used K; May 26 (#706) used W; May 28 (#708) used K; May 30 (#710) used K.
How players fared
No day from this month has reached the Observatory's minimum public sample of 10 opt-in games, so no crowd numbers appear. The gate is deliberate: below it, a handful of results could stand in for a crowd and misrepresent a day.
Answer words are shown only for completed puzzles. Open a puzzle for its definition, difficulty and solver replay.
| Date | Day | Puzzle | Answer | Word difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 31, 2023 | Wednesday | #711 → | AGILE | Easy |
| May 30, 2023 | Tuesday | #710 → | KNEEL | Tricky |
| May 29, 2023 | Monday | #709 → | MOUSE | Easy |
| May 28, 2023 | Sunday | #708 → | SKIMP | Tricky |
| May 27, 2023 | Saturday | #707 → | RAMEN | Easy |
| May 26, 2023 | Friday | #706 → | SWINE | Moderate |
| May 25, 2023 | Thursday | #705 → | BAGEL | Easy |
| May 24, 2023 | Wednesday | #704 → | UTTER | Moderate |
| May 23, 2023 | Tuesday | #703 → | CLERK | Tricky |
| May 22, 2023 | Monday | #702 → | IGLOO | Tricky |
| May 21, 2023 | Sunday | #701 → | BRASH | Tricky |
| May 20, 2023 | Saturday | #700 → | FLASK | Tricky |
| May 19, 2023 | Friday | #699 → | GRIEF | Easy |
| May 18, 2023 | Thursday | #698 → | SHORN | Tricky |
| May 17, 2023 | Wednesday | #697 → | PLANK | Tricky |
| May 16, 2023 | Tuesday | #696 → | LATTE | Moderate |
| May 15, 2023 | Monday | #695 → | CANOE | Easy |
| May 14, 2023 | Sunday | #694 → | SCARF | Moderate |
| May 13, 2023 | Saturday | #693 → | ACRID | Hard |
| May 12, 2023 | Friday | #692 → | SNACK | Tricky |
| May 11, 2023 | Thursday | #691 → | BROOM | Moderate |
| May 10, 2023 | Wednesday | #690 → | ETHIC | Easy |
| May 9, 2023 | Tuesday | #689 → | COCOA | Tricky |
| May 8, 2023 | Monday | #688 → | AGLOW | Hard |
| May 7, 2023 | Sunday | #687 → | GHOUL | Tricky |
| May 6, 2023 | Saturday | #686 → | ANGER | Easy |
| May 5, 2023 | Friday | #685 → | BELOW | Moderate |
| May 4, 2023 | Thursday | #684 → | GUPPY | Hard |
| May 3, 2023 | Wednesday | #683 → | HORDE | Easy |
| May 2, 2023 | Tuesday | #682 → | SULKY | Hard |
| May 1, 2023 | Monday | #681 → | RANGE | Easy |
On this day in Wordle
Past answers published on September 7 in earlier years. Every puzzle listed here is complete, so this section does not spoil a live game.
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1 year ago
Nothing unusual appears in the letters: all five are distinct and familiar. Ordinary letter coverage works well on words like this.
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2 years ago
Nothing unusual appears in the letters: all five are distinct and familiar. Ordinary letter coverage works well on words like this.
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3 years ago
The doubled L raises the difficulty. Once a letter shows up yellow or green, few players try it a second time unprompted.
The Easy-to-Brutal badge combines general-English corpus frequency with repeats, uncommon letters and vowel count. It estimates word difficulty, not player results. Dates come from the site's recorded answer history.
Archive totals
Estimated word difficulty combines wordfreq corpus frequency with repeats, uncommon letters and vowel count. It measures word properties, not player results. Compare solver difficulty →
- Easy 10
- Moderate 6
- Tricky 11
- Hard 4